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"13. Give up on hard problems - there is nothing wrong with being lazy. There is an abundance of easy problems that need to be solved. The really hard problems

"13. Give up on hard problems - there is nothing wrong with being lazy. There is an abundance of easy problems that need to be solved. The really hard problems are probably better left to your competitors. Solve a bunch of simple things. Most people’s problems are simple and you can probably solve 10 in a month over 1 in 10 months." Hard problems are a lot more fun to solve. How do you attract top talent if you are only solving easy things?

unalone 18y ago
They're more fun, BUT they result in more work being done for less of a benefit. Look at the sites that have succeeded the most and you'll see that they all solve basic problems, and that's resulted in most of them making tons of money. More specialized sites are more fascinating, but they attract fewer people and tend to be much less successful in absolute terms.
- gruseom 18y ago
  Look at the sites that have succeeded the most Is search not a hard problem?
  - run4yourlives 18y ago
    Look at where every other company that tried search - besides google - is now though.
- aschobel 18y ago
  It also depends on what kind of hard problems you are tackling. YouTube solved the video codec Gordian knot, Google did the same with relevant search. Not easy problems, but they have huge benefits.
  - unalone 18y ago
    Exactly. Those are resultant problems from a fairly simple opening idea. YouTube: how can we put video online? Google: how can we make searches relevant? And, while the details are usually tricky, I find that Google's solutions to problems tend to always be brilliantly simple. Like their translate features: they figure out a basic problem and they solve it simply and often unexpectedly. Calling it a Gordion knot is actually the perfect description, yeah.
gnaritas 18y ago
With $$ and a nice working environment!
edw519 18y ago
How do you attract top talent if you are only solving easy things? A hard problem is just a bunch of easy problems tangled up together.
- thalur 18y ago
  One of the hardest bits can be working out what the easy problems are in the first place.

unalone 18y ago

They're more fun, BUT they result in more work being done for less of a benefit. Look at the sites that have succeeded the most and you'll see that they all solve basic problems, and that's resulted in most of them making tons of money. More specialized sites are more fascinating, but they attract fewer people and tend to be much less successful in absolute terms.

gruseom 18y ago
Look at the sites that have succeeded the most Is search not a hard problem?
- run4yourlives 18y ago
  Look at where every other company that tried search - besides google - is now though.
aschobel 18y ago
It also depends on what kind of hard problems you are tackling. YouTube solved the video codec Gordian knot, Google did the same with relevant search. Not easy problems, but they have huge benefits.
- unalone 18y ago
  Exactly. Those are resultant problems from a fairly simple opening idea. YouTube: how can we put video online? Google: how can we make searches relevant? And, while the details are usually tricky, I find that Google's solutions to problems tend to always be brilliantly simple. Like their translate features: they figure out a basic problem and they solve it simply and often unexpectedly. Calling it a Gordion knot is actually the perfect description, yeah.

gnaritas 18y ago

With $$ and a nice working environment!

edw519 18y ago

How do you attract top talent if you are only solving easy things? A hard problem is just a bunch of easy problems tangled up together.

thalur 18y ago
One of the hardest bits can be working out what the easy problems are in the first place.