11 ms·

Learn about problems, not solutions

107 points by sixhobbits 6y ago

meken 6y ago
An issue with just focusing on problems is that sometimes it’s not clear what the problem is. Say you create a fun little app that a hundred people download, that you just had a good time making. What problem did it solve for them? Boredom? Did it solve the same problem for everyone? That being said, I like the article, and I like the idea of focusing on problems more than solutions, to define a career.
- potatoman22 6y ago
  An issue with not focusing on on the problem is that your work will likely join the ~90% of near-useless products. There is a lot of joy to be found in the development process itself, I'm not dissing making obscure things that you think are fun; I do that all the time. It's just sometimes sad to see people pouring their sole into products no one ever actually wanted. And yes, that app helped fix their boredom. Look into jobs theory if you're interested in this stuff
- deadbytes 6y ago
  I think programmers need to start taking a lot more responsibility for what we release into the world. If you don't think your software solves a real problem, or will improve people's quality of life, then why release it? There are already too many distractions in the modern world. I don't want to create more. Any software you release that doesn't solve a real problem is just another distraction that takes time away from people's lives.
  - pknerd 6y ago
    To decorate CV.
jasode 6y ago
Some constructive criticism to submitter/author: You're not noticing that you're inadvertently referring to "solutions" in multiple meanings which leads to false equivalence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivocation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivocation E.g. "solution" in "they are solutions, and you shouldn’t learn to use solutions" in your 1st paragraph is referring software tools -- but 2nd paragraph of "solutions" in "bring me solutions, not problems" is about answers or actions to take irrespective of tools. Because of the above confusion, I think a more accurate title and angle for your essay is "Learn about problems, not specific software tools" ... because people do care about solutions in the generalized non-software-tool sense. E.g. the recent mRNA vaccine is a "solution" to slowing down COVID that's crippling the world. Also, the following is hard to parse and could use some wordsmithing: >"(AI is kind of hot, but there are a a ton of wannabe data scientists and few open roles, while the opposite is true for DevOps, study linear algebra and probability theory, either, React, it’s hype),"
- sixhobbits 6y ago
  That's fair - I wasn't really implying they were equivalent and that sentence is really just to lead into "I find problems more interesting than solutions", but you're right that I'm probably 'cheating' a bit.
  - DiggyJohnson 6y ago
    Just print-n-filed this thread into "Writing and Style." Figuring out how to handle ambiguity in writing is difficult. Sometimes a little fuzzing works, I appreciate you supplying an explanation.
knuthsat 6y ago
Dependency injection frameworks are solutions that no one needs to solve their problem. It appears everywhere because everyone knows about the solution.
- darkhorse13 6y ago
  This is peak HN.
  - ipnon 6y ago
    It's been downhill for 14 years: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
- beaconstudios 6y ago
  DI frameworks solve problems caused by OOP (having to assemble a service object graph). So really, they're solving a problem that programmers created for themselves.
  - faeyanpiraat 6y ago
    Concatenating all the functions flat into one file can work for quick prototypes, but when you reach 1-2k LOC, you need to start abstracting things to keep it maintainable. Or have I missed your point?
    - beaconstudios 6y ago
      That's very true, but OOP just isn't a very good method of abstraction. Keeping data and code separate permits much more flexibility.
      - snovv_crash 6y ago
        It all depends how much state you need to manage, and how persistent it needs to be. What works in an image processing pipeline doesn't work in a web server, and what works there doesn't work in an autopilot.
mooreds 6y ago
A different way to think about this is to focus on domains. While software is a general purpose skill, like accounting, you can still reap the benefits of specialization. If you know a domain (like real estate or financial services) well, you will be able to build better software quicker because you don't have to come up to speed on the concepts in an area. If you've worked in real estate, you know, for instance, what the following concepts are: * MLS * Brokerage * Referral fee * sqft vs total sqft vs aboveground sqft * pending vs backup status None of these are rocket science, but knowing the domain deeply will make you a better developer for that problem space. I also liked the author's turn of phrase at the end. I think as a technologist I sometimes am enamored of the solution, when I really should be focusing on the problem. And sometimes technology isn't the answer to the problem.
blowski 6y ago
The real value comes from learning about both, so that you can maximise the "surface area" of where solutions meet problems. When you don't understand the problem, you tend to over-engineer with a lot of technology not actually delivering any value. But if you don't understand the solutions, you under-engineer - this is how organisations end up running an ERP through WordPress. Instead of learning lots about problems, learn about how to listen so you can quickly understand problems.
- potatoman22 6y ago
  What's a good way to learn to listen?
  - blowski 6y ago
    Read/listen/watch long form content about something you don't understand very well, and attempt to summarise it. Share your notes with someone else, and see if they understand. Look for "active listening" skills.
sriku 6y ago
Problem discovery and formulation definitely needs to be taught and practiced relative to solutions. Who'd you think has more expertise on a topic - a fellow student who can crack tough exams or one who can set challenging exam papers? The greatest of scientists were problem finders. Once you truly grasp and formulate a problem, seeking the expertise to solve it becomes a lot easier .. even trivial in cases. Startups are about problem finding too. Solutioning is important, but not as important as addressing the right problem.
wly_cdgr 6y ago
Reading this article literally just crystallized my life's purpose for me
- faeyanpiraat 6y ago
  Reading your comment made me want to read the article. Lets see.. Edit: it was a quick and useful read. I’m actually struggling with getting motivated, maybe reminding myself from time to time what my main issue I’m focusing on I could recalibrate my priorities, and keep my momentum.
hans863 6y ago
Unwound suggest you find something that you love doing and apply whichever hot skills to that
kylegill 6y ago
Reading this reminds me a lot of a web comic about holding onto and treasuring questions instead of answers [0]. This seems a little more specific to software though. I do enjoy the brevity of it! [0]: http://kiriakakis.net/comics/mused/a-day-at-the-park http://kiriakakis.net/comics/mused/a-day-at-the-park
craftinator 6y ago
This article reminds me of an essay by Neal Stephenson about how the internet stifles the innovation process. The gist of it is that the availability of pre-existing solutions provided by the internet leads to much faster solutions, but stifles innovation and experimentation in the process. If a group of engineers in a room have to dream up solutions to a problem, then go research and experiment to learn if they'll work, they will be innovating and learning the problem space in the process. If they dream up these solutions, then search the internet to see if they've been tried and work, they'll just be hill climbing.
- Jtsummers 6y ago
  https://www.wired.com/2011/10/stephenson-innovation-starvation/ https://www.wired.com/2011/10/stephenson-innovation-starvati... Is that the article in question?
- imbnwa 6y ago
  Would argue the effect of cultural homogeneity is the same
totorovirus 6y ago
another thing I learned by doing programming is that it is often more important to rephrase the problem and solve it with reasonable tradeoff.
raymond_goo 6y ago
I once read an article about "problem based learning" where there was a problem presented first and then the solution was shown. The article implied that this was a better way of learning. I am trying to find this article for years now. Anyone knows what I am talking about and maybe has a link for me?
- stevegalla 6y ago
  I know what you’re talking about, but I don’t have links. I took part in a “training session” at a med school. Basically undergrads were brought in to go through a “PBL” session so the facilitators could get training for the upcoming school year. Looking for literature in the medical field might help to narrow your search. I think it’s a “flipped classroom”, “Socratic method”, “case studies” approach, or probably goes by a different name in different fields. You do a bunch of pre-reading and preparation ahead of time. You come into the room and are given a problem statement. Then everyone tries to solve the problem and discussion ensues.
haolez 6y ago
Kind of off topic, but I've had a colleague once that defined his role on LinkedIn as "Problem Expert". I'd be worried if I had such a role in my company :P

107 points by sixhobbits 6y ago

An issue with just focusing on problems is that sometimes it’s not clear what the problem is. Say you create a fun little app that a hundred people download, that you just had a good time making. What problem did it solve for them? Boredom? Did it solve the same problem for everyone? That being said, I like the article, and I like the idea of focusing on problems more than solutions, to define a career.

potatoman22 6y ago
An issue with not focusing on on the problem is that your work will likely join the ~90% of near-useless products. There is a lot of joy to be found in the development process itself, I'm not dissing making obscure things that you think are fun; I do that all the time. It's just sometimes sad to see people pouring their sole into products no one ever actually wanted. And yes, that app helped fix their boredom. Look into jobs theory if you're interested in this stuff
deadbytes 6y ago
I think programmers need to start taking a lot more responsibility for what we release into the world. If you don't think your software solves a real problem, or will improve people's quality of life, then why release it? There are already too many distractions in the modern world. I don't want to create more. Any software you release that doesn't solve a real problem is just another distraction that takes time away from people's lives.
- pknerd 6y ago
  To decorate CV.

jasode 6y ago

Some constructive criticism to submitter/author: You're not noticing that you're inadvertently referring to "solutions" in multiple meanings which leads to false equivalence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivocation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivocation E.g. "solution" in "they are solutions, and you shouldn’t learn to use solutions" in your 1st paragraph is referring software tools -- but 2nd paragraph of "solutions" in "bring me solutions, not problems" is about answers or actions to take irrespective of tools. Because of the above confusion, I think a more accurate title and angle for your essay is "Learn about problems, not specific software tools" ... because people do care about solutions in the generalized non-software-tool sense. E.g. the recent mRNA vaccine is a "solution" to slowing down COVID that's crippling the world. Also, the following is hard to parse and could use some wordsmithing: >"(AI is kind of hot, but there are a a ton of wannabe data scientists and few open roles, while the opposite is true for DevOps, study linear algebra and probability theory, either, React, it’s hype),"

sixhobbits 6y ago
That's fair - I wasn't really implying they were equivalent and that sentence is really just to lead into "I find problems more interesting than solutions", but you're right that I'm probably 'cheating' a bit.
- DiggyJohnson 6y ago
  Just print-n-filed this thread into "Writing and Style." Figuring out how to handle ambiguity in writing is difficult. Sometimes a little fuzzing works, I appreciate you supplying an explanation.

knuthsat 6y ago

Dependency injection frameworks are solutions that no one needs to solve their problem. It appears everywhere because everyone knows about the solution.

darkhorse13 6y ago
This is peak HN.
- ipnon 6y ago
  It's been downhill for 14 years: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
beaconstudios 6y ago
DI frameworks solve problems caused by OOP (having to assemble a service object graph). So really, they're solving a problem that programmers created for themselves.
- faeyanpiraat 6y ago
  Concatenating all the functions flat into one file can work for quick prototypes, but when you reach 1-2k LOC, you need to start abstracting things to keep it maintainable. Or have I missed your point?
  - beaconstudios 6y ago
    That's very true, but OOP just isn't a very good method of abstraction. Keeping data and code separate permits much more flexibility.
    - snovv_crash 6y ago
      It all depends how much state you need to manage, and how persistent it needs to be. What works in an image processing pipeline doesn't work in a web server, and what works there doesn't work in an autopilot.

mooreds 6y ago

A different way to think about this is to focus on domains. While software is a general purpose skill, like accounting, you can still reap the benefits of specialization. If you know a domain (like real estate or financial services) well, you will be able to build better software quicker because you don't have to come up to speed on the concepts in an area. If you've worked in real estate, you know, for instance, what the following concepts are: * MLS * Brokerage * Referral fee * sqft vs total sqft vs aboveground sqft * pending vs backup status None of these are rocket science, but knowing the domain deeply will make you a better developer for that problem space. I also liked the author's turn of phrase at the end. I think as a technologist I sometimes am enamored of the solution, when I really should be focusing on the problem. And sometimes technology isn't the answer to the problem.

blowski 6y ago

The real value comes from learning about both, so that you can maximise the "surface area" of where solutions meet problems. When you don't understand the problem, you tend to over-engineer with a lot of technology not actually delivering any value. But if you don't understand the solutions, you under-engineer - this is how organisations end up running an ERP through WordPress. Instead of learning lots about problems, learn about how to listen so you can quickly understand problems.

potatoman22 6y ago
What's a good way to learn to listen?
- blowski 6y ago
  Read/listen/watch long form content about something you don't understand very well, and attempt to summarise it. Share your notes with someone else, and see if they understand. Look for "active listening" skills.

sriku 6y ago

Problem discovery and formulation definitely needs to be taught and practiced relative to solutions. Who'd you think has more expertise on a topic - a fellow student who can crack tough exams or one who can set challenging exam papers? The greatest of scientists were problem finders. Once you truly grasp and formulate a problem, seeking the expertise to solve it becomes a lot easier .. even trivial in cases. Startups are about problem finding too. Solutioning is important, but not as important as addressing the right problem.

wly_cdgr 6y ago

Reading this article literally just crystallized my life's purpose for me

faeyanpiraat 6y ago
Reading your comment made me want to read the article. Lets see.. Edit: it was a quick and useful read. I’m actually struggling with getting motivated, maybe reminding myself from time to time what my main issue I’m focusing on I could recalibrate my priorities, and keep my momentum.

hans863 6y ago

Unwound suggest you find something that you love doing and apply whichever hot skills to that

kylegill 6y ago

Reading this reminds me a lot of a web comic about holding onto and treasuring questions instead of answers [0]. This seems a little more specific to software though. I do enjoy the brevity of it! [0]: http://kiriakakis.net/comics/mused/a-day-at-the-park http://kiriakakis.net/comics/mused/a-day-at-the-park

craftinator 6y ago

This article reminds me of an essay by Neal Stephenson about how the internet stifles the innovation process. The gist of it is that the availability of pre-existing solutions provided by the internet leads to much faster solutions, but stifles innovation and experimentation in the process. If a group of engineers in a room have to dream up solutions to a problem, then go research and experiment to learn if they'll work, they will be innovating and learning the problem space in the process. If they dream up these solutions, then search the internet to see if they've been tried and work, they'll just be hill climbing.

Jtsummers 6y ago
https://www.wired.com/2011/10/stephenson-innovation-starvation/ https://www.wired.com/2011/10/stephenson-innovation-starvati... Is that the article in question?
imbnwa 6y ago
Would argue the effect of cultural homogeneity is the same

totorovirus 6y ago

another thing I learned by doing programming is that it is often more important to rephrase the problem and solve it with reasonable tradeoff.

raymond_goo 6y ago

I once read an article about "problem based learning" where there was a problem presented first and then the solution was shown. The article implied that this was a better way of learning. I am trying to find this article for years now. Anyone knows what I am talking about and maybe has a link for me?

stevegalla 6y ago
I know what you’re talking about, but I don’t have links. I took part in a “training session” at a med school. Basically undergrads were brought in to go through a “PBL” session so the facilitators could get training for the upcoming school year. Looking for literature in the medical field might help to narrow your search. I think it’s a “flipped classroom”, “Socratic method”, “case studies” approach, or probably goes by a different name in different fields. You do a bunch of pre-reading and preparation ahead of time. You come into the room and are given a problem statement. Then everyone tries to solve the problem and discussion ensues.

haolez 6y ago

Kind of off topic, but I've had a colleague once that defined his role on LinkedIn as "Problem Expert". I'd be worried if I had such a role in my company :P