

Ask HN: What's your biggest schlep? - karamazov

Following up on pg's essay - what's your biggest schlep?  What's the one annoyance you face, professionally or personally, that you most wish would just go away?
======
anon776644
Several years ago I went through a depressive episode that led to most of my
life falling apart because I didn't feel invested enough in my own life to do
things. It wasn't like I was preoccupied with more entertaining options, it
was more like I had set fire to my life and wanted to watch it burn. I spent
some time in a hospital, and the most useful thing I took from that experience
was a talk with a social worker about getting things done before you were
buried under shit to do. "Do it now" became my mantra and that got me back on
my feet. The mindset isn't as vivid as it once was, but it's still very much
ingrained - I've just gotten worse at listening to that voice in my head.

Since then, I have very limited tolerance for people who don't share that
mindset. Unfortunately, that seems to describe most people I know. but even
still I don't know many people I'd count on to take care of something
important without nagging. I hate to feel like I have to follow up any time I
ask someone to take care of something, but more than that I hate the
disappointment I feel when someone doesn't and doesn't have a good reason.

~~~
tstegart
I don't always have the energy to execute on my ideas. I'd rather be
traveling. Or daydreaming about another new idea.

Which I guess makes me one of those people who need to be nagged when I'm
doing stuff I don't like :)

~~~
mapster
"Or daydreaming about another new idea." I also share this past-time. Just the
idea of planning to sit down and think of business ideas gets me excited. :|

------
scottyallen
I just formed an LLC in California, and the process and the associated hassles
suck. It's a bootstrapped business that's profitable, but barely, so I didn't
have a lot to spend. However, I needed to get the LLC in place relatively
quickly (days, not weeks or months) to sign a contract. Here's some of the
schleping involved:

\- Creating the LLC itself sucks/is expensive. I ended up using Legal Zoom to
create the LLC because California's government is so understaffed that they're
weeks and weeks behind on processing LLC paperwork, so the only way to get
your stuff processed quickly is to have a courier walk it into the office by
hand, in addition to paying all sorts of expediting feeds. I think I ended up
paying Legal Zoom $900, in addition to the $800 franchise tax, etc.

\- Figuring out how taxes works sucks. I'm a sole founder, and have only
offshore contractors, no employees. It should be really simple. But I honestly
still don't have a solid idea how I should be paying myself, what paperwork I
should be filing for taxes, and what witholding and estimate payments I should
be doing.

\- Setting up proper accounting sucks. I used quickbooks to run a small
freelance business 10 years ago, but I suspect there's something better out
there that's web based. I'd really like to just be able to hand accounting and
taxes off to someone who knows more about it than me, but I don't know where
to go about finding someone, and am worried they'd cost more than I could
afford.

\- Figuring out how to get healthcare as a bootstrapped small business sucks.
I'm on COBRA right now, but once that runs out, I have no idea what my
gameplan is. This is separate from the suckage that is healthcare in general
once you have it.

These are all things that are necessary to start a business, but at least for
me, none of them are fun, or really increase the value of my business. They
only cause headaches if I screw them up.

For most if not all of these, I'd actually be willing to pay someone to just
say "Here's a checklist of how to get through all this stuff. Here's the
paperwork to fill out, here's who to talk to, here's the service worth paying
for."

~~~
dangrossman
People still just use QuickBooks, and check out
<http://www.ehealthinsurance.com>. It makes finding insurance simple.

------
TamDenholm
Bureaucracy, i know its rather generic and quite a large subject but i
absolutely detest it and i feel its only purpose it to make everyones lives
harder. Whether its doing the mandatory paperwork i need to do for running my
company (which is always late cuz i procrastinate) or absolutely ridiculous
requirements like the umpteen amount of papers and ID i have to provide to get
something as simple as a Costco card.

I do recognise the government is getting gradually better at a very slow pace
but it grates on me so much that i will refuse to participate in something
unless i really really want it or have to do it by law.

------
ModOne
Licensing, compliance with endless laws and regs, and quarterly and annual
reports for several departments of government. It's especially discouraging
when you speak with a particular branch of government and they have no
official interpretation of their new laws, as a result you may or may not be
in compliance, they're still deciding.

~~~
mapster
true. consultants address this shlep.

------
dholowiski
False Emergencies. As an "IT Guy" my life consists of fixing false
emergencies.

~~~
tstegart
Like the show? Have you ever dared answering the phone "Have you tried turning
it on and off again?"

~~~
dholowiski
That is so cliche it's hard to even say... worse so because it fixes
everything, including "the internet".

------
zerostar07
All of the things below could be ideas for startups. I 'd pay for them:

\- Find a domain name (and a name) for your site

\- Recruit beta version users

\- Writing the documentation/help pages for your startup

\- Making those pretty screencast videos where a cute girl explains how
(awesome|exciting|hippy) your site is

\- Brand advertising. For example while there are tons of ways with which you
could advertise a brand in your website, there's no easy service for that.

------
AznHisoka
My biggest schlep is being involved in too many meaningless activities and
meaningless interactions. Things that don't really contribute to my long-term
goals, or purpose. Of course, we all have obligations, but it seems like my
daily life is 99% filled with meaningless activities.

------
mapster
I'd love for Outlook to magically identify events in emails and ask to add
them to the calendar. copy & paste of date/times from email to calendar seems
so 1990's. (this is where someone politely alerts me to a simple option I only
have to enable)

------
whichdan
Error checking.

