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And not actually caring about the problem at hand. "Dude! We could make so much money if we made X!" - but do you actually care about X? Why is money the only

by movedx 5y ago

And not actually caring about the problem at hand. "Dude! We could make so much money if we made X!" - but do you actually care about X? Why is money the only reason people are setting up business and solving problems? It should be secondary, a happy side effect of solving hard problems (which people will thank you for with money.)

brtkdotse 5y ago
Because people want to pay their rent and eat. “Hard problems” take a lot of work and time and no one is going to pay me to ponder on a tricky algorithm [1] [1] actually there is. It’s called “academia” and from what I’m told it’s pretty miserable to be in
- educatedfool 5y ago
  Agree. Very hard problems or big investments (e.g. rail network, infrastructure at a country level, basic research with high risk of failure that will take decades) you usually have some form of state agency running it. PS: have not heard a good word about academia from numerous friends in it. Might be regional (EU) but still...
  - movedx 5y ago
    > Agree. Very hard problems or big investments Who said anything about hard problems or "big investments"? I never said that. Why are you saying that?
- movedx 5y ago
  > Because people want to pay their rent and eat. That's the wrong reason to set up a business, but the right reason to simply get a job. > “Hard problems” Who said anything about hard problems? Are businesses only designed to solve hard problems?
vasco 5y ago
If someone solves a problem of mine because they're motivated by money instead of the problem domain I don't really care. Are you upset that the gas station operator doesn't have a hobby about gas?
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 5y ago
  ppl aren't very good at solving problems they don't have. i imagine it's hard to design a good/efficient gas station if you've never used one before. service reps/tech support aren't very good if they don't use the product. software sucks/is slow to use unless the designers also use it on the daily and feel first-hand what the pain points are.
  - cole-k 5y ago
    I can jive with the idea that people aren't "very good" at solving the problems they don't engage with, but I think it's important to acknowledge that plain old "good" can be enough. To wit, I'm not going to be upset if tech support takes 3 minutes to process my question and reads out an answer from a pamphlet in monotone if it is indeed a solution to my problem. And there is some software that I use _despite_ its pain points because it solves problems I have.
- movedx 5y ago
  > gas station operator They didn't build the business. They're an employee.

by movedx 5y ago

brtkdotse 5y ago

Because people want to pay their rent and eat. “Hard problems” take a lot of work and time and no one is going to pay me to ponder on a tricky algorithm [1] [1] actually there is. It’s called “academia” and from what I’m told it’s pretty miserable to be in

educatedfool 5y ago
Agree. Very hard problems or big investments (e.g. rail network, infrastructure at a country level, basic research with high risk of failure that will take decades) you usually have some form of state agency running it. PS: have not heard a good word about academia from numerous friends in it. Might be regional (EU) but still...
- movedx 5y ago
  > Agree. Very hard problems or big investments Who said anything about hard problems or "big investments"? I never said that. Why are you saying that?
movedx 5y ago
> Because people want to pay their rent and eat. That's the wrong reason to set up a business, but the right reason to simply get a job. > “Hard problems” Who said anything about hard problems? Are businesses only designed to solve hard problems?

vasco 5y ago

If someone solves a problem of mine because they're motivated by money instead of the problem domain I don't really care. Are you upset that the gas station operator doesn't have a hobby about gas?

8n4vidtmkvmk 5y ago
ppl aren't very good at solving problems they don't have. i imagine it's hard to design a good/efficient gas station if you've never used one before. service reps/tech support aren't very good if they don't use the product. software sucks/is slow to use unless the designers also use it on the daily and feel first-hand what the pain points are.
- cole-k 5y ago
  I can jive with the idea that people aren't "very good" at solving the problems they don't engage with, but I think it's important to acknowledge that plain old "good" can be enough. To wit, I'm not going to be upset if tech support takes 3 minutes to process my question and reads out an answer from a pamphlet in monotone if it is indeed a solution to my problem. And there is some software that I use _despite_ its pain points because it solves problems I have.
movedx 5y ago
> gas station operator They didn't build the business. They're an employee.