Ask HN: What is something simple you would pay for if it existed? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What is something simple you would pay for if it existed?

8 pointseatonphil22 comments

In other words, what is something simple you are missing now?

It could be an app, a piece of hardware, a food, or anything else within the realm of simple and feasible - just not implemented yet.

Chances are it does exist already, but perhaps it has not been marketed aptly or the functionality is not up to par with what you think is minimally acceptable.

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FEASIBLE

A gamified experience (a website, app...) that teaches people of all ages the basics of farming. I don't know anything about seeds, moon cycles, tools... No matter the progress, at the bottom of the "Society stack" there are still simple techniques that the average man is not aware of.

UNFEASIBLE

Worldwide Sushi on demand. It's not feasible, but I would love to just order sushi with an app and receive it at my doorstep, like pizza.

That said, It would be a nightmare to scale. You would need to educate the consumer on the quality of your fish and fight the bias "home delivery --> cheap".

+1 for the feasible idea

Do you mean "farming" in terms of a large-scale farm where you make your living selling produce or in terms of subsistence farming for your own consumption (what some might call "gardening")?

Also, do apps like eat24hours, grubhub and seamlessweb have sushi delivery available?

a) Traditional, <£1m revenue farms. b) >£100m revenue mega automated farms (eg the dairy farm in UK news). c) Mini farm with modern tech (LEDs, hydroponics).

Healthy food as a service. Getting food delivery is easy, but if you work out or want to lose weight you need to stick to a nutrition plan, and most of the stuff you can order is crap. Preparing meals is a pain. I'd pay to have 3-5 snall meals per day with predefined nutritional information prepared for me, ready to either eat at home or take with me. It can be the same meals every day, I don't care. I'm fine with giving the person/company keys to my home so they can put stuff into my fridge/freezer. Something like $200/week sounds like a reasonable amount to pay for that. Addon would be maid service.

Not to sound short but isn't this basically what nutrisystems has done for the last few decades?

+1. A socialist solution for this is to get a group of friends together and take it in turns to cook a container of food for everyone in the group. Cheap, reduces cooking, and ensures not only healthy food but exactly what you want e.g. low GI, Gluten free, or whatever else floats your boat.

Deliver me all my daily meals on the morning of the day, already cooked that morning, with an emphasis on it being healthy too.

Let me pick what I want for tomorrow in an app that sets out my choices.

Man, I'd be all over this. Personal chef as a service.

Calendar software that is actually better than a piece of paper.

What are your issues with calendar like Google Calendar or the built in iCal of OSX/iPhone?

Google calendar sends alerts to your Android device (and is available from anywhere). So that's one-upped paper already imo.

The annoying thing with this is it's been done and redone to death and yet no one has gotten it right.

User friendly email that serves no ads and offers full privacy and encryption.

Fastmail.fm? It's as encrypted as webmail can be, and you can send gpg encrypted messages with a desktop client.

I've been using it for just over a year, and I'm very happy with it.

The ability to do my own plumbing, to learn simple household tasks, fixer upper projects, that would normally be sourced out to a specialist / technician

Include DIY cable/internet protocols for a special bonus!

You're willing to pay for the ability to not pay for tasks that you need to hire experts for?

Besides the obvious "paying to not pay", this already exists. Take a class to learn the basics of these jobs. Home Depot has classes like this all of the time, and I'm pretty sure they're free.

If you're lucky, you'll save some money. If you're not, you'll learn that you pay these professionals for their experience, not their basic knowledge. And you'll know how to correctly describe what you screwed up before you called them.

I'm a fix-it myself kind of guy, and the most valuable thing I know is how to tell when I need a pro. I did replace an ignitor on my furnace based on watching a youtube video once, which I was proud of. It was simpler than I expected.

I think a curated tutorial with step by step guides, and videos could be pretty useful. Something that covers basic home maintenance tasks that are easy enough that it doesn't make sense to outsource.

Thanks for the feedback Doug

Blockbuster had videos, that did not stop Netflix

What about a fixit AI?

PA as a service. Somebody needs to take care of all my shitty work like paying my bills on time, paying loans, managing my subscriptions. When i move the apartment, some body should take care of the whole end-end flow. I mean they need to search and select some apartments for me, they should plan a move, they come and pack things and ship to new home.

What's wrong with existing VA services like FancyHands?

Service that does it's best finds any service using personalized free-word described criteria.

If taken and satisfied - I'd happily pay finder's fee. Heck, i'd even leave escrow to cover for it.

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