

Ask HN: What would you love to work on? - gaia-forming

We all either do or do not work on stuff we really care about.<p>If you do not, what would you <i>love</i> to work on.<p>If you do, what <i>are</i> you working on?<p>It can be hacking related or anything else.
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profquail
If I ever had enough money, I'd love to start my own software non-profit, like
the Mozilla Foundation. There's so many small bits of software that really
make a difference in everyone's day-to-day life (whether you're an average Joe
or a hardcore hacker) that don't ever get fully developed because there's no
commercial market for them. With a few million dollars (which is enough to
just work off of the interest), you could easily set up a scholarship program
for talented students to do some part-time development on these projects, and
it's sort of a win-win for everyone involved.

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mrlyc
Safety-critical software. I've done some work on air traffic control systems
and medical equipment and enjoyed it.

~~~
gaia-forming
Lot's of unit testing I'm sure :)

What languages do those industries use?

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mrlyc
There was indeed a lot of unit testing as well as very intense reviews of
every single line of code. We used C and Linux as we needed an operating
system that wouldn't kill people. You had to have a minimum of twenty years
experience to work there. An upside was that there was no pressure at all
about shipping the product before it was ready, even though we were well
behind schedule. The downside was that you were allowed one mistake in your
code. You were fired for the second one.

~~~
gaia-forming
Interesting stuff, thanks for sharing.

I think a lot can be learned from that industry.

1\. Write defect free software from the get-go

2\. Take your time

~~~
bdr
...if you're in that industry.

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jonnytran
Writing interpreters using functional programming.

I'm actually doing this now -- writing interpreters for DSLs using Clojure at
my current job at Health Market Science. Even though it blends in with all the
other companies as another lame Java shop, I have actually had the opportunity
to work on very interesting problems, and I have had enough freedom to use
cutting-edge tools. I even prototyped a JRuby on Rails frontend that called
into one of my interpreters written in Clojure. For some reason, I have always
loved writing interpreters.

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modeless
Computer vision for autonomous robots.

I've done a lot of 3D graphics and I think working on the inverse could be fun
too. I think a lot of progress is going to be made quickly now that 3D depth-
sensing cameras are becoming available. Most interesting to me are self-
driving cars (e.g. the DARPA Grand Challenge robots) or dynamically balancing
2-legged anthropomorphic robots (e.g. Honda's ASIMO).

I don't know anyone in the field, so if I was really going to pursue this I'd
probably start by going back to school.

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diiq
Printmaking. It's meticulous, and I am not --- it stretches me, and makes me
feel like I'm _working_. I love holding all the technical details in mind (how
much ink, how much acid, how much light, this is toxic, that is flammable)
while still maintaining the vision, trying to give an emotional, intellectual,
_physical_ experience to anyone who sees the product. It's people-hacking.

Also, I'm designing a programming language. But these days, who isn't?

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spitfire
Aircraft. In particular from the start to finish of designing a light two
seater aircraft.

I think we could improve safety a lot with modern glass displays. For example,
we have the weather report from XM, and we have the pilot's flight plan on
computer. Why not warn them if this flight would be dangerous (or dangerous
for their experience level).

~~~
jamesotron
My most beloved hobby is radio controlled helicopters. I would love to do
something involving autonomous aircraft. Control systems and navigation.
Should have gone to school, I guess.

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lallysingh
Formal methods for proving timeliness, correctness, etc. Preferably in tools
that mechanically verify those properties.

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philh
What frustrates me most* is hardware. I'd love to be able to work in a context
where I can do something about its deficiencies.

* In terms of intensity: not frequency and maybe not averaged. The idea of being able to fix the software I use makes it more bearable, even if I rarely take advantage of that.

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DanielBMarkham
Incoming training manager at an expensive brothel chain.

Seriously though, seems like this question gets asked about every two weeks
around here.

I love flying airplanes. From the first time I sat in a cockpit I knew that I
would rather fly than anything else. But I also knew that making a career out
of flying would be the worst thing in the world to do. Why? Because sooner or
later it becomes a _job_ , just like all other jobs. And when your passion
becomes mundane and tiresome, you lose something. Wouldn't it be better to
cultivate more things you love instead of just having one and beating it to
death?

I've found that _motivation comes after action, not before_. That means that
loving something in the abstract is usually much more fulfilling than the
concrete. I've also found that once you pour yourself into something, the love
will naturally come. Lots of folks wait around for some kind of epiphany when
what they really need is the gumption to go out and start something.

~~~
gaia-forming
> I've also found that once you pour yourself into something, the love will
> naturally come. Therefore, it's wise to choose something you love _and_
> that's going to pay off.

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cturner
If I had enough money to meet my current goals sorted out I'd study to be an
osteopath at a good school. It's a lot like hacking, and it directly helps
people who are debilitated in a way with which I identify.

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aufreak
Life is tooooo big to get stuck working on only one thing :P

~~~
thismat
Agreed, I want to go freelance and get to work on a lot of different projects
and things constantly.

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ivanstojic
I'm (technically speaking) working as a PHP and Common Lisp developer for my
own startup.

I'd love to do more Lisp, or in another universe, I'd love to work on engines
and wish that I knew more about their design, power, efficiency...

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neuromanta
I'm working on a game in PyGame right now. It has a cyberpunk theme, and a
little spirituality in the story. Of course it's open source. I also work on
an another open source project, with my friends. It's a localization tool.

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jodrellblank
I don't know what I'd love to work on.

If you'd asked me a few years ago, the job I described then would be almost
indistinguishable to the job I have now. But I don't enjoy it and feel:

a) I know this is a good job and I _ought_ to be able to love it, there's
something wrong with me.

b) If I feel this way about this, wouldn't I feel the same about any other job
that seems good now, if I did get to do it?

c) Guilty that this is a good job and I'm not making the most of the great
opportunities it's giving me.

I fear the kind of ant-in-a-massive-system job, such as "Legal Department
E-mail Archive Storage Administrator" and I love the idea of "Independantly
Wealthy Research Lab Owner" where I get to be involved in a lot of different
things at a high level.

~~~
blender
+1

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bmelton
Comic books. If I had my druthers, I would somehow be working in comic books.
At some point in my life, I had a good deal of artistic talent, though the
years I spent goofing off in puberty seem to have killed it entirely.

It's something of a dying art form, as most print-based things are, but also
seem to have resurged in many ways, especially as movie properties. I'm
eagerly waiting to see whether or not TakeComics succeeds as becoming the
iTunes of comic books, and whether or not it spawns any cottage industries or
ideas as a result.

~~~
erikwiffin
is there anything like cafepress or threadless for comic books? could be a
really cool way to keep a dying industry going.

~~~
Raphael
Copy shop?

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aerique
I'd love to work on putting an autonomous robot on an interstellar body.

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wlievens
Space industry

Games industry (but only the kind I like)

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edw519
I _am_ working on exactly what I want.

I have worked on business systems in many companies (mostly enterprise) and
learned quite a bit. But the biggest thing I learned is that companies rarely
have the applications software that they really need to compete.

I am building an environment and applications that I wish I would have had all
those years. This is a great opportunity to put into software all the things
that could have been along with all the things that were.

It's hard not to love working on what you really want.

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korch
I'd love to work on a generalized recommendation engine. After spending a fair
amount of time tinkering on the Netflix prize, I now see countless sites and
apps are in need of generalized recommendations--on the scale of being another
layer we need on top of the web. And the topic pretty quickly drops you into
the deep-end of mathematics, so developing that kind of challenging software
is a plus.

