Ask HN: What Is Your Problem?
What is the problem in your industry/job/life that you would like someone to solve? hopefully this thread will lead to some startup ideas and some problems being solved.
52 comments
Recipes w/ calories, pricing to my favorite grocery stores (Trader Joes, Sprouts, Whole foods), and food prep instructions (sunday night prep)
I can tell you if you're looking to make this a startup idea, its a shitty one. Bad Market, Hard problem.
With that said, I'd pay >$100 a year for it.
I can tell you if you're looking to make this a startup idea, its a shitty one. Bad Market, Hard problem.
With that said, I'd pay >$100 a year for it.
I did something like this before. It's a pretty good, loyal market. The trick was selling ingredients that you can't easily get in supermarkets (e.g. stevia), and doing recipes to a certain niche (e.g. Asian low carb).
It might be harder in the US because of how much more competitive the grocery market is.
It might be harder in the US because of how much more competitive the grocery market is.
At some point if you want to cook you have to get off your ass and do it.
Recipes are just recipes on recipe web sites. NYT Cooking is a nice one. Food prep is just...making the recipes and putting the food in your fridge.
As far as easy meals literally hundreds of services exist for this. I recommend finding one that's local so that you aren't dealing with wasteful packaging and shipping. IMO the ones that fully prepare the meal are honestly better than ones that make you cook it.
Also restaurants exist and a lot of people literally just eat at restaurants/fast casual/fast food for every meal.
Recipes are just recipes on recipe web sites. NYT Cooking is a nice one. Food prep is just...making the recipes and putting the food in your fridge.
As far as easy meals literally hundreds of services exist for this. I recommend finding one that's local so that you aren't dealing with wasteful packaging and shipping. IMO the ones that fully prepare the meal are honestly better than ones that make you cook it.
Also restaurants exist and a lot of people literally just eat at restaurants/fast casual/fast food for every meal.
My problem is that I cook A LOT. I would like to optimize the activity because it is a non-trivial cost in both time and money. I hear your solutions but each is a trade off...
As a wise software developer once said... "Good, Cheap, Fast... you may only have two"
As a wise software developer once said... "Good, Cheap, Fast... you may only have two"
Yes, that's true. I don't know that a perfect solution will ever exist.
We collectively spend a lot of time and money on food, but the good news is that it's one of the joys of life.
Interesting little link: https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2020/november/average-s...
We collectively spend a lot of time and money on food, but the good news is that it's one of the joys of life.
Interesting little link: https://www.ers.usda.gov/amber-waves/2020/november/average-s...
And ideally, what isle it's in for an optimized shopping path. No, I don't want someone to pull it from the shelf and deliver, I just want to find it fast.
I'm at a startup that does mostly this. As you said, bad market.
German bureaucracy makes automation very difficult. Each case depends on the human that will handle it, and how they feel that day.
No one has the authority to make lasting improvements, and no one has an incentive to take the initiative anyway. There is resistance to change because everyone is either too busy or too lazy to help.
My job is to help immigrants navigate this mess. My strategy to help them is three-tiered: information, tools, policy. So far, policy feels completely out of reach, despite my best effort.
No one has the authority to make lasting improvements, and no one has an incentive to take the initiative anyway. There is resistance to change because everyone is either too busy or too lazy to help.
My job is to help immigrants navigate this mess. My strategy to help them is three-tiered: information, tools, policy. So far, policy feels completely out of reach, despite my best effort.
Not sure about startup but -- I'm unable to retain minutia in my brain for long (weeks, months, years) periods but the industry I work in requires it. Examples include:
How many queues does X have? How many are write-only queues? How many can be reconfigured to become wider queues? What are the protocols supported by Y? Which version of the protocols are supported?
I would like a tool, - accessible at my fingertips (through a keystroke), regardless of which Window on my Windows (or Linux) desktop has focus - Allows me to search/add/delete for "Facts" which are associated with "Values" - Will show me results in real-time (as I type, auto-suggest etc) - Easily dismissed by ESC once I've looked it up - Able to add/delete on the fly (through a keystroke); will take input as text and as CTRL+V from clipboard. Text, images, paths, etc supported - Scales to 500K+ items - Is able to bring up suggestions fast (<=100ms) - Able to export to common (CSV, XLS, etc) formats
Bonus points for: - Being able to extract this information automatically from PDFs, JPGs etc
If something like this exists, let me know!
How many queues does X have? How many are write-only queues? How many can be reconfigured to become wider queues? What are the protocols supported by Y? Which version of the protocols are supported?
I would like a tool, - accessible at my fingertips (through a keystroke), regardless of which Window on my Windows (or Linux) desktop has focus - Allows me to search/add/delete for "Facts" which are associated with "Values" - Will show me results in real-time (as I type, auto-suggest etc) - Easily dismissed by ESC once I've looked it up - Able to add/delete on the fly (through a keystroke); will take input as text and as CTRL+V from clipboard. Text, images, paths, etc supported - Scales to 500K+ items - Is able to bring up suggestions fast (<=100ms) - Able to export to common (CSV, XLS, etc) formats
Bonus points for: - Being able to extract this information automatically from PDFs, JPGs etc
If something like this exists, let me know!
I would change this up: does the industry you work in really require this level of detail? Is this an expectation you’ve set for yourself?
Maybe it does and if so I don't want to discount that, but a lot of me doubts it. I think you want to have an answer to these questions instantly available, but have you stopped to consider whether the people asking the questions expect that? And, if they do expect that, are they being reasonable?
A well-presented "I'll look this up and get back to you" type of answer is often acceptable. To me, the idea of this level of intensity is unsustainable.
I'm going to take a wild guess and assume you're in engineering. If so, I recommend you find some reading on what Sales Engineers do in situations where they're asked curveball questions.
My default thought is that anyone expecting you to know everything instantly is probably being unreasonable.
Maybe it does and if so I don't want to discount that, but a lot of me doubts it. I think you want to have an answer to these questions instantly available, but have you stopped to consider whether the people asking the questions expect that? And, if they do expect that, are they being reasonable?
A well-presented "I'll look this up and get back to you" type of answer is often acceptable. To me, the idea of this level of intensity is unsustainable.
I'm going to take a wild guess and assume you're in engineering. If so, I recommend you find some reading on what Sales Engineers do in situations where they're asked curveball questions.
My default thought is that anyone expecting you to know everything instantly is probably being unreasonable.
You could try my app, it’s free.
https://paperbirch.app/notes/notes.html
https://paperbirch.app/notes/notes.html
The main trick is to turn "facts" that exist in your head or possibly in a program's address space into something more concrete/searchable/discoverable, like a log line, source comment, manual entry, etc.
Otherwise, your database of 'facts' and 'values' will inevitably become out of date if you try to maintain it out of band.
Otherwise, your database of 'facts' and 'values' will inevitably become out of date if you try to maintain it out of band.
We're in a golden age of note taking so I'd check out some of the stuff in the "second brain" space. Obsidian, in particular, is like an IDE for notes that you can customize (e.g. note templates, YAML front matter, plugins that will parse the frontmatter and generate tables dynamically, etc)
Emacs with org-roam? Bonus question left as an exercise for the reader...
Evernote, Obsidian, ...
How much of our lives is spent filling out forms? They usually ask for the same data (much of it unchanging) for a lifetime.
So: this: Each of us may acquire a single-purpose, secure personal-storage device we can easily backup (but with a different key). A query from some org will ask for a list of particulars. If a particular is already on the device, it may be routinely added to the output queue, else it asks us if we wish it to be queued. We can choose to add a missing particular, or edit an existing one. Click, click, gone, done. A particular which requires an official confirmation (e.g. birth certificate) will include a DOI. Org must swap-certify with issueing agency. (It's not my account number.)
Etc. etc. If it does not recognize our voice input on insertion (or detects a rubber hose), it warns the carrier, signals Skynet, then bursts into flames.
So: this: Each of us may acquire a single-purpose, secure personal-storage device we can easily backup (but with a different key). A query from some org will ask for a list of particulars. If a particular is already on the device, it may be routinely added to the output queue, else it asks us if we wish it to be queued. We can choose to add a missing particular, or edit an existing one. Click, click, gone, done. A particular which requires an official confirmation (e.g. birth certificate) will include a DOI. Org must swap-certify with issueing agency. (It's not my account number.)
Etc. etc. If it does not recognize our voice input on insertion (or detects a rubber hose), it warns the carrier, signals Skynet, then bursts into flames.
The open source password manager I use, Bitwarden, is great for this. I can create an “identity” with tons of information and it will auto-fill any form. It works with credit cards as well.
I had this idea as I was filling in my kids doctors forms for the 10th time. If has to capture the paper page, read the text, and at the min let me drag a drop down menu of my own and families info.
Storing the info isn't enough, and forcing every business to adopt the same specification is unrealistic. I think only my high tech dentist has anything digital.
Storing the info isn't enough, and forcing every business to adopt the same specification is unrealistic. I think only my high tech dentist has anything digital.
Renting a monitor, keyboard and office chair and desk when I go to the sun for a few months in the winter. I've had this issue 4 times in the past 3 years, in Southern Spain and in the Canary islands. No one rents office gear to remote workers.
I want to be able to go to a website, check a box beside each item I want, choose a delivery time, and have someone in a white van come and set up everything in my rental apartment or villa, then collect the day before my flight home.
I'd easily pay 50% of the cost of the items for this just for the convenience, and I know I'm not the only one. The target market is NOT nomad or budget travellers - it's professionals on high incomes.
I mentioned this in the 'other idea' section of a recent YC application, but they didn't bite.
I want to be able to go to a website, check a box beside each item I want, choose a delivery time, and have someone in a white van come and set up everything in my rental apartment or villa, then collect the day before my flight home.
I'd easily pay 50% of the cost of the items for this just for the convenience, and I know I'm not the only one. The target market is NOT nomad or budget travellers - it's professionals on high incomes.
I mentioned this in the 'other idea' section of a recent YC application, but they didn't bite.
I fully agree with this and I wish the same.
I alternative solution I have found so far is
1. I mostly travel to lower income countries in South-East Asia. 2. My income is fairly high even for US standards 3. I usually travel for 3-6 months at the minimum. 4. I will just buy the nice monitor, keyboard, etc 5. I just go to the nearby university, find a random professor working in IT and ask him "Do you have a promising student in one your class, who you can tell is lacking some money to get a good equipment?"
And I just give it all.
It's a pricey strategy, I am probably forking 700-1000$ every 6 months but I don't really care. Last time I have see a young Thai girl cry because I gave her something should could have never afforded before finishing university. Was well worth the price.
And I am not compromising anymore with my own setup, so I have to buy at least 1-2 monitor.
1. I mostly travel to lower income countries in South-East Asia. 2. My income is fairly high even for US standards 3. I usually travel for 3-6 months at the minimum. 4. I will just buy the nice monitor, keyboard, etc 5. I just go to the nearby university, find a random professor working in IT and ask him "Do you have a promising student in one your class, who you can tell is lacking some money to get a good equipment?"
And I just give it all.
It's a pricey strategy, I am probably forking 700-1000$ every 6 months but I don't really care. Last time I have see a young Thai girl cry because I gave her something should could have never afforded before finishing university. Was well worth the price.
And I am not compromising anymore with my own setup, so I have to buy at least 1-2 monitor.
We did something similar a couple of times, but ended up selling it all and giving away what was left on a local Facebook group. The sales all went to expats or travellers with the same problem we had; the giveaways went to locals. (We didn't plan it that way.)
The biggest problem we had was buying the stuff to begin with, as we needed a car rental to carry it all and a day trip to the nearest city with an Ikea and a big box store to source it. (And we couldn't find a UK keyboard anywhere!) Most of those we sold it all to didn't have a car to begin with.
I think Covid and WFH have changed the need here, as what might once have been a week's working holiday has now morphed into a 4 month working break.
I don't see a contender popping up anytime soon, as the business would probably thrive best in a location that doesn't attract startups. Costa del Sol rather than Silicon Valley.
The biggest problem we had was buying the stuff to begin with, as we needed a car rental to carry it all and a day trip to the nearest city with an Ikea and a big box store to source it. (And we couldn't find a UK keyboard anywhere!) Most of those we sold it all to didn't have a car to begin with.
I think Covid and WFH have changed the need here, as what might once have been a week's working holiday has now morphed into a 4 month working break.
I don't see a contender popping up anytime soon, as the business would probably thrive best in a location that doesn't attract startups. Costa del Sol rather than Silicon Valley.
This seems the best way to act about it.
If you're a professional on high income and living in a low-income country, this might help others more than you will ever realise.
If you're a professional on high income and living in a low-income country, this might help others more than you will ever realise.
I suffer from periodic limb movement disorder. It’s actually the second most common sleep disorder after sleep apnea.
It’s restless legs, but it happens in deep sleep, when you’re unaware it’s happening.
Sleep apnea has tons of tech built up to help with the problem. Smart connected CPAPs that monitor your sleeping for you, for example.
But for periodic limb movements in deep sleep the specific need of tracking limb movements is not well covered. My sleep doctor suggested putting a fit bit on my ankle. This sort of works, but not well.
With such a large potential market, and totally plausible movement sensing products, I’m surprised more companies haven’t gotten specifically into limb movement monitoring during sleep.
It’s restless legs, but it happens in deep sleep, when you’re unaware it’s happening.
Sleep apnea has tons of tech built up to help with the problem. Smart connected CPAPs that monitor your sleeping for you, for example.
But for periodic limb movements in deep sleep the specific need of tracking limb movements is not well covered. My sleep doctor suggested putting a fit bit on my ankle. This sort of works, but not well.
With such a large potential market, and totally plausible movement sensing products, I’m surprised more companies haven’t gotten specifically into limb movement monitoring during sleep.
What’s the point of monitoring it? How does it help preventing it? Is it even a problem causing troubles?
Hi @softwaredoug, I would also like to know how detection helps.
FYI I assume a Convolutional Neural Network could easily do it, the tech' is very accessible, would love to further discuss this.
It helps a few ways
- Confirming that's why I'm groggy in the AM, and not some other reason
- which limbs are moving, which can help for targeted treatment (stretching, magnesium cream, etc)
- Confirming that's why I'm groggy in the AM, and not some other reason
- which limbs are moving, which can help for targeted treatment (stretching, magnesium cream, etc)
If you are not sleeping with a blanket, I'm suggesting either video recording yourself (e.g. with a cellphone) and after that running a pose estimation model over the video, or running the model live (this one seems promising: https://www.tensorflow.org/lite/examples/pose_estimation/ove... ), if you are sleeping with a blanket, the model may need training. Then once you have the pose estimations, it should be easier to analyze. Please contact me if you want us to try together.
Help my autistic kid Learn to speak. The closest app is $200 just to show him flashcards and says an audio clip.
Is an app appropriate for this? Have you looked into speech therapists? It sounds like you need a professional who is trained for this sort of thing. Not everything can be handed off to an app.
Oh, yes, he has therapy - but therapist can't do everything either - a lot of reinforcement has to happen at home. Also, is been known that using apps like this (in addition to the therapy) can make a difference in when they learn to talk. It also gives them a voice while speaking is under development, and that in turn presents a lot more interaction and learning. The app would be just one of the tools in use though.
> a lot of reinforcement has to happen at home
No app, parents and caregivers have to become the therapist. Depends on your child's age but these are the resources we used:
https://teachmetotalk.com/ https://www.hanen.org/
> The closest app is $200 just to show him flashcards and says an audio clip
Could you please provide the app(s)? We use this one every now and then:
https://speechblubs.com/
No app, parents and caregivers have to become the therapist. Depends on your child's age but these are the resources we used:
https://teachmetotalk.com/ https://www.hanen.org/
> The closest app is $200 just to show him flashcards and says an audio clip
Could you please provide the app(s)? We use this one every now and then:
https://speechblubs.com/
This is the app: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/proloquo2go-aac/id308368164
Hi @somenewaccount1, would love to know, what are your expectations from a better app?
Primarily just want the same app, but cheaper, and cross platform. A ui designed by a professional ux person would be nice too.
I type the same things over and over again. I would like an offline app that would capture everything I type (emails, code, reports) and create a library of snippets -- or better yet templates -- that I could access via a shortcut or a key combo.
For example, it would automatically recognize the five different email signatures I type often and make them accessible by typing, say, ”xxsig” followed by pressing TAB to cycle through the five signatures. I would also want it to learn how I write docstrings and generate templates that I could access via another keyword.
For example, it would automatically recognize the five different email signatures I type often and make them accessible by typing, say, ”xxsig” followed by pressing TAB to cycle through the five signatures. I would also want it to learn how I write docstrings and generate templates that I could access via another keyword.
There's a program for this, https://espanso.org/ You can add some trigger words in the YAML file.
for example :
I also found this one https://www.autohotkey.com/ but I haven't tried it yet.
for example :
- trigger: ":date"
replace: "{{mydate}}"
vars:
- name: mydate
type: date
params:
format: "%m/%d/%Y"
I also found this one https://www.autohotkey.com/ but I haven't tried it yet.
This is gold actually. I have an obsidian note where I store all my templates to serve this purpose!
Proper attribution of sales conversions. Especially if the lead has been reached using various channels.
I want an implicitly parallel programming language. Write code that looks single threaded, doesn't have any mutex/spawn/channel stuff in it, that runs on one core locally or the nearby cluster with the same behaviour and lower wall clock time.
I developed such a language, about a decade ago; though it was also happy to run on multiple cores locally. Alas, the gap between an operational language core and a useful development tool was too large for one person to bridge in their free time, and there is no business model for programming languages.
Do you have any documentation left over? Curious which design tradeoffs you made.
I'm afraid I don't. There came a point where I had to accept that the project was not going anywhere, and move on; I let the blog & web site expire.
I did eventually post the code on github, though it's missing most of its history, and the work is stalled out mid-transition from one code generator backend to another, so it doesn't actually run; but you can get a sense of the language style from the 'samples' and 'validation' directories:
https://github.com/marssaxman/radian
In a nutshell, name-rebinding and an indirection operator provided the flavor of a mutable, object-oriented language over immutable datastructures and functional semantics. Loops were all range-based, and the dataflow graph was decomposed into maps & reduces; maps were applied in parallel, via work-stealing.
Were I to do it over again, I might be a little less opinionated about the syntax - but I was having fun at the time.
I did eventually post the code on github, though it's missing most of its history, and the work is stalled out mid-transition from one code generator backend to another, so it doesn't actually run; but you can get a sense of the language style from the 'samples' and 'validation' directories:
https://github.com/marssaxman/radian
In a nutshell, name-rebinding and an indirection operator provided the flavor of a mutable, object-oriented language over immutable datastructures and functional semantics. Loops were all range-based, and the dataflow graph was decomposed into maps & reduces; maps were applied in parallel, via work-stealing.
Were I to do it over again, I might be a little less opinionated about the syntax - but I was having fun at the time.
this is called "erlang"
Not so much. Erlang does the one machine or many feature but only by writing your program as a bunch of objects communicating by message passing. Elixer seems to be the same. I'm thinking more along the lines of Id or parallel Haskell.
Also achievable with elixir (via erlang)
Shazam but for every track on soundcloud above 500 listens.
There are way too many good songs on there that will never hit more mainstream platforms and be recognized by Shazam.
There are way too many good songs on there that will never hit more mainstream platforms and be recognized by Shazam.
There's the crowdsourced method and they want/wanted help monetizing it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14658710
> What is the problem in your industry/job/life that you would like someone to solve?
As Douglas Adams said: It is somebody elses problem.
As Douglas Adams said: It is somebody elses problem.
I need to focus on one learning objective and dump a few months at least. I simply cannot focus for that long.
What worked for me (diagnosed with ADHD) is to stream my desktop to a friend and have 1.5h work periods with 1h pause inbetween.
Being watched by someone who knows you're supposed to be doing one thing and one thing only can be a great help in refocusing even if one strays a little.
Being watched by someone who knows you're supposed to be doing one thing and one thing only can be a great help in refocusing even if one strays a little.
Thanks. Maybe I can stream on Twitch :D
Unsupervised anomaly detection in very big system logs for arbitrary systems.