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

by jw2013 on 2/7/15, 10:35 PM with 85 comments

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!

  • by Red_Tarsius on 2/7/15, 10:48 PM

    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...

  • by crawfordcomeaux on 2/7/15, 11:33 PM

    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.

  • by DougN7 on 2/8/15, 12:47 AM

    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.

  • by daw___ on 2/7/15, 11:39 PM

    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.

  • by throw393 on 2/8/15, 12:42 AM

    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.

  • by anonymousDan on 2/7/15, 11:14 PM

    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!

  • by mostafaberg on 2/7/15, 11:23 PM

    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...

  • by worldsayshi on 2/7/15, 11:30 PM

    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.

  • by portlander52232 on 2/7/15, 11:29 PM

    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.

  • by adrianwaj on 2/8/15, 1:33 AM

    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.)

  • by YuriNiyazov on 2/7/15, 11:26 PM

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

  • by RollAHardSix on 2/8/15, 4:55 AM

    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.

  • by not_a_test_user on 2/7/15, 11:56 PM

    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.

  • by olalonde on 2/8/15, 2:37 AM

    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)

  • by avinassh on 2/8/15, 7:13 AM

    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.

  • by Yaa101 on 2/7/15, 11:06 PM

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

  • by johnebgd on 2/7/15, 10:59 PM

    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.

  • by yastrum on 2/7/15, 10:58 PM

    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?

  • by mariogintili on 2/7/15, 11:05 PM

    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.

  • by masonlong on 2/7/15, 10:52 PM

    Visualizing the relationships between my thoughts.

  • by pksunkara on 2/7/15, 10:55 PM

    Better golang package management.

  • by motiw on 2/7/15, 11:23 PM

    How to find a marketing partner?

  • by internDC on 2/8/15, 1:54 AM

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

  • by hijiri on 2/7/15, 11:22 PM

    I can't fly unassisted

  • by ozirus on 2/7/15, 10:59 PM

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

  • by nmbdesign on 2/7/15, 10:43 PM

    Vladimir Putin

  • by oigursh on 2/7/15, 11:55 PM

    Tinnitus

  • by blackle on 2/7/15, 11:53 PM

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

  • by svisser on 2/7/15, 11:14 PM

    Porting to Python 3.