Ask HN: Tell me your biggest pain and I will try to solve it

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9015563

by jw2013 • 11 years ago

26 77 11 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I would love to run this experiment. Tell me what your biggest pain is and if I can I will try to solve it (e.g. through software, etc.). If I can't, probably someone else on here would love to help you.

Thanks!

nmbdesign• 11 years ago

Vladimir Putin

rational-future• 11 years ago

How come?

Red_Tarsius2• 11 years ago

I don't expect you to solve it, but since you're looking for problems... I'm kind of a perfectionist (not in a good way) and whenever I want to learn something new, I spend days and days beforehand just searching for the p.e.r.f.e.c.t. books, video lectures and what not. For example, I'd like to get back into physics, especially quantum mechanics. A website that, given any scientific field, gives me a list of the most important books and papers per difficulty level would save me a lot of time. However, this service should only list the best of the best. I don't know if this is a common problem or how you could monetize such service...

abdelhadikhiati• 11 years ago

I have the same problem , i always take days to look for perfect learning path and most of the time end up not using or learning anything , this problem is destroying my life (i am 20 years EECS student ) , any help or solution , and i will be thankful for you until the day i die .

ashark• 11 years ago

Another "me too". I spend way too much time figuring out the optimal material and order for approaching new subjects. I'm trying to work on it, but it's tough. At the heart of it, I think, is a fear of wasting time, which is funny considering how much time I've wasted on it.

Having lived some time before the Web was around, and some time more before it was quite the resource that it is now, I think this is a problem that is, if not caused by the Web, at least severely aggravated by it. For as useful as it is, I can't shake the feeling that if I could entirely abandon the modern information world for a set of traditional media and the Real World for a few years I'd come out on the other side both better educated and far happier that I will if I don't, but it's so hard to live anything like a normal life without the 'net, and there aren't many (any?) jobs as all-around nice as working as a programmer that let you disconnect like that.

Probably I'd have made a good monk.

Also, to add to the problems-to-solve list: I'd like an Anki-alike that lets me type and/or freely draw on both sides of the card when I'm creating one on a device with a touch screen. I realized after ~3 hours of collecting images for some flash cards I didn't end up creating that if I could have just drawn my cards on a tablet and saved them directly—no stupid, slow shuffling between a graphics editor and the flash card app—I'd have already been done, and, not finding such a program, I abandoned my project. At that point I (obviously) considered using real notecards but I doubted I'd carry them around enough.

mrdrozdov• 11 years ago

Find a good community! The highest quality communities I've seen will always post some sort of learning track or syllabus, particularly for newcomers. Recently, I've been utitizing /r/reddit, but my favorite subreddit of this type is /r/hiphopheads. They have one of the most well thought out wikis I've ever seen (http://www.reddit.com/r/hiphopheads/wiki/index). I've also used the University of Texas's J-School Curriculum for learning more about Journalism (http://journalism.utexas.edu/undergraduate/curriculum).

bokonist• 11 years ago

Funny you mention this, I have just started building a site to help with this exact problem. Seems like there is so much good content out there, but it is hard to find the good evergreen content once it leaves the front pages of social media sites. I am not starting with scientific subjects (I'm starting with history, sociology, and general life issues). The difficultly will be that there is a lot of content to get through, so I'm going to have to figure out a way to crowdsource the curation, somehow.

PublicEnemy111• 11 years ago

Open source courses would be cool. Not open source like mit's ocw or coursera, but a platform where everyone collectively decides on the material. So, for an algorithms course, maybe MIT's hashing lectures are second to none, but some guy on YouTube has better explanations for divide and conquer algorithms. The idea would be to find the best material for each lecture and compile it into a class

avinassh2• 11 years ago

How it can be resolved if there is a conflict? Like, for hashing, some are suggesting for Video A and some for Video B. So you ask them to vote? And then who is eligible to vote?

masonlong• 11 years ago

Visualizing the relationships between my thoughts.

ZeroFries• 11 years ago

DMT or 5g Mushrooms

pksunkara• 11 years ago

Better golang package management.

osense• 11 years ago

Better erlang package management? (:

yastrum• 11 years ago

I don't know how to place an order for a user on Walmart.com, without ever visiting Walmart.com (i.e. programmatically as a third party).

Are there already services out there for this?

ozirus• 11 years ago

I hate 0-day exploits while defending my IT infrastructure.

agwa• 11 years ago

Are you actually targeted with undisclosed vulnerabilities, or are you just concerned about quickly patching your infrastructure after a vulnerability is disclosed? If it's the latter, I'd love to hear more about your pain points as it's an area in which I've been kicking around ideas for a while.

johnebgd4• 11 years ago

I need a CTO willing to work for equity that can help me finish my Django/Python application so I can bring it to market.

It's presold to 129 customers as a subscription before it's even done.

maxk42• 11 years ago

Why don't you tell us what your app is and what kind of skills you need to get it to the finish line?

johnebgd4• 11 years ago

We are in the recruiting/hiring space. The CTO who had to step into an advisory role because of his health thinks there is about 300 hours left for someone familiar with Django.

Stack is: Google App Engine, Google CloudSQL, Django/Python, Bootstrap, Stripe for transactions

If you are interested email me lanec@hush.com and I'll give you more information.

revorad11• 11 years ago

Too many people looking for a CTO. If you have that many customers, you should be able to hire a contractor.

johnebgd4• 11 years ago

Capital compensation for the product won't flow through the doors until we launch. We had a CTO start the product but he had to move into an advisory position due to health concerns.

Hiring an outside firm would also put the knowledge of the platform and the product into their hands. It'll make it more difficult for us to iterate and grow beyond just the MVP concept into a full business. That's why we want an equity partner. Someone who believes in the product and wants to see it grow with the rest of the team.

mariogintili• 11 years ago

I'm a junior/mid-level developer. I wanna know how will I know that I'm ready to be a contractor, also the dos/donts about being one.

johnebgd4• 11 years ago

I'm not a developer but I can help from a business standpoint.

Contracts and deposits. Don't take on work from people who won't sign contracts and always try to get paid up front. Don't work out of their repo unless you get paid in advance.

Licensing. Try writing software that you can re-use for multiple clients. Just be sure you license the software to them in your contract. Most clients on small projects don't understand licensing or intellectual property ownership. It's easier to close small projects by recycling code. It's legal so long as you retain ownership of the source code but provide the client with a license.

revorad11• 11 years ago

Jacques Mattheij has written a lot of useful stuff on this topic:

http://jacquesmattheij.com/blog/categories/consulting

leepowers• 11 years ago

Find your market. Suss out the places online and IRL where people with your skill set congregate, and where buyers for your skills are looking for talent. Start a portfolio web site right away, and optionally a blog. Put yourself on the market right now.

If you get a good offer (on-contract, upfront deposit) consider taking the plunge. Have 3-6 months of cash for a fallback - in case you fail and decide to re-enter the traditional job market. Or more likely, when you encounter an extended dry spell as you learn to build and maintain cash flow.

Prepare yourself mentally for a greater level of uncertainty. Your next paycheck is not guaranteed. Not only do you have to do the work to get a paycheck, you also have the additional work of getting to the next paycheck: keeping a full pipeline of good-paying gigs. Always be marketing and selling yourself.

Not all customers/clients are created equally. Know what you're selling, set your price and stick to it. You're probably not in a position to work for equity. (Since most startups fail "working for equity" is the same as "working for free"). Be prepared to say "no". Be willing to gracefully exit a relationship with a troublesome client.

Stay away from odesk, elance, freelancer.com, etc. These are highly regulated, tightly controlled markets with enormous pressure to push timelines and costs down to the lowest common denominator. Unless you're in a country where bidding for $500 fixed price jobs and $20/hr contracts can make you a good living.

Yaa1012• 11 years ago

My biggest pain is not solvable through software? It is my back that hurts badly...

FailMore• 11 years ago

Lower back?

mostafaberg4• 11 years ago

did you visit a doctor ? if so what's the diagnosis ?

Red_Tarsius2• 11 years ago

Too generic... could it be how you sit? I'm pretty sure my old office chair was really a torture device. Eventually, I got rid of it and bought a variable balans: http://goo.gl/LGFHg1 It's a bit pricey, but I feel much better.

Mz2• 11 years ago

Perhaps someday such problems will be solvable with software. What if there was a simulation that could help you better understand how your body works? Do you think that might help?

justintocci• 11 years ago

read "walk yourself well". it helped me.

enigami• 11 years ago

There could be more than one reason for your back pain. First try to understand what causes your problem for example: do you have all day sitting in desk job, do you lift weight frequently, your sleeping position etc.,

I had this issue couple of months back; i had severe pain which shoots down till my toes from hip. I knew it has something do to with the Nerve. I visited an Ortho and took an MRI and we found out I had a Slip Disc problem. (FYI..I am in a software job and I sit all day, also due to my height and my incorrect seating posture this problem developed). While my doctor suggested an Operation, I was shitty scared and was researching in internet about the problem. One of my friend suggested an alternative treatment "YOGA". I thought why not give it a try, I found an institute where they specialize in treating body pain through yoga, I had to stay there for couple of weeks and do the routine. At the end of the second week, I wasn't feeling any better, but the people in the institute asked me to keep faith and asked me continue the exercise.

I continued for a month and suddenly like a magic my pain got disappeared and never had again till today. So, the point is try to find out what is causing you pain and try to do some research and find the best physio or exercise. Happy to help you, if you need more information about my problem and how I got rid of it. All the best!!

Yaa1012• 11 years ago

To be honest, I answered this post because of the headline which was a bit absurdistic or too general while the person really meant a software pain. I did not expect the number of reactions of you all, first of all thanks for the reactions. It tells me how deep this problem is for computer programmers.

B.T.W. I do have a back problem and I did found out what was causing it, too much physical stress on my back for much of the past year (having to do with fulfilling a business opportunity for myself while not being able to pay for construction workers and being one myself in the past).

The other problem was my bed, both problems are solved and with a lot of stretching exercises I am getting my back into healthier condition.

svisser• 11 years ago

Porting to Python 3.

anonymousDan• 11 years ago

My wifi is ridiculously annoying - I live in an apartment block where there are literally 30 other wifi routers interfering with my own router. I pay through the nose for superfast broadband but it's completely redundant!

chill1• 11 years ago

I've had this problem before. Try changing the "channel" for your wifi signal. You can do this via the admin interface for your router. If that doesn't help, the cause might be EM interference from other electronic devices physically near the router. Try moving other electronics (power supplies, cable modem, etc.) away from the router (at least 1 or 2 feet distance should do it).

Hope that helps!

jrpt• 11 years ago

I had this exact problem so I empathize with you. It was really painful, because my internet would go out sporadically for at least a minute every once in a while. My problem was also too much noise coming from a crowded apartment complex.

The solution I found was to upgrade to a 5 GHz router. The one I bought can transmit on both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, but I configured it to only transmit on 5 GHz. This forces my computer to always use the 5 GHz connection, which has less noise. The 5 GHz signal decays faster when it goes through walls, so the signal will not be as strong as a 2.4 GHz would, but the signal-to-noise ratio will be much better because 5 GHz is significantly less crowded.

hijiri• 11 years ago

I can't fly unassisted

motiw• 11 years ago

How to find a marketing partner?

revorad11• 11 years ago

It depends on your specific marketing needs.

You should hang out on https://growthhackers.com and http://inbound.org. Some of the best marketers hang out there. Even if you don't find a partner, you'll definitely learn some useful stuff.

mostafaberg4• 11 years ago

I'm never satisfied with my multi computer setup / multi screen setup, i always ending with not knowing which one to use for what, or if i even need more than one, also i can never find that perfect keyboard...

CSDude• 11 years ago

A tiling window manager like xmonad, awesomewm can help

mostafaberg4• 11 years ago

unfortunately it doesn't work 100% under mac :(, right now i use moom ! but my problem was about the screens themselves, not how to tile windows in them, but what way to actually setup screens to make best use of them

oigursh2• 11 years ago

BTC 6100, 6200, 6300

http://www.btc.com.tw/english/2-7-25keyboard.htm

mostafaberg4• 11 years ago

looks nice, but forgot to mention i'm a mac user and have a KBC Poker II with Cherry MX blues, do you have any mechanical equivalent ?

YuriNiyazov• 11 years ago

Having my and my family's rent, food and health insurance paid for without having to hire myself out for it.

portlander52232• 11 years ago

The economic system as it now stands makes it impossible for me to sustain my life through work that is meaningful and helpful to others.

revorad11• 11 years ago

That sounds like a tough situation. I believe there is plenty of meaningful work out there. So I'm curious to know what your profession is.

worldsayshi• 11 years ago

Our impact on the environment continue to escalate - we can't agree on policies for avoiding it and we might not invent our way through the problem fast enough.

crawfordcomeaux3• 11 years ago

I have a cycle of habits that revolves around reading the internet. It goes like this:

Have an idea -> google for its existence

If idea is novel -> Google to answer questions about implementation; Else -> come up with new spin on idea or stop

Confirm findings or test idea -> have a new idea or new questions

I also have ADHD & can sometimes (ok...often) hyperfocus when I catch this cycle. I can lose hours upon hours in it. But that's not the main problem...

There are numerous ways to enter this cycle (ie. Triggers for any of the habits) & they occur so frequently that they disrupt the development of new habits. The standard triggers are having/encountering a new idea, a question without an answer, or an answer that needs confirming. I can also jump into it accidentally through procrastination means (eg. reading HN) or just as a result of everyday work (eg. searching for something on stack overflow).

I'm a programmer without a support system to enable me to disrupt these habits without unplugging for months, which I can't afford to do.

revorad11• 11 years ago

I've experienced that same thing (who on HN hasn't? ;). Tips and tricks to cut down on info-addiction can help a bit.

But the only thing that really works for me is when I focus on a positive goal I want to achieve, instead of spending energy on avoiding the bad habits.

Now, I'm focused on building my business. It doesn't mean I have stopped getting lots of shiny new ideas. But now I don't have to fight with myself. I just don't have the time or energy for these new ideas. Too focused on the current idea.

crawfordcomeaux3• 11 years ago

Were that all it takes for me, I wouldn't be posting here.

jimkri• 11 years ago

I am exactly the same way. I have ADHD too, I hyper focus all the time, I have triggers that cause me to think of certain ideas and everything you said I do the same. I am all out of wack right now, I have been procrastinating on my homework like crazy this and hyper focusing on random projects, like Thursday I spent 3 hours working on crime data around temple's campus, when I should have been studying for my homework.

But what I try to do with all the ideas I come up with is to let the idea sit, I too have a lot of things that trigger my ideas but I only really think about the ones that have stayed with me, like I have a really solid start-up idea right now and I have had it for about 6 months now. In between that 6 months I was consistently thinking of other ideas. But I think I am just going to focus on this, because it keeps coming up in my mind, and I have thought of some awesome ideas for it.

But what I do is I exercise, it really keeps my mind fresh and throws out a lot of shit. I know its not a software solution but it has helped me so much.

daw___2• 11 years ago

I cannot measure my tinnitus. Some nights it gets sensibly louder, yet I have no clues on how to "calculate" its loudness since the ringing I hear doesn't actually exist.

bramgg• 11 years ago

Not sure if your problem is your tinnitus or your inability to calculate it's loudness. If it's the former invest in a fan and leave it on near you when you go to sleep.

daw___2• 11 years ago

Ah, good point. I would not have the problem of inability to calculate tinnitus' loudness if I had no tinnitus in the first place, but let's say that now -- after ~3 years since its appearance -- I resigned to idea of suffering from tinnitus, so it's some how not a problem anymore, I now don't even need a fan or any other noise source to fall asleep.

blackle• 11 years ago

the last time someone said this to me they offered me weed

oigursh2• 11 years ago

Tinnitus

Mz2• 11 years ago

FYI: Some people find that magnesium helps with this. It may not resolve it, but it may make it more bearable.

not_a_test_user• 11 years ago

I know HTML/(S)CSS like the back of my hand. I know enough JS for most use cases and I'm starting to explore React and other frameworks to expand my knowledge. In the backend side of things I can code in PHP without any problem and I have hacked a bit in Ruby and Python, currently trying to expand what I know in Ruby in my free time.

The local market sucks so I'm unable to escape from my agency job. I feel trapped making disposable marketing websites that will disappear in a month or two. I have applied to remote jobs but most don't want someone that is not from the US.

I have no idea what to do. I feel like my current job is killing my drive for web development even though I love it.

Sorry for venting here.

revorad11• 11 years ago

With your skills, you should be able to get well-paying remote work. But you have to get out of this mindset of being stuck in your local market.

I have applied to remote jobs but most don't want someone that is not from the US.

That must be the case if you only apply to remote jobs at companies based in the US. Apply for jobs outside the US.

Make a good professional profile online.

Post your profile and apply for jobs on the monthly hiring threads on HN - https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=whoishiring

throw393• 11 years ago

Trying to have some minimal version of a normal life after struggling to function and stick around for 2 out of 3 decades.

A software-defined time machine would probably be helpful :) But really, software to spot patterns and correlations I wouldn't otherwise notice (based on life "microevents" of all kinds, food intake, feelings, interactions with others, environment factors...) would probably help a lot, literally life changing perhaps. A good AI to talk to as though it were just a close friend would make a perfect user interface for such a thing.

Domain specific AI to talk to would help on its own though, long term isolation itself is quite damaging.

DougN73• 11 years ago

I have a business problem. My business sells B2B software. We can use Google Analytics, etc to see how people get to our site and whether they download the free trial (desktop/server software).

When it comes time to purchase, every once in a while the same person that downloaded comes to our online purchase page and we're able to attribute the sale back to the channel/ad/blog it came from.

Most of the time though, someone else (the boss, a purchasing person, etc) on a different PC comes to our online order page and pays. From Analytics point of view they came from nowhere. Or worse, they fax/email a purchase order.

I would love a way to accurately track the source of our sales without introducing painful process (requiring some sort of download ID for example) to the purchase process.

revorad11• 11 years ago

The simplest solution is to require your customers to register before downloading a free trial. I can't think of a good reason why you can't do this for B2B software.

And if you're worried about conversion rates dropping, I have seen many companies report that their switch from "no signup required" to "signup required" resulted in no difference in conversions. It's certainly worth a test.

DougN73• 11 years ago

We do request they signup. But we allow the download without it. I'd guess 60% give us an email address. Mapping the purchase to the email domain shouldn't be too hard. Then we need to track the email signup to the original source (doable in Google Analytics???)

danielki• 11 years ago

Have you tried a mapping based on IP address (this might work depending on the size of the business)? If the business is big enough, IP addresses should/would be registered to the company rather than a general-purpose ISP.

DougN73• 11 years ago

Yeah, tried that. Worked much less that I had expected (though I don't remember the numbers any more).

adrianwaj• 11 years ago

An Electrum Doge wallet that actually works (ie has been adapted to AuxPOW) and has servers working to enable it.

There was one a few months ago but it has since been abandoned http://electrum-doge.com/, yet there is still large demand for it. One exists for bitcoin that is working though.

It's fast on startup, non-Java and a headers-only wallet with a deterministic backup (1-time phrase based.) I read that the Core wallet might get a deterministic backup in the future.

Such a wallet would be great for newbies. ED also has plugin potential unlike the core wallet.

If you get it going, you could charge for its usage (eg a fee to connect with the servers,) and it may become popular on mobile devices if you could do a version for it (ie small footprint.) You could also do versions for other coins.

Full blockchain wallets are gradually becoming cumbersome as the blockchain size grows (that might be the true pain point.)

internDC• 11 years ago

No one in DC wants to hire a high school student as a summer programming intern.

olalonde• 11 years ago

I wrote a list of startup/project ideas here a few days ago, some of which were inspired by personal pains: http://syskall.com/crazy-and-not-so-crazy-startup-ideas-2015... (too big to paste here unfortunately)

RollAHardSix• 11 years ago

I have no income. I don't want much income, or rather I don't want much income in the long-term, just enough to pay the mortgage off and then I won't feel so completely stressed. I could take a low-key job or work on my own projects full-time (music, writing, and acting, and software lol), or ideally, open a martial arts school.

That's my biggest pain point, that I have to work to pay the mortgage instead of pursuing my passions and living my life. I'm lucky, my mortgage should be paid off by the time I'm around 35, but I don't want to lose the next ten years to working...I've already been working for ten years, I want the next ten years to be a combination of passion, hard-work, and chasing MY dreams.

avinassh2• 11 years ago

Not really biggest pain, but I would appreciate your help on this. I am learning Swift and iOS Dev. What kind of apps I should have in my portfolio, so that I can apply for jobs? I have built basic to-do apps etc. and I am not getting any new ideas which I can implement. Either I find them too easy or too complicated for me.

Ask HN: Tell me your biggest pain and I will try to solve it

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