3 ms·

Ask HN: Where did you find problems to solve?

11 points by adawg4 6y ago

I usually write stuff down and see what is the most pressing and frequent for a certain period of time once and a while

herodoturtle 6y ago
I assume you mean in the context of software development? I use vim as my IDE which automatically highlights the word "TODO" in bright colours when it is in a comment. So I leave // TODO comments in various parts of our codebase that need attention later down the line - and I also append one or more asterisk symbols depending on how urgent it is, like so: // TODO ** Refactor abc to do xyz. Then from the Linux CLI I can "grep -R TODO *" in the codebase's top level directory to get a full list of items on my TODO list, and depending on the number of asterisks before each comment description, I know which item I need to prioritise. Hope that helps!
- adawg4 6y ago
  I meant in general but this does to!
mustafa_pasi 6y ago
Solving your own problems is all well and good, but I think that advice was more valid 10 to 15 years ago when there were more untapped opportunities. My current philosophy is that you have to go seek opportunities. I am trained as a mathematician but I am thinking of getting into some high-tech area just to gain experience, get domain expertise, and hopefully find business opportunities. I'm considering robotics but not quite decided yet.
meiraleal 6y ago
I find it in frustration. If you are looking for problems to fix, you need to feel the pain, otherwise you will not know how to fix it.
giantg2 6y ago
My entire life is a problem
el_dev_hell 6y ago
Interesting question. Honestly, I've never had trouble finding problems to solve (in life overall). Maybe one day I'll have a problem deficit and will need to go looking. I try and focus on my most high impact problems and attack them. I attack problems in the normal engineer way (break it down, solve, solve, solve, break down further, solve, move up the problem tree).
muzani 6y ago
I live in a developing country. Taxes are a problem. Crime is a problem. Buying fresh chicken is a problem (which I actually tried to tackle with a startup)
cooper45 6y ago
Thanks for sharing.I found a lot of interesting information here. A really good post, very thankful and hopeful that you will write many more posts like this one.https://www.targetpayandbenefits.biz/ https://www.targetpayandbenefits.biz/

11 points by adawg4 6y ago

I usually write stuff down and see what is the most pressing and frequent for a certain period of time once and a while

I assume you mean in the context of software development? I use vim as my IDE which automatically highlights the word "TODO" in bright colours when it is in a comment. So I leave // TODO comments in various parts of our codebase that need attention later down the line - and I also append one or more asterisk symbols depending on how urgent it is, like so: // TODO ** Refactor abc to do xyz. Then from the Linux CLI I can "grep -R TODO *" in the codebase's top level directory to get a full list of items on my TODO list, and depending on the number of asterisks before each comment description, I know which item I need to prioritise. Hope that helps!

adawg4 6y ago
I meant in general but this does to!

mustafa_pasi 6y ago

Solving your own problems is all well and good, but I think that advice was more valid 10 to 15 years ago when there were more untapped opportunities. My current philosophy is that you have to go seek opportunities. I am trained as a mathematician but I am thinking of getting into some high-tech area just to gain experience, get domain expertise, and hopefully find business opportunities. I'm considering robotics but not quite decided yet.

meiraleal 6y ago

I find it in frustration. If you are looking for problems to fix, you need to feel the pain, otherwise you will not know how to fix it.

giantg2 6y ago

My entire life is a problem

el_dev_hell 6y ago

Interesting question. Honestly, I've never had trouble finding problems to solve (in life overall). Maybe one day I'll have a problem deficit and will need to go looking. I try and focus on my most high impact problems and attack them. I attack problems in the normal engineer way (break it down, solve, solve, solve, break down further, solve, move up the problem tree).

muzani 6y ago

I live in a developing country. Taxes are a problem. Crime is a problem. Buying fresh chicken is a problem (which I actually tried to tackle with a startup)

cooper45 6y ago

Thanks for sharing.I found a lot of interesting information here. A really good post, very thankful and hopeful that you will write many more posts like this one.https://www.targetpayandbenefits.biz/ https://www.targetpayandbenefits.biz/