Ask HN: Where to Find Interesting Problems?

In the broadest of terms this frequently boils down to boring technology solutions to common business problems people are afraid to solve out of inconvenience. More specifically, recent subjects have included anything about privacy, IPv6, security, and just about anything disruptive to online advertising.

Edit:

I go out of my way to do the opposite where discussions popularly advocate for something with false expertise or clearly based upon a faulty premise. Examples of these subjects are security in software development, anything related to mental health, law enforcement, and so forth. All the garbage that seems popular online but is antithetical to real life practice from paid professionals.

I'm not saying that Python or Jupyter don't have problems, I'm saying that many who complain are not necessarily the people you want to talk with, and it's better to be deliberate and conscious about targeting people who are actually having problems.

For example, one complained that a notebook didn't work on JupyterLab and that it worked seamlessly on Google Colab. Interesting. I asked whether it was a hardware issue or a JLab vs Colab issue: did they have enough RAM, a GPU on their local machine or they ran it on JLab + CPU + a bit of RAM on their local machine and then ran it on Colab + GPU + more RAM on Colab.

Would you be against learning about others' problems for a living? You can be in consulting. You'll have plenty of problems to solve. Here's a sort of mini blueprint[0]. I've worked on problems in different sectors and industries such as telecommunications, energy, banking, employment, healthcare, social work, communications and public relations, etc.

It is good to talk with people for whom the problem is actually a problem, not just blogging or tweeting about it or "building an audience", which you see a lot of creatures doing [X influencers/X thought leaders/X enthusiasts/motivational gurus]. You won't find good problems talking with these people because they're not the people "doing the deed", and problems to solve usually stem from doing something in life.

- [0]: https://twitter.com/jugurthahadjar/status/131066829330549965...

Or you could watch MacGyver for some inspiration... I have been inspired to build a time machine to go back in time so that I can inform Richard Dean Anderson that the mullet is actually not a cool haircut.

For example, I taught myself Java for Android and created an app to calculate party alcohol needs. One part was pretty trivial - cost/volume calculation for the price per pure unit of ethanol. Then I modified the BAC formula so that I could plug in the variables (number of people, estimated average weight, hours partying, etc) and have a slider for how drunk you wanted the people at the party, then it would tell you how much alcohol you needed to buy. I found it very interesting to make. Sadly it never made me rich (or any money for that matter).

I didn't think there was anywhere that people were not complaining since the beginning of time.

http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html