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Experiment HN: Idea day
The world is full of problems that need solving. They're all around us. I'd say we run into at least 5 frustrations every day, whether those are frustrations we experience first hand or ones we overhear others complaining about, but we probably don't think much of them. So let's train our eyes/ears to recognize them!
So how about for the next day, November 12th, we try and pick up on 3 potential problems/complaints/frustrations we see ourselves and/or others facing. At 8PM Pacific time, I'll post another thread where we can all share our findings and possible solutions.
I figured it'd be a good way to get into the habit of recognizing problems, because really, no problem is too small.
What do you think?
EDIT: Some are saying that there are problems that just can't be solved ( a terribly attitude! ) like traffic lights, etc. Maybe then keep your problems to ones that can be solved within reason, like with a capable team.
- bioweek 17y agoGood thinking, I'll try to do it.
- Zarathu 17y agoGood idea.
- freakwit 17y agoBad idea: tossing your cousin Penny into a fountain to make a wish. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8PhzrmBgMI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8PhzrmBgMI
- awt 17y agoOne thing I've been doing is keeping an annoyance diary. Haven't come up with any great ideas yet though.
- staticshock 17y agoIs it online?
- awt 17y agoIt is not, though I've tweeted at least one annoyance.
- bemmu 17y agoAnother thing I've been thinking about is how can we learn more about problems in other domains. For this idea day, my frustrations would probably be dev-related, but what about the problems people have in professions other than coding?
- kyro 17y agoThat's actually what I meant. It's not supposed to be developer specific. I was thinking about problems you may experience as you get ready to head to work, hear others complain about on the train ride over, or from those eating in the booth next to you at lunch, etc etc etc.
- jodrellblank 17y agoI think I spend all damn day whinging (mostly in my head) about problems that nobody else will fix for me. Anything and everything from the lack of software I want to the poor design of my headphones to the stupidity of traffic lights. 90% of everything is rubbish and nothing is perfect. Problems problems problems, they're endemic, and OK. I think that if you cultivate this habit without also driving yourself to fix problems, it will just make you miserable and grouchy. Avoid if possible.
- Mongoose 17y agoIt'll drive you miserable and grouchy if you think of them as petty annoyances. Thinking of them as opportunities for improvement is more healthy.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- mahmud 17y agoArticulate your opinion in prose or upvote; single phrase, "tl;dr" type responses are frowned upon in HN, rooshdi.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- mahmud 17y agoPeople here don't know who you are, Mongoose. Why don't you put a link to "Rules for my unborn son" in your profile? Amazing site. http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/ http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/
- Mongoose 17y agoWhat? I'm not affiliated with 1001 rules for my unborn son.
- raptrex 17y agothis sounds like a potential startup, unless anyone knows of a site like this
- Mongoose 17y agohttp://idea-ne.ws/ http://idea-ne.ws/
- fnid 17y agoI've been there many times and the ideas just aren't good. Seriously, a "jump to conclusions mat?" It was funny the first time i heard it, but to be the number one item on the site this long makes it look like a farce.
- kyro 17y agoJump to Conclusions Mat is a reference to the movie Office Space. It's a great movie you should check out some time.
- fnid 17y agoUgh. I know. But it's a joke and the fact that everyone there takes it seriously means they aren't serious. It's a waste of time. If the site is trying to be a funny place to go talk about stupid ideas, then it succeeds, but if it's trying to be a serious place to talk about real ideas, then it fails. That's all I'm saying.
- SapphireSun 17y agoI think the real problem with a site like that is that many people like to guard the tractable problems they think of. It's one thing to talk about your ideas and get critiqued with close friends, it's quite another to post it on the public internet! Edit: Changed "this" to "that" so it doesn't sound like it's referring to HN
- prawn 17y ago
- lliiffee 17y agoFinding doctors is a huge problem. When you move to a new city, you are given a list of 2000 PCPs and told to pick one (after calling around to see if they are accepting new patients). When you need to see a specialist, you are given a referral. People in the health care industry know that many of the specialists are untalented losers who push patients in and out as quickly as possible, and would never let someone close to them see them. The general public has little idea.
- fnid 17y agohttp://www.docmatcher.com/ http://www.docmatcher.com/
- timf 17y agoAngie's list includes doctor opinions. I have never used it for that personally so I cannot exactly recommend it but I find them useful for other service providers.
- jmtame 17y agohourtown.com (now bookfresh.com) might address this
- philjr 17y agoNot US centric, but http://www.revahealth.com/ http://www.revahealth.com/
- rooshdi 17y agoI'm still waiting for my flying car....
- Eliezer 17y agohttp://www.threepanelsoul.com/comics/103.png http://www.threepanelsoul.com/comics/103.png
- yosho 17y agoa lot of problems can't really be fixed with software... - corporate meetings that accomplish nothing - nagging girlfriend - traffic congestion (well maybe some software here might help) - stupid shitty and cold weather - an IT department that's incompetent - annoying neighbors - etc... If only software solved everything.
- suhail 17y agoI don't know what you're talking about...I made software to fix the "nagging girlfriend" problem.
- jmtame 17y agooh suhail, do share with the class. and mixpanel.com does not count ;)
- aaronblohowiak 17y agoLaundry
- grinich 17y agohttp://laundryview.com http://laundryview.com At all the MIT dorms.
- PStamatiou 17y agoand at Georgia Tech as well.
- makmanalp 17y agoand the WPI ones.
- rajasaur 17y agoJust curious, how does it work? Would Mac-Gray be having sensors that report back to a controller?
- 17y ago
- addenine 17y agoTraffic lights are totally fixable, there's just a huge amount of legacy hard and software systems. Ten years, better tracking systems, and some fuzzy logic. Problem solved.
- abossy 17y agoDon't forget the political/social implications of convincing the world's population that these need to be changed.
- megamark16 17y agoReminded me of this one: http://xkcd.com/277/ http://xkcd.com/277/
- bayareaguy 17y agoUnknown or expired link. This should be fixed.
- megamark16 17y agoI was going to say that there are several Firefox plugins to check links on the page for you, but the ones that I took a cursory glance at look like they could really slow down your browsing, or automatically "click" on links (like Delete or Upvote/Downvote) that you really don't want them to click. So I see now that this problem is indeed a little more complicated then that. What we really need is a plugin that makes a quick query to a central service every time you hit a page and checks to see if anyone else has "reported" bad links on that page, and if they have it will highlight them or cross them out for you. Or it could send a list of all of the links on a page to the server and check them against the servers bad links list. Other than that it will let you do your own thing until you hit a bad link on a page, at which time it will look back at your history and see what page the bad link exists on and "report" that bad link/page to the central server so that any other user that hits that page will know before they click that that particular link is bad. There would be, of course, numerous privacy concerns, but I think that if a company was willing to really "do no evil" and could garner enough user support to make it effective this could turn out to be really helpful. Thoughts?
- sp332 17y agoThere's "Resurrect Pages" for Firefox, which has buttons for Google cache (for recently dead pages) and archive.org (for longer-dead pages). https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2570 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2570
- bemmu 17y agoI think he means the situation where if you are browsing HN, then take a trip to Mars and after you continue clicking, the links no longer work.
- PostOnce 17y agoHow about a global effort to achieve post-scarcity? (The quicker the better.) Before I go on with the steps, let me remind you all how far we've come in the past fifty years: We have the internet. All electronically-reproducible data is now virtually post-scarcity. We are also on the cusp of everyone owning a high-performance personal-fabrication machine. Twenty years from now, You will be printing (or pirating) all manner of toys, tools, and electronic devices. The Reprap (and even laser printers) can print circuits right now. Printing an iPod isn't too far off. How much longer until we're printing meat and vegetables? Welcome to the future, everyone. Step One: Make the populace care. Without a culture that encourages learning, diligence, and scholastic achievement, Step Two is irrelevant. Step Two: Educate the populace. Better public schools and libraries, and more time spent studying at home. Step Three: Divert investment and time from more frivolous pursuits. It's 3:30 in the morning, so I might not have said all that with optimal clarity, but you get the gist of it. Everything will be free soon; let's make it happen faster. We need cheaper means of producing and reusing raw materials, we need really fantastic nanotech, and ... tons of other crap. I'm going to bed now before I make an ass of myself :)
- petervandijck 17y agoStep 1 cannot be done. Step 2 is very, very hard. Step 3 cannot be done. Good luck :)
- PostOnce 17y agoYeah, I guess I need to offset those steps by one, and insert Step One: Become Dictator.
- jacquesm 17y agoThat's an excellent observation, frustration really is key to sensing where the world can be improved. The problem is that one mans frustration is another mans income, so it would probably be easier to limit this frustration guide to those areas where you are not going to be facing opposition right away. On the other hand that might cut off fruitful avenues and maybe we shouldn't be that timid about this. Thanks for the idea, looking forward to that other thread and I'll do my best to think about your challenge while going through the day.
- nuba 17y agoHow surprising that no reply mentions a child-like approach to the world: curious, inquisitive, playful, fun-seeking. I believe the simple and sad reason most people won't recognize problems or unaddressed issues around them is because they've been trained not to. It's called "education", and is a double-edged sword. It'll take you places, but then it'll take places away from you, too, if you're not aware. The very places you need to "think out of the box". The brain will stick with "what works" and "what's often used", but great insights and breakthroughs don't come from the masses, but rather from individuals exploring the less-traveled paths. As Pablo Picasso says, "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child". Funny things, a child asks "why? why? what if?" and most people won't pay attention. Then a bearded grownup asks "why? why? what if?" and gets to be called a visionary! Have fun!
- bemmu 17y ago1) Wanted to quickly test something with a Japanese IE6, after a few hours still haven't done it. Had to evaluate VMWare, Parallels etc. and also hunt for suitable image. Too much work and too costly for just a simple check. 2) If I want to play some new game at 30+ fps, what kind of machine do I need to buy? From a friend: 1) Printer didn't work. They never do. 2) Too cold to be outside. 3) Takes too long to know if your recombinant bacteria genetic modification failed or not.
- c00p3r 17y agoIdea for this site: up/down voting decrements ones karma points. It is not related with the concept of the karma, but we do not have live-span values here.