Ask HN: What Problem Would You Solve with Unlimited Time and Money? [Apr 2025]
I love the innovative ideas and unexpected insights from HN citizens. Let’s go deep—what challenge would you tackle if resource was not a problem?
Why?
What's stopping you?
41 comments
Reverse dementia, because it's horrible to suffer a loved one going through it. Stopping me? I don't have the knowledge to fix it.
Make everyone use the metric system.
Shift global narrative from scarcity and competition for resources to abundaNce and cooperation mindset, that is actually closer to the truth and more useful.
unlimited everything? getting rid of misery in the world is top of my list, but specifically kids getting molested is this huge generational and societal problem in the world that I have no idea on how to even begin to address,
even with infinity money and time, never mind what I can do as some programmer and definitely not a politician, other than to donate to some random organizations here and there.
With truely unlimited time and resources, I would feel no need to prioritize important or impactful work.
I might spend 100 years customizing my desktop environment. Then another 100 years perfecting some niche internal software used exclusively by a small factory in South Dakota.
My version of spending a couple lifetimes meditating on a mountaintop.
I might spend 100 years customizing my desktop environment. Then another 100 years perfecting some niche internal software used exclusively by a small factory in South Dakota.
My version of spending a couple lifetimes meditating on a mountaintop.
The problem of what to do next in this radically altered situation is in itself very difficult.
I guess it's a bit like what would you do with UBI. I would do what I do, but for me instead of someone else. The problems I would solve would probably be absolutely irrelevant: nobody can see this figment of my imagination unless I illustrate it with software.
There would be clean streets, clean dishes, laundry service AI robots.
I'd pay for a dish doer and laundry service robot, and can see it becoming a viable business.
And it shouldn't take a lot of time or money to start this? curious: what's stopping you?
And it shouldn't take a lot of time or money to start this? curious: what's stopping you?
Automatic dish washers are a thing.
I am very confused because I thought these things are completely common knowledge.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishwasher
I am very confused because I thought these things are completely common knowledge.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dishwasher
There's no need to be rude. There is still the loading and unloading operations that haven't been automated.
I would provide a service to my community instead of sitting in my house coding something the world doesn't really need for a faceless corporation.
Learn the preventable causes of false beliefs - the ones that persist despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Reorient ourselves and society in the ways that deny a foothold for those false beliefs.
> What's stopping you?
I don't know important stuff. I did learn how to shift into a headspace where falsehoods become appealing. It is unnerving. But it doesn't tell me how this works or how to help others who are there.
> What's stopping you?
I don't know important stuff. I did learn how to shift into a headspace where falsehoods become appealing. It is unnerving. But it doesn't tell me how this works or how to help others who are there.
I sorta think falsity is the rule not the exception. It’s only when it impacts reproduction and survival that it becomes undesirable socially, at least that’s how it’s worked for most of history, and the consequence of it being perfectly acceptable evolutionarily is that it’s rampant today.
I would solve all problems [0].
(Yes, this is an annoying smartypants answer. On the bright side, the problem of how to filter out annoying smartypants answers -- being itself a problem -- is one that I would eventually solve.)
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dovetailing_(computer_scienc...
(Yes, this is an annoying smartypants answer. On the bright side, the problem of how to filter out annoying smartypants answers -- being itself a problem -- is one that I would eventually solve.)
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dovetailing_(computer_scienc...
I'd implement an actual Memex as described by Vannevar Bush in 1945. Being able to see and recall everything I've ever retrieved from the internet and weave narratives from it, reproducible locally on demand, would be quite useful.
What a superb question.
I think that this question should be put by the electorate to all politicians before we choose to vote for them.
I personally have never voted for any of them. I did vote once in a local council election but that is it. Thats 50 years of not voting since I first became of age to vote at 18.
Not one politician has ever represented my views and beliefs about how society should be run for the betterment of its people.
As a complete idealist and fantasist, I would like society and work in particular to be managed as a devotional service. No pay for any work. You work because you value the society you want to live in and are prepared to contribute to make that happen. Especially no pay for any politicians or money/lobbying in politics at all.
Countries split up into political ideologies. If you like the right wing way of doing things then you go to live in a state or county that only those who voted for a right wing party live.
The same for left wing voters and all those who prefer the middle ground of politics and even communism and socialism. you live with those who voted the same as you and benefit from, or suffer, the consequences of your vote.
Not as it now is; you vote for the left, your party loses and you suffer right wing policies. The same could be said of a right wing voter, they voted for a right wing party, they lose and suffer left wing policies.
For me this is the best way. Imagine for a moment the recent hatred of immigration in the USA. If all Trump voters lived in the same state then only those people who voted for Trump would be affected by those policies. The rest of the USA people and states would not be affected at all.
You may choose to live in a state that offers; Equality, free housing, free medical care, Free education, free everything. Or you can choose a state that offers and follows the capitalist way.
we can then vote for what we believe in and truly expect to live in a society that offers what we believe to be right.
This can only exist as a fantasy in my own mind.
I think that this question should be put by the electorate to all politicians before we choose to vote for them.
I personally have never voted for any of them. I did vote once in a local council election but that is it. Thats 50 years of not voting since I first became of age to vote at 18.
Not one politician has ever represented my views and beliefs about how society should be run for the betterment of its people.
As a complete idealist and fantasist, I would like society and work in particular to be managed as a devotional service. No pay for any work. You work because you value the society you want to live in and are prepared to contribute to make that happen. Especially no pay for any politicians or money/lobbying in politics at all.
Countries split up into political ideologies. If you like the right wing way of doing things then you go to live in a state or county that only those who voted for a right wing party live.
The same for left wing voters and all those who prefer the middle ground of politics and even communism and socialism. you live with those who voted the same as you and benefit from, or suffer, the consequences of your vote.
Not as it now is; you vote for the left, your party loses and you suffer right wing policies. The same could be said of a right wing voter, they voted for a right wing party, they lose and suffer left wing policies.
For me this is the best way. Imagine for a moment the recent hatred of immigration in the USA. If all Trump voters lived in the same state then only those people who voted for Trump would be affected by those policies. The rest of the USA people and states would not be affected at all.
You may choose to live in a state that offers; Equality, free housing, free medical care, Free education, free everything. Or you can choose a state that offers and follows the capitalist way.
we can then vote for what we believe in and truly expect to live in a society that offers what we believe to be right.
This can only exist as a fantasy in my own mind.
> challenge would you tackle if resource
was not a problem?
(1) Have a good marriage, children who do well, and "live happily ever after", a MUCH bigger challenge than I expected.
My experience is that a significant fraction of women just do NOT want anything like the standard marriage vows, e.g., would rather get alimony and then be an alcoholic cat lady.
My guess is that (a) long each woman lived in a small tribe all in one open (no partitions) house, maybe 20 yards wide, 60 yards long, half-pipe, that is, semi-circular arches for both the walls and ceiling, much like a WWII US Army Quonset hut except made of wood and straw, intended to keep in warmth and keep out weather and wild animals. There the women served needs of the tribe, got their security from the tribe, and were loyal to the tribe and (b) are now suffering from missing (a). I.e., the nuclear family is not natural and is held together, weakly, mostly only by the cash economy, jobs, ownership, etc.
(2) Achieve AGI, artificial general intelligence.
(3) World peace, prosperity, health, and happiness.
(4) Automation so that machines work and humans live good lives.
(5) Make sense out of quantum mechanics -- sorry, physics experts, sorry, but sorry, from reading the best there is on quantum mechanics, von Neumann, Griffiths, etc., to my mind from my math Ph.D., the math of quantum mechanics just does NOT make good sense.
We can start with the simple theorem of Fourier theory, the uncertainty principle, and then what physics does with it, e.g., claims that empty space can spontaneously erupt with energy. Uh, from Fourier, Riemann, Lebesgue, Rudin, the Fourier transform of 0 is 0 -- simple.
Also the claims of superposition make no sense, e.g., one electron can be in two places at once -- suddenly with twice the mass, charge, momentum, and energy? Add some more beam splitters and the electron can be in 64 places at once with 64 times as much mass, charge, momentum, and energy?
And have some clear technical writing, e.g., what are "quantum numbers"? Need definitions, explanations, examples, the usual in technical writing.
E.g., actually give what would be in the math of, say W. Rudin, an actual clear DEFINITION of a wave function as an actual function, with domain, range, etc. For each wave function, and d > 0, there are points x and y where the wave function is non-zero and the distance between x and y is greater than d?
(6) Make sense out of space, the vacuum, e.g., how it enforces conservation of energy, momentum, etc.
(7) Make sense out of the Big Bang.
(8) Do some stochastic process math to say how DNA makes evolution proceed at the speed it does.
(9) Finally make progress on P versus NP.
(1) Have a good marriage, children who do well, and "live happily ever after", a MUCH bigger challenge than I expected.
My experience is that a significant fraction of women just do NOT want anything like the standard marriage vows, e.g., would rather get alimony and then be an alcoholic cat lady.
My guess is that (a) long each woman lived in a small tribe all in one open (no partitions) house, maybe 20 yards wide, 60 yards long, half-pipe, that is, semi-circular arches for both the walls and ceiling, much like a WWII US Army Quonset hut except made of wood and straw, intended to keep in warmth and keep out weather and wild animals. There the women served needs of the tribe, got their security from the tribe, and were loyal to the tribe and (b) are now suffering from missing (a). I.e., the nuclear family is not natural and is held together, weakly, mostly only by the cash economy, jobs, ownership, etc.
(2) Achieve AGI, artificial general intelligence.
(3) World peace, prosperity, health, and happiness.
(4) Automation so that machines work and humans live good lives.
(5) Make sense out of quantum mechanics -- sorry, physics experts, sorry, but sorry, from reading the best there is on quantum mechanics, von Neumann, Griffiths, etc., to my mind from my math Ph.D., the math of quantum mechanics just does NOT make good sense.
We can start with the simple theorem of Fourier theory, the uncertainty principle, and then what physics does with it, e.g., claims that empty space can spontaneously erupt with energy. Uh, from Fourier, Riemann, Lebesgue, Rudin, the Fourier transform of 0 is 0 -- simple.
Also the claims of superposition make no sense, e.g., one electron can be in two places at once -- suddenly with twice the mass, charge, momentum, and energy? Add some more beam splitters and the electron can be in 64 places at once with 64 times as much mass, charge, momentum, and energy?
And have some clear technical writing, e.g., what are "quantum numbers"? Need definitions, explanations, examples, the usual in technical writing.
E.g., actually give what would be in the math of, say W. Rudin, an actual clear DEFINITION of a wave function as an actual function, with domain, range, etc. For each wave function, and d > 0, there are points x and y where the wave function is non-zero and the distance between x and y is greater than d?
(6) Make sense out of space, the vacuum, e.g., how it enforces conservation of energy, momentum, etc.
(7) Make sense out of the Big Bang.
(8) Do some stochastic process math to say how DNA makes evolution proceed at the speed it does.
(9) Finally make progress on P versus NP.
Hearing disability and Tinnitus. These two are very likely to affect most of us as we age.
From my research of the companies in this space there just isn't enough money being spent in these areas. I think funding the right players we could make some major breakthroughs and see treatments within our lifetimes perhaps even in the next decade.
From my research of the companies in this space there just isn't enough money being spent in these areas. I think funding the right players we could make some major breakthroughs and see treatments within our lifetimes perhaps even in the next decade.
You should back these guys!
https://www.crowdcube.com/companies/tinnisoothe/pitches/bJ69...
https://www.crowdcube.com/companies/tinnisoothe/pitches/bJ69...
I have a lot of ideas that answer your question, but there are three main reasons why *improving the quality of education* has the highest priority:
- Improves the society in general - Having a well-educated society able to think critically would make further improvements easier (tackling corruption, inefficient healthcare system and justice system as well as political discourse...) - Having an educated workforce should draw in more investors and foreign companies, making it a critical resource, especially in my country whose industry... could be better
I already have a general idea about the mechanics of a system that would make it easy for teachers to enter (parameterized) exercises, solutions, course material, tips for effective learning and other LPTs in a central database, where students can easily practice and that supports a national league "played" as exams in all schools across the country at the same time. It would need to be recorded to avoid cheating (and the recordings should be securely transferred and stored, ofc). It would include a tier system to motivate those who fall behind, on individual, class and school based levels (to support teamwork) with a reasonable rewards system ("drip" acting like irl "skins", gadgets, etc. for the best).
This would significantly boost motivation through competition and gamification, while enabling a better way of evaluating and rewarding teachers' work, which would be based on both improving the absolute amount of well taught course material and relative rank as well as popularity of entered exercises.
As a recent graduate, I currently don't have spare time nor money to invest in this project, but at some point I'll start working towards it.
- Improves the society in general - Having a well-educated society able to think critically would make further improvements easier (tackling corruption, inefficient healthcare system and justice system as well as political discourse...) - Having an educated workforce should draw in more investors and foreign companies, making it a critical resource, especially in my country whose industry... could be better
I already have a general idea about the mechanics of a system that would make it easy for teachers to enter (parameterized) exercises, solutions, course material, tips for effective learning and other LPTs in a central database, where students can easily practice and that supports a national league "played" as exams in all schools across the country at the same time. It would need to be recorded to avoid cheating (and the recordings should be securely transferred and stored, ofc). It would include a tier system to motivate those who fall behind, on individual, class and school based levels (to support teamwork) with a reasonable rewards system ("drip" acting like irl "skins", gadgets, etc. for the best).
This would significantly boost motivation through competition and gamification, while enabling a better way of evaluating and rewarding teachers' work, which would be based on both improving the absolute amount of well taught course material and relative rank as well as popularity of entered exercises.
As a recent graduate, I currently don't have spare time nor money to invest in this project, but at some point I'll start working towards it.
Not disagreeing with you, but education and intelligence without qualities like empathy, common sense etc is useless. There are lots and lots of people with advanced degrees who lack basic common sense, basic decency, empathy for fellow humans etc.
I'd rather take a kind uneducated person over a cold hearted person with 10 PhDs to his name. I have no clue about the right way to teach empathy etc though :(
I'd rather take a kind uneducated person over a cold hearted person with 10 PhDs to his name. I have no clue about the right way to teach empathy etc though :(
- Remove (or perpetually switch to) daylight saving time
- Make everyone use the ISO8601 date format
- Have everyone drive on the right side of the road
- Eliminate the "sidewalk shuffle" by standardizing on always moving to the right
- Customer support lines/banks/etc must shift their opening hours slightly so that they are open outside of business hours, so that working people can use their services
- Make all instant messaging programs use XMPP, Matrix, or another open protocol
- Put the UK back in the EU
- Change world elections to be Alternative Vote, or similar
- Add another month and make all months shorter and the same length. Have an intermission period at the end of the year to iron out the remaining time. A la gormanuary.
- Delete America's guns, give America proper healthcare
- Standardize on Esperanto
- Replace Python with Ruby
- Make it so that Microsoft actually remembers my login session when I click "remember me" instead of logging me out all the time
This, I think, will fix most of the world's major problems.
- Make everyone use the ISO8601 date format
- Have everyone drive on the right side of the road
- Eliminate the "sidewalk shuffle" by standardizing on always moving to the right
- Customer support lines/banks/etc must shift their opening hours slightly so that they are open outside of business hours, so that working people can use their services
- Make all instant messaging programs use XMPP, Matrix, or another open protocol
- Put the UK back in the EU
- Change world elections to be Alternative Vote, or similar
- Add another month and make all months shorter and the same length. Have an intermission period at the end of the year to iron out the remaining time. A la gormanuary.
- Delete America's guns, give America proper healthcare
- Standardize on Esperanto
- Replace Python with Ruby
- Make it so that Microsoft actually remembers my login session when I click "remember me" instead of logging me out all the time
This, I think, will fix most of the world's major problems.
The most important technology is the Technology of the Mind, and of societies: how to make people feel good about themselves and the world, and each other.
And it's more to do with politics than with "tech".
But on the other problems the world need to tackle, climate change, biodiversity, access to healthcare and education, and limiting the impact of AI on social manipulation rank high
And it's more to do with politics than with "tech".
But on the other problems the world need to tackle, climate change, biodiversity, access to healthcare and education, and limiting the impact of AI on social manipulation rank high
That too, but the "remember me" button is at least of equivalent importance.
the compromise for daylight savings time is to move it 30 minutes
I know I’m old-fashioned, but I’d actually like noon to be where the sun is highest in the sky somewhere in the timezone and I’m totally okay if it’s the western edge for all the lovers of DST.
> Customer support lines/banks/etc must shift their opening hours slightly so that they are open outside of business hours, so that working people can use their services
How would customer line/bank/etc workers ever get help with these services?
How would customer line/bank/etc workers ever get help with these services?
How do they get help with those services currently? At present they operate during the same hours those people are working in, shifting the hours makes no difference to them. So this plan changes nothing for them, but is beneficial for everyone else. I welcome suggestions on how to improve it for cusomer support reps too.
I've worked in a "first line of customer support" role, while simultaneously being a customer. Whenever I needed help with something, with my end-user hat on, I knew who to ask internally to get what I needed.
I've worked in a "first line of customer support" role, while simultaneously being a customer. Whenever I needed help with something, with my end-user hat on, I knew who to ask internally to get what I needed.
interstellar travel
new form of citizenship, human organization, decentralized governance, sovereignty, autonomous housing
Standardize the world in one single language.
Solve mental health at the widest possible scale. A planet where people behave with more awareness and compassion, rather than hate and maladaptation, is one in which a lot of other problems (war/violence, climate crisis, etc) would be much more tractable.
Honestly I cant really imagine a world with unlimited time and money - it would be so different from the present world that has shaped us all. But that aside, I would work on assembling a team that could build and support a widely available tricorder.
I would create licensing for software employment. So much of my software career is littered with people who are not qualified to be there even after the industry has made considerable concessions and dropped the baseline of minimally acceptable practice to beyond ridiculous. That’s the carrot.
For the stick I would create a law firm to sue employers who introduce defective software from unlicensed developers that harms consumers whether that harm is malicious or just negligent.
For the stick I would create a law firm to sue employers who introduce defective software from unlicensed developers that harms consumers whether that harm is malicious or just negligent.
I like the way this doesn't rule out challenges that aren't known to be possible
I would look at ways to increase the fraction of human thinking that is directly incentivised to improve the lives of individuals, as opposed to being incentivised to benefit centralised organisations (whether private or public).
I think there is a potential alternative stable equilibrium where all or most of the analysis that is provided by to the public by journalists, marketers, PR, influencers etc is provided instead by 'monks of truth' (for want of a better name) who are funded by sponsorship by <(Dunbar's number) of individuals, and who commit not to take outside funding (in return for their sponsors working together to replace any sponsors who quit)
What's stopping me: severe introversion (kinda). I don't think this requires mega amounts of money to start, but it requires someone charismatic.
I would look at ways to increase the fraction of human thinking that is directly incentivised to improve the lives of individuals, as opposed to being incentivised to benefit centralised organisations (whether private or public).
I think there is a potential alternative stable equilibrium where all or most of the analysis that is provided by to the public by journalists, marketers, PR, influencers etc is provided instead by 'monks of truth' (for want of a better name) who are funded by sponsorship by <(Dunbar's number) of individuals, and who commit not to take outside funding (in return for their sponsors working together to replace any sponsors who quit)
What's stopping me: severe introversion (kinda). I don't think this requires mega amounts of money to start, but it requires someone charismatic.
Convince everyone to learn from Norway's model of actually reducing crime in prisons, rather than increasing it like basically everyone else. By using it to solve problems instead of as means to exert revenge.
The problem isn't resources. It's access to the resources we already have, which all flow to an increasingly smaller number of wealthy individuals.
Humanity, as a whole, would be best served by ensuring basic human needs are met for everyone, and there's more than enough money to do that now.
Humanity, as a whole, would be best served by ensuring basic human needs are met for everyone, and there's more than enough money to do that now.
Once the nerds figure out fusion, I'm building replicators.
With unlimited time, I could develop the quantum theory and build the machinery to manipulate quantum states to exchange stupid amounts of energy for matter.
It's just a matter of recording an object's complete quantum state and rewriting it onto the fabric of reality. Simple, really.
With unlimited time, I could develop the quantum theory and build the machinery to manipulate quantum states to exchange stupid amounts of energy for matter.
It's just a matter of recording an object's complete quantum state and rewriting it onto the fabric of reality. Simple, really.