
Products I Wish Existed - eladgil
http://blog.eladgil.com/2020/01/products-i-wish-existed-2020-edition.html
======
dsalzman
+100 "I would love to see the following analysis: A map of repetitious tasks,
spreadsheets, and manual data extraction by function in the Fortune 500.
Budget breakdown of current software spend, by function, by line, in the
Fortune 500. A view of what Accenture, CapGemini, and Deloitte keep building
over and over for large enterprises. Undoubtedly a subset of these custom
consulting projects can be turned into SaaS software. A tougher analysis to do
is to ask what internal software projects various tech companies are working
on. If you can get the list from 3-4 companies, you will undoubtedly see a few
internal tool or product examples that should be built as a SaaS product for
everyone."

~~~
SamuelAdams
>Global 2000 company IT needs.

Splunk is a good example of this. I've worked at several public and private
muti-billion dollar orgs, and they all rant and rave about how good Splunk is
over whatever else they were using.

So, build more splunks. Maybe something that aggregates monitoring multiple
servers. A plug and play Status Dashboard for a company's internal apps. Like
this:
[https://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en&v=status](https://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en&v=status)

~~~
AznHisoka
If you knew the technologies/software that Fortune 2000 companies are spending
the most on, you should build complementary products, or similar things that
solve the same problems those products are solving?

~~~
SamuelAdams
I think there's value in both. Consider Duo. They took a common problem -
authenticating servers and services with 2FA - and made it easy to add to
existing infrastructure. There's not really a consumer use for this product,
aside from maybe a VPN, but there's absolutely a huge demand for it in
business.

I worked on many CRUD apps that had say 4 different groups of users. We made a
library / system for determining what "level" a user is, based on what Active
Directory roles the user is assigned. In the application, you can show or hide
components based on this level. Making some sort of middle-ware that abstracts
things for developers, so they don't have to think about things like AD, is a
huge area of opportunity.

~~~
AznHisoka
There's no way to determine the total spend for specific software/technologies
for Fortune 2000 companies (unless you can somehow survey them, or have an
insider).

So what proxy method would you use to determine that Fortune 2000 companies
are spending twice as much on Splunk as they do on New Relic (for instance)?

------
ckosidows
#2. I've had an idea I've mulled around for a couple of years now about a new
social network. One which limits your 'feed' to 25 friends and that is it.

25 might even be too high (or potentially too low; the number is arbitrary),
but the general idea is that in your life there are only a handful of people
who you should really care to keep tabs on. You can "friend" more than 25
people but you can only see the activity of 25 of your friends and the others
are relegated to essentially being contacts.

I remember about two years ago Facebook was getting into a lot of trouble due
to the amount of negative mental impact it had/has on its users and they did a
study which found social media can have a negative impact on its users unless
the user only follows a small circle of real-life friends and interacts with
those people online. I don't have a source to this; I'm willing to accept
there isn't real _evidence_ behind this claim.

Anyway, I'm surprised social media has been around this long, has been the
subject of such controversy and there haven't been any or many real, impactful
changes to the nature of it. Facebook and Instagram are, in my opinion, trying
to be too much. They want to combine personal and public spaces. This, of
course, works from a business perspective. But what are the long-term
consequences of these products on our mental health and society?

We need a new social media focused on personal, tight-knit groups of people
and interests. One that makes this the focus and doesn't stray for the
purposes of profits. And, if that's not feasible in an economy that demands
growth, we need better legislation demanding certain consumer protections are
created for this sphere of products.

~~~
busymom0
Can’t that be achieved by simply Facebook offering an option for feeds of
manually created group by you? Like you create a group called closefriends
where you add your close friends and family upto 25 members. Then a feed for
those people only shows up?

Almost similar to where each user is a subreddit and you create a multireddit.

~~~
VLM
Facebook is a video game where you honor the groupthink for max followers and
upvotes; something like the 25 followers can be emulated but if you're the
only person playing the new game, its not going to be a fun game because
everyone else will have higher scores due to no made up limitations.

------
Zhyl
>What would be a network which allowed for more thoughtful discourse? Or at
least the ability to more actively mute topics, threads, and groups of users
while surfacing better content algorithmically?

I would be interested in a parliament-like protocol for discussion, structured
debate and reaching consensus.

We currently have tools for proposing changes to text documents (such as pull
requests) which could be applied to a community rules/laws or values system,
but we don't have anything that can debate the changes, log objections, track
resolutions and compromises in a structured way.

I've seen places where community decision making is emergent (e.g. autobans
when a users reputation drops below a certain threshold or votekick in games)
but nothing that formalises the process, allows review of results, links
decisions to overarching principles (or notes where a principle has _not_ been
followed due to circumstances).

~~~
jonshariat
To add to this concept, it would be great if the elements of a quality
argument[1] (i.g. Claims, Counterclaims, Reasons, Evidence, etc.) were built
in. Also people could flag a comment (or parts of it) with a specific logical
fallacy[2].

It would help guide people into arguing more fruitfully and better digesting
what they read.

1\. [https://study.com/academy/lesson/parts-of-an-argument-
claims...](https://study.com/academy/lesson/parts-of-an-argument-claims-
counterclaims-reasons-and-evidence.html) 2\.
[https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/](https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/)

~~~
pas
It would be great to show arguments as processes (data, model(s),
evaluation/claims), and other arguments as specific problems with the process
(logical problem, bias, low quality data, bad statistics, etc..)

Ultimately everyone should be able to agree on the data, the model and the
evaluation separately. The differences should boil down to differences in
personal assumptions (different Bayesian apriori distributions, eg. different
morals, worldview, thresholds for things, etc.)

This should lead to questions about stuff that is either subjective and thus
people can agree to disagree, or to simpler objective problems. (For example
that data collection methodology leads to higher uncertainty than claimed,
hence the whole argument becomes inconclusive.)

------
davedx
> NoCode/LowCode (letting anyone build an app with a spreadsheet as a database
> representation)

AirTable has made huge inroads here. I'm also building something in this area
([https://lightsheets.app/](https://lightsheets.app/)), turning slightly back
towards spreadsheets instead of databases but then building enhancements and
modern integrations on top. I think there's still lots of potential in this
area, despite spreadsheets being 50 years old.

~~~
henryfjordan
Airtable did some great work on the UX. Introducing people to table schemas
with typed columns is pretty awesome, and the creative way they've leveraged
that with the little tab that comes out of the side for either a nice view
over the data (e.g. a map for an address column) or for showing Pivot
Tables/Aggregations. They deserve some design awards for those ideas.

But it's not a great alternative to a DB. It's really expensive per seat
(twice the cost of Google Apps and you only get one app). The row limits on
tables are too low. And I'd really like native webhook support to ingest row
updates.

I'd be very interested an Airtable clone that I can run locally on-top of
Postgres or Mongo or something like that. My main use-case would be to replace
expensive-to-build internal CRUD apps that really should just be spreadsheets
but require bespoke integrations with other internal systems.

~~~
harrisreynolds
Airtable has done a great job with their UX!

I've started working on a similar platform where the goal is to make building
CRUD apps wildly simple. The plan going forward will be to layer on more
sophistication after the core foundation is extremely solid.

The platform uses Mongo for the dynamic data tables which is a game changer
for tools like this. Postgres jsonb data would also work, but Mongo just feels
more natural to me.

I've named the platform Webase. Check it out here:
[https://www.webase.com](https://www.webase.com)

Note: this is very basic currently but consistently getting better!

~~~
henryfjordan
Hey I made an account but only see

> You have not created any apps yet.

with no way to create an app that I can see

------
runjake
#4 is a no-go in my book.

Things like Ring, Nextdoor, and Facebook already exist. Nextdoor and Facebook
are riddled with inanity, from political rants to dumb jokes to hoaxes to
common scams to law enforcement rants.

I don't want more information from my neighbors -- 99% of it is garbage. I
want highly-filtered information. Basically, a neighborhood watch but with an
aggressive spam filter. Right now I glance at the various neighborhood feeds
with one eye closed, sifting through the intense stupidity, trying to capture
valuable intelligence.

Of course, all of this may be a dumb corporate-run idea and maybe people
should really focus on forming good relationships with their neighbors in
meatspace and talk to them in person aka HUMINT.

~~~
jakelazaroff
The "SaaS-ification" of security cameras should also worry us. Ring — not its
customers — controls the videos taken with their cameras, creating a video
surveillance network that the police can access without needing a warrant.
They've partnered with 400 police forces to give them access to that data [1].
Although they claim to let customers deny police requests for footage, their
terms of service allow them to hand video over to police if they deem the
request "reasonable".

And it's not just Ring customers that are affected, it's anyone in the general
vicinity. If your house is in the field of view of a neighbor's Ring camera,
you're being surveilled too.

[1]
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/08/28/doorbel...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/08/28/doorbell-
camera-firm-ring-has-partnered-with-police-forces-extending-surveillance-
reach/?arc404=true)

~~~
secabeen
> Although they claim to let customers deny police requests for footage, their
> terms of service allow them to hand video over to police if they deem the
> request "reasonable".

Defining what is a "reasonable government request" is a valid question, but
it's really just not that high of a bar to get a records subpoena/search
warrant for video like this. Courts sign off on those routinely, so I don't
think you can really expect Ring or any company that holds your records to
deny police requests for very long.

The system they have seems pretty balanced. The police look at the ring
website to see who has cameras (they could figure that out by walking the
neighborhood), they ask for the footage (instead of knocking on the door),
they get turned down (or not), they get a warrant, the footage is released.
Ring is reducing the overhead of asking somewhat, but they're not enabling
mass surveillance or building AI systems that track suspicious people across
multiple ring devices.

Is there something I'm missing here? If you record video of your front yard,
and the police want to see it, they have a right to, subject to the normal
judicial review.

~~~
xvector
> Is there something I'm missing here?

Yes. If Ring had even the _barest_ shred of ethics, they would client-side
encrypt the videos stored in their cloud. It would use no extra space. The
user would have to explicitly approve the decryption and sharing of videos.

But they don't, because being able to access and datamine those videos is a
huge money-maker for them.

Ring is terrible, but their engineers willing to implement this corporate
surveillance state? They're the worst. They wield their software skills as a
mercenary would a weapon against innocents. I seriously cannot even comprehend
how they sleep at night and look at themselves in the mirror in the morning.

At least folks over at Apple are sane and are making sure that HomeKit
surveillance videos are client-side encrypted.

~~~
dlgeek
And then the second someone lost their phone, their camera becomes worthless
and they can't view their videos.

The average user can't be trusted to manage client-side encryption keys
reliably.

~~~
xvector
No? You can derive a key from a password.

------
hprotagonist
Products I'm glad do NOT exist:

 _4\. ADT 2.0: Digital neighborhood watch._

Ring is gross enough, thank you very much.

~~~
tinus_hn
It already exists in apps for nosey neighbors like Nextdoor

~~~
scarface74
Aka: “I see a suspicious looking Black Guy in our suburban neighborhood. It
looks like he is breaking into a house by using a remote to open a garage door
and driving in.”

~~~
jedberg
Yeah, my Next-door has a lot of that. They aren't that obvious though. I like
to call them out.

"I saw a suspicious man walking down the street!"

"What made him suspicious?"

"He just doesn't look like he belongs here."

"Why?"

"He's black"

"Being black isn't suspicious"

I then I get an email from Next-door about my comments being reported!

------
soneca
About new social networks, I am building one that I am calling _" a quiet
social network"_.

Copy/pasting from my landing what it means:

A personal journal and a social network that will provide a quiet space to
reflect about yourself and also to nurture your long term relationships with
the people that you care about.

 _Why “quiet”?_

Because this social network won't have the frenetic rhythm of news and updates
of all other social networks.

A quiet space is just as quiet as the quietest sound. Quid Sentio is being
designed so you will only listen to your voice and the voice of your close
ones. A digital space to cultivate conversations more meaningful than the loud
noise of social media and more long-lasting than the unsearchable small talk
of instant messengers.

Quid Sentio is for you if you want to...

Avoid the deafening rumble of the crowds. You will only see public entries
from people that have both being included in your list and included you in
their list. No stranges following you (or even knowing you have an account).

Avoid the tiresome grumble of the acquaintances. There will be no way to
search for people on the site or to see a list of your friends' friends. Also,
there will be a limit of people you can add to your list without reciprocity,
so no way to spam everyone in your contact list.

Avoid the popularity contests of perfect lives. There will be no way to like
entries, only conversations. Also, there will be no way to share content
outside of the list of who posted. So no way to go viral and no instant
rewards.

Avoid the manipulative tricks of addiction dealers. All the design decisions
above already point to a social network with less activity. Adding to that,
you won't see any advertising on the site, so there is no incentive to keep
you aimless wandering around here. Stay as long as you need to connect with
your family, your close friends, and yourself. Then leave.

Avoid the news, the memes, the FOMO. As the posts all follow the same design
of journal entries, with no images and no special treatment for external
links, you will probably won't see much news or click-baity articles, unless a
close friend wants to comment on them. Also, no company accounts either.

If you are interested:
[https://www.quidsentio.com](https://www.quidsentio.com)

~~~
dehugger
Your web site isn't loading at all for me. Glancing at the console it looks
like you have a timeout error, and the loading gif just runs forever.

Chrome Version 79.0.3945.88 (Official Build) (64-bit)

~~~
soneca
Thanks! If it is the same bug that I experienced, if you refresh the page it
will probably work.

I am a 3-week vacation right now, away from my development laptop, but I will
investigate this bug better and solve it once I'm back

------
reasonattlm
I can't say as I like his take on the longevity industry. It is the take that
will produce few meaningful advances, the "looking under the lamp because
that's where the light is" way of approaching life. Just more marginally
better drugs that do a little bit more than those of 10 years ago.

Sadly investors probably care very little from a financial position as to
whether a drug works or not, as their exit usually happens somewhere between
trials at Phase 1 and Phase 2. Earlier in the longevity market because it is
hot.

I've put together Request for Startup lists for the longevity industry for the
past few years, based on fairly detailed insight into the state of the
science.

[https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2019/02/request-for-
star...](https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2019/02/request-for-startups-in-
the-rejuvenation-biotechnology-space-2019-edition/)

[https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2017/12/request-for-
star...](https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2017/12/request-for-startups-in-
the-rejuvenation-biotechnology-space-2018-edition/)

[https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2016/12/request-for-
star...](https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2016/12/request-for-startups-in-
the-rejuvenation-biotechnology-space-2017-edition/)

Because things move slowly in biotech, just about everything in these
documents except for more senolytics is still valid.

~~~
hobofan
Love your blog! Recently got interested in longevity research, as I was
surprised how much closer to reality it is than I imagined, and also as a
possible future industry to work in, and your blog has been one of the best
resources to both get up to speed on the topic and also keep up to date!

As you are as familiar as few people are with the topic, I'd like to ask you
for some advice, if possible: What do you think is the best way for someone
like me (currently biochem undergrad, with ~7 years broad software engineering
experience), to have an impact in the field?

~~~
reasonattlm
Any bio* field can lead to working on treating aging; at undergraduate level
you have tremendous flexibility as to which direction you take. For now build
connections. Go to the conferences where industry meets science and meet
people (Undoing Aging, Ending Age-Related Diseases, Longevity Therapeutics,
Longevity Leaders, etc). Figure out who the people are you'd like to work
with. Either for the corporate path of interning with companies working on
aging, leading to a scientific position with one such company, or for the
academic path of postgraduate work with a research who is doing something in
aging that you find interesting.

~~~
hobofan
Thanks for the response!

------
arkanciscan
I fail to see how TikTok is a "good reminder for the generational turnover of
social products". Has an entire generation passed since Vine or Snapchat? If
anything it's proof that securing an early lead in a new form of media (short
form video in the aforementioned cases) doesn't guarantee success even for a
generation. My takeaway is that young people are increasingly mercurial and
disloyal. Chasing their attention seems like a recipe for disappointment.

~~~
cjsawyer
The lifecycle of a social media should be measured by some % of pairs of
children and their parents both using it. It’s an instant buzzkill.

~~~
JohnFen
And businesses.

This rule still holds true today. When I talk to people in their 20s and
younger these days about Facebook, for instance, the near universal reaction
is "Facebook is for old people and companies". They're all using something
else.

------
nrjames
Purple Air hits on a bit of the neighborhood pollution sensor idea:
[https://www2.purpleair.com/](https://www2.purpleair.com/)

I've used their API to look at California wildfire data.

~~~
modeless
Their API is great. I found their site a little slow for something I want to
check regularly so I built a faster one based on the API:

[https://aqi.today](https://aqi.today)

If there's a PurpleAir sensor near you, it will show you the reading
instantly. It also updates the favicon so you can leave it open in the
background and check the reading just by glancing at the tab.

~~~
asdff
This is great! saved to home screen on iOS for convenience

------
Lucadg
> What would be a network which allowed for more thoughtful discourse

We used to have this and it was called forum (phpbb and such). They have been
oblitared and we moved to Facebook apparently leaving our brains behind.

In reality we are victims of armies of psychologists optimizing for
engagement.

I have the feeling forums will come back though.

~~~
asdff
We didn't leave our brains behind, this is just the internet without heavy
handed moderators keeping subforums organized, discussions on topic, and
putting the brakes on flame wars. Of course things crash and burn in an
environment of total anarchy like what is seen on social media websites, image
boards have taught us that decades ago.

~~~
Lucadg
Yes, we didn't leave our brains behind. The environment in modern social media
rewards the wrong type of interaction.

------
joshpadnick
#1. Trinet for full-time remote/distributed workers. I've spent countless
hours researching Global PEOs and reviewing their often poorly written
contracts. If a reputable service existed that allowed us to hire in any
country without having to form our own corporate entity in that country, we'd
be ready to sign yesterday. Unfortunately, all existing services are either:

* Too new (There are promising upstarts, but they usually don't operate their own entities and it seems risky to route all our IP ownership assignments through a tiny company)

* Too expensive (massive markups on what should be a standardized service)

* Too incompetent (One PEO sent us a contract for a Canadian employee that assigned their IP in accordance with US law. It's facepalm-bad sometimes).

~~~
Kiro
What does PEO mean and what existing services have you found?

~~~
joshpadnick
PEO stands for "Professional Employer Organization" and is an American term
for a company that serves as the legal employer for the people you want to
hire. For example, see [https://justworks.com/](https://justworks.com/). When
an employee joins our company, they legally become an employee of JustWorks,
but we're the practical employers. It's purely a legal relationship.

This is welcome the USA government because they know these companies help us
achieve compliance better than we could on our own. JustWorks has been great,
but only employs people in the USA. When we want to employ someone outside the
USA, we therefore need to find a "global PEO." These companies are sometimes
called "Employers of Record."

Popular Global PEOs are:

\- Globalization Partners

\- Elements Global

\- Capital GES

\- Pilot.co

\- Lots more.

But it's a highly fragmented market and has been a pain to engage.

------
joncrane
While only a footnote, I like the nod to nuclear energy.

I remember in the 1950s, there was a Popular Mechanics cover touting nuclear
as a coming technology to power homes and even cars.

Imagine the next Tesla-like company offering to install a small nuclear
reactor in houses. Like solar, you can sell electricity back to the grid,
charge your electric car with it, literally use it to heat your water....

Also might be a very attractive option to going off-grid.

~~~
Daneel_
Yes, absolutely.

Today’s modern reactors are night and day compared to Chernobyl/Fukushima era
reactors - they’re not even comparable. They’re fail-safe rather than fail-
deadly, and are much more compact and efficient, with better controls and
containment. The size of the reaction chamber is basically that of a household
washing machine.

I’d gladly live next door to a modern plant.

~~~
ljhsiung
Sorry for being pedantic, but do you mean fail-secure? Fail-safe = things
inside the area can get out on failure. Fail-secure = things cannot get out
i.e. catastrophe is contained (though people inside may die).

I don't know much about reactor design, but I don't think I'd live next door
to a fail-safe plant, but please correct me if I'm misguided because.

~~~
acidburnNSA
In general, fossil kills 4-6 million people per year from air pollution.
Nuclear has killed ~4000 total, ever. So nuclear plants are very, very safe
compared to normal energy alternatives.

Fail-safe just means that if equipment breaks or a human does something wrong,
the plant goes to low power and passive natural-circulation systems kick-in
that keep the low-power shutdown mode from going to temperatures high enough
to break the radiation containment structures.

------
vld
I'd love a service that puts me in touch (for a fee) with an engineer/someone
above level 1-2 support from Google/Amazon/huge corps

When dealing with companies that are above a certain size, it takes days or
weeks to get to someone that can fix issues, but if you're lucky and you have
a friend that knows someone who works there he can expedite your ticket. This
service would work like that, a friend that puts you in touch with people
hired at big corps.

I'm aware this service would have a number of potential issues, such as how to
get employees on the platform without annoying their employers, or how to
prevent abuse/bribes, but if somebody find a way..

~~~
Taurenking
That seems like a nice idea to develop as a side hustle. Not sure if it would
be so much of an issue, as websites like
[https://www.teamblind.com](https://www.teamblind.com) exist. I'm more worried
about the user acquisition tbh

------
ndespres
"A view of what Accenture, CapGemini, and Deloitte keep building over and over
for large enterprises. Undoubtedly a subset of these custom consulting
projects can be turned into SaaS software."

I love the idea of figuring out how we can stop reinventing the wheel. Too
much of this work really has no benefit to society yet keeps getting done,
over and over. I wish for a way to pull the brakes and re-evaluate what it is
that we are all doing exactly, and for whose benefit.

------
hailpixel
> 1\. Trinet for full-time remote/distributed workers.

[Boundless]([https://boundlesshq.com/](https://boundlesshq.com/)) is a startup
that is tackling this exact problem through automating the entire
"employe(e/r) of record" process.

~~~
EamonLeonard
Co-founder of Boundless here, thanks @hailpixel for the shout out.

AMA! Here's a link to my soundcloud, we're hiring, thanks for coming to my
TEDx talk.

We _are_ hiring though.

~~~
soneca
Any jobs page? Couldn't find it on the site linked above.

I am frontend developer looking for a remote position

~~~
EamonLeonard
Drop me a mail: eamon@boundlesshq.com

------
contravariant
The author seems to have put more thought into what _can_ exists, as opposed
to what _ought_ to exist.

~~~
eladgil
This is purposeful. These are just some products I want.

There are a lot of things that _should_ exist but are harder to do: -Safe,
cheap nuclear power -Longevity drugs (I am involved with two companies in that
area) -Independent journalism school/foundation -Pioneer on steroids (how to
identify and nurture the top global talent for every area of human endeavor)
-Etc.

But that is perhaps another post / different topic.

~~~
TeMPOraL
I think GP's point is that some things on that list _ought not_ to exist.
Personally, I have some reservations about the neighbourhood watch thing.

~~~
eladgil
Ah - you are right. Thanks for catching the misinterpretation on my end.

------
rosybox
Products I wish existed: a cure for neurological disorders like ALS, MS,
Parkinson's, huntington's disease, small and large fiber neuropathy. There's
nothing. Absolutely nothing out there to help people survive these widespread
diseases.

------
arkanciscan
Hard Disagree on "subscription only" "network driven" security cameras. I have
no interest in sharing when I come and go from my house with the entire world,
let alone all the employees of a corporation like Amazon.

------
jcadam
> 7\. Software-only defense contractor.

Yea, I keep thinking of doing this but there's so much red tape in starting a
defense company, it's seriously daunting. I'm a software developer in the
defense industry, btw.

> ...be focused on a more SaaS-centric software-driven model...

Actually, I think the time may _finally_ be right for something like this in
my industry.

~~~
brixon
Take more normal stuff that exists and host it in FedRAMP and DOD IL4+
environments. I work for a DOD contractor and we can only use a few SaaS
solutions, most are not secure enough. We have to host most stuff in-house and
it's becoming harder to find software that we can either host in-house or is
of a security level approved by the gov.

~~~
imjha
We specialize in helping organizations seeking FedRAMP accreditation.
[https://stackarmor.com/solutions-2/devops/](https://stackarmor.com/solutions-2/devops/)
Please reach out if interested.

------
brenden2
None of these are particularly interesting to me. Seems like an observation-
based list, based on what's currently trendy.

------
bhl
#2. With Discord, I would love to have it move in the other direction, from
being a game-centric network to more of interest-centric network. Parts of
this already exist — there’s a way to search through open invite communities —
but it’s not as explicit as I’d like: most of times to find a niche discord
group, you first have to visit its respective subreddit and find the invite
link beneath all the clutter. Sometimes, there isn’t even a direct subreddit:
to find a summer intern group, I had to dig through numerous threads of
r/cscq. The downside of this type of network is moderation: subreddits now can
self moderate but with chat, it’s higher volume and no filter by upvoting
enabled.

~~~
modo_mario
I've wondered about this as well. Discord should realize it's main appeal is
not hosting gaming communities. It's providing a good and very customisable
textchat environment (way less limiting than let's say slack) with easy voip
and that all across platforms (browser, desktop, mobile, etc) I'm curious how
large of a share of the servers is in no direct way gaming related.

As far as the rest goes I've wondered about as well. I'm part of a Discord
that has no subreddit, yt or twitch channel is not a gaming community coming
from some game or the like. It has a focus in that it's Eurocentric tho
there's plenty of people on it from the US and the rest of the world but the
only way it has survived for bout 2 years now is by being welcoming and a very
broad catch all community with channels for cooking, politics, tech, memes,
etc ([https://euro-lounge.eu](https://euro-lounge.eu)) I've encountered other
ones that survived but they tend to be part of some big crosslinking groups
and seem void of community feel with a shitload of people 99% of which don't
say anything. Meanwhile more interest-centric communities just die if they
don't have an area like a subreddit to pull people from. I've encountered
numerous disappointing graveyards like that.

------
dreamcompiler
"Unlike Palantir, which seems to have a services-centric model, this new
company would be focused on a more SaaS-centric software-driven model."

I thought Palantir was extremely software-driven. Could someone clear up what
the above sentence means?

~~~
scarejunba
Palantir does really well for what they do, but this article is as true today
as it was in 2016 in terms of what they are
[https://simplystatistics.org/2016/05/11/palantir-
struggles/](https://simplystatistics.org/2016/05/11/palantir-struggles/)

They're almost just a consultancy.

------
aaavl2821
There are biotech startups working on all of those already

There are a couple interesting gene therapy companies workout on hearing
(akuous and decibel among others). Lots of ophthalmology gene therapy
companies also, as well as more traditional companies. Hair regeneration has
been a popular area of research for a while

Most companies work on biomarkers as part of the drug dev process. However
building a business around just biomarkers is hard -- you need to develop your
own drugs based on those biomarkers. Diagnostics is really tough bc
reimbursement and pop health is tough bc incentive alignment is nearly
impossible in many contexts

~~~
eladgil
Which of these do you think are farthest along?

Gene therapy seems to be working a little bit in ex-vivo approaches (you take
cells out, modify them, and put them back in, largely in the immune system)
but progress elsewhere is very limited.

~~~
aaavl2821
Re akuous and decibel, I don't know too much about their programs

Re eye diseases / blindness, there is at least one approved gene therapy for a
form of congenital blindness, luxturna: [https://www.fda.gov/news-
events/press-announcements/fda-appr...](https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-
announcements/fda-approves-novel-gene-therapy-treat-patients-rare-form-
inherited-vision-loss)

the eye is one of the areas where gene therapy delivery is currently feasible.
other areas include the CNS using AAV9. Perhaps the most impactful gene tx yet
approved is Avexis' Zolgensma (Avexis was acq by Novartis for $8-9B in 2018).
Zolgensma is a potential cure for spinal muscular atrophy, the leading genetic
cause of infant death. Zolgensma did $160M in its first full quarter on the
market

Other areas where we will likely see approved gene therapies soon include
blood diseases like hemophilia, beta thalessemia. In addition to blood, eye
and motor neurons, the liver is a popular target for gene therapy as all of
these tissues are easier to deliver gene tx to with current technology

Delivering gene tx to other tissues is not really feasible as far as i know at
this point

------
kevinmgranger
For #2, the fediverse is lively and growing every day.

One of the easiest ways to join is through a mastodon[1] instance.
Alternatively, there are other[2] clients available.

I know many of these are similar to existing social networks, and thus might
not be different enough to fit the criteria of the article. But the federated
aspect of it-- seeing small pocket communities form-- adds something to it.

[1]: [https://joinmastodon.org/](https://joinmastodon.org/) [2]:
[https://fediverse.party/](https://fediverse.party/)

------
tabtab
Products I wish existed:

1) Dynamic relational databases. They wouldn't be too different from existing
RDBMS, unlike the "noSql" products, yet allow dynamism.
[https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66385/dynamic-
database-s...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/66385/dynamic-database-
schema#46202802)

2) A GUI-friendly and desktop-friendly http-based markup standard for
"productivity" and CRUD applications. HTML/DOM/CSS/JS keeps sucking for that,
after 2 decades of trying. Focus a standard on GUI's and only GUI's so that
it's done right for once. Java applets & Flash failed because they got
feature-happy, making them buggy and security risks.

3) A hybrid file system and database to serve as intranet CMS's. One should be
able to put documents into a folder and have the folder automatically be
displayed in a "nice" listing or menu of links (to view or open documents),
along with folder tree navigation features. Additional attributes could allow
finer control, such as document synopsis, author name or ID (cross-reference),
and thumbnails or icons. As things are now, one is pretty much forced to use
either a file system or a CMS for many intranet-ish things. Merge the
concepts.

------
MH15
>2\. New social network

This already exists, in the form of private group chats. I am part of a few
GroupMe and Snapchat group chats that function similarly to how social
networks "should".

I have an idea in this space- I'd like to implement a new webview or theme for
Twitter that shows the most recent posts last, similar to how a DM functions.
Once you scroll to the bottom of the list, you are done. No new content. Could
alleviate some of the addictive features of the current methods.

------
chrisbigelow
Not a pharmacological intervention, but I'm currently in the process of
building out a newsletter for "longevity basics":
[https://pareto.substack.com/](https://pareto.substack.com/)

I feel like too many people have gotten caught up in fringe science practices
and "biohacking" the basic information that will keep us healthy and living
long has been drowned out in the noise.

------
melling
“ function that dramatically improves lots of people's quality of life.
Examples would include eyesight and hearing. For example, many people start to
get blurry vision in their 40s, due to a variety of factors including the mix
of proteins in the lens of the eye causing hardening and potentially the
muscle holding the lens aging. Could a simple approach like rapamycin droplets
in the eye reverse aspects of aging and therefore eyesight? ”

Yeah, I’ve heard about the protein buildup problem for twenty years now.
Hopefully, someday...

Here’s an August 2000 article from the NYT that discusses the problem:

[https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/08/health/reading-glasses-
as...](https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/08/health/reading-glasses-as-
inevitable-as-death-and-taxes-or-are-they.html)

Well into the 21st Century, and I must say I’m a little disappointed. After
that second DARPA Grand Challenge, I’d have said “no way we don’t have self-
driving cars by 2020”

~~~
eladgil
It is surprising how little has been done here. A failure of the
pharma/academic model perhaps. I am going to write more on why biotech does
not innovate as much as it could, in another post.

------
cottsak
> More RPA and NoCode.

Noooooooo! _sadface_

Interestingly, this kind of mess probably keeps ~50% of us programmers
employed. So ... yeh.

------
buldoeo
Correct me if I'm wrong, but No 5 already exists?! I'm from Europe. I have an
app on my phone that shows me the pollution in the city I am. I check on it
every time I'm in different places. It's called AirVisual. I installed it from
google play, I have android.

~~~
mdorazio
I think he means a much more granular pollution map than what's available at
the city level. Something like being able to get accurate pollution data at
sub-kilometer precision, especially in suburb areas where monitoring stations
tend to be sparse.

~~~
lisiado
There is a project in Germany which collects the data of stations you can
build yourself with an esp8266 and a sensor.
[https://luftdaten.info/](https://luftdaten.info/)

~~~
hawski
Thanks for the link.

Users outside of Germany already use it. I think I will participate. For some
time I was thinking about an amateur network of air pollution sensors, that
seems to be it. Is there something with more reach in Europe or at least
Poland (where I'm at)?

~~~
lisiado
Yes I just realized that it's already in use outside of Germany as I visited
the website. I will set it up myself as well.

------
floatingatoll
There's an unmet need in social networks for "identity verified and
protected", wherein the social network proves to a reasonable^ degree of
certainty that you are who you say you are, and then you are permitted to
maintain an anonymous identity (which you may end and replace with a new one
at any time).

^ Notarization, at $25/each, would be sufficient. Bank account verification
and credit card verification would not be sufficient, nor would "upload a
photo of your ID". There's no sidestepping the "human being evaluates your
actual identity documents" stage.

------
jariel
#4 is disturbing.

Humans in large swaths (most?) of the world live without stealing from one
another.

Safe communities are not built on policing and monitoring (or guns), they're
built by people who have basic communitarian values, basic education, who are
conscientious, honest etc..

Obviously, macro issues are important (jobs, economy, credible judicial/civic
systems) and that's part of the equation.

But none of this is new, it's downright ancient - and I'm wary to think of any
technology that can be directly applicable. We have to raise our kids well,
and there won't be any software to do that for us.

~~~
floatboth
Defense contractors and longevity are also disturbing. Rich pervert vibes. The
latter always reminds me of Jeffrey Epstein wanting to cryo freeze his head
and penis (LOL) and Larry Ellison's foundation dedicated to longevity —
"namely, his":
[https://youtu.be/bNfAAQUQ_54?t=993](https://youtu.be/bNfAAQUQ_54?t=993)

------
georgewsinger
Elad Gil is a really smart investor (his list of Unicorn investments is
probably larger than any other angel), but -- with the exception of (11) and
(12) -- this doesn't strike me as a very ambitious list.

~~~
eladgil
Agreed on not crazy ambitious for most of these. Honestly, this really is just
a list of products I would like to use (with 1 or 2 exceptions).

There are a lot of things that _should_ exist but are harder to do: -Safe,
cheap nuclear power -Longevity drugs (I am involved with two companies in that
area) -Independent journalism school/foundation -Pioneer on steroids (how to
identify and nurture the top global talent for every area of human endeavor)
-Etc.

But that is perhaps another post / different topic?

What else would you add?

------
Causality1
I want a single service I can plug a bunch of creators and/or genres/interests
into and get alerted about available new content. I don't care about book
tours or interviews or someone leaving the band or twitter drama. Just tell me
when one of my favorite authors releases a book for sale. Tell me when the
album is out. Tell me when the game is on Steam. I don't care about your
broken Kickstarter promises or your development updates or your Hugo Award
nomination or that you've begun recording your new album.

~~~
fenwick67
[https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/It...](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSECommerceService/latest/DG/ItemSearch.html)
would be a good place to start

------
stretchwithme
I would like to see security get into guarding the entrances of convenience
stores using AI. If someone could potentially robbing the store, wearing a
mask or carrying a gun, why should the door remain unlocked?

Lock it, alert a human at the company to review the situation and either open
the door for them or call the police. Loop in the clerk if the network goes
down.

Also, along these lines, created an AI doorman for a building, with a similar
review process. Have the residents also help with reviews if the network is
done.

------
aj7
Infer from the most secret corporate software projects problem commonalities
and build a huge company devoted to these is not a realistic product proposal.

------
jmondi
Here is the archive.org link since it seems that the website has been hugged
to death:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20200107003015/http://blog.eladg...](https://web.archive.org/web/20200107003015/http://blog.eladgil.com/2020/01/products-
i-wish-existed-2020-edition.html)

------
Lucadg
> 1\. Trinet for full-time remote/distributed workers

Dao software such as Aragon and Daostack may be the ones which make this real.
A lot of the complexity in running distributed teams is connected to the sorry
state of international payments. A vast majority of the potential employees is
simply not able to participate to the global economy today.

------
cjwebb
It would be interesting to know which bits would be out-of-scope if we tried
to build the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer right now.

The nanobots binding to a single-child, definitely... and the audio dictation
from real actors, probably. There's not too much of a stretch between the rest
and reality. Is there?

------
otoburb
Eldertech ideas would be a welcome addition to this list. Gil might say that
Eldertech is a specific vertical under the RPA/NoCode category, but I'd argue
that it's a large enough market unto itself that will become more relevant
after 1 or 2 generational shifts.

------
wyxuan
Pollution tracking would be greatly appreciated. Maybe we could catch methane
leaks faster, or respond more quickly to fires. Google backed firefly (the one
that puts the billboards on top of lyfts and ubers) has air quality tracking;
it needs more scaling.

------
simplify
For social networks, Manyverse is an interesting new player. It's p2p with no
central server, and the app is open source.

[https://github.com/staltz/manyverse](https://github.com/staltz/manyverse)

------
faeyanpiraat
I actually have the High Growth Handbook written by the author of this
article, but had no time to start reading it. Does anyone here have an
experience with it, is it worth picking up asap?

------
def8cefe
What does the author mean when he says 'black sun-like VR network'?

Googled and couldn't figure it out. Hoping it's a reference to some good sci-
fi I haven't read.

~~~
wisty
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaxxun](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaxxun)

------
jayrwren
#4: vivint smart home already has #4, including an app called streetwatch
which does the multi-camera with neighbors grouping.

#10: a mouse is a mammal. perhaps author meant apes?

~~~
eladgil
Thanks - #10 was a typo. Updated to "human". :)

------
hntddt1
Check for the latest biotech
[https://www.neuralink.com/](https://www.neuralink.com/)

------
rhacker
I feel like more and more of our life is what "product" we connect with and
use. I kinda want to opt out.

------
JohnFen
I wish there was a genuinely excellent, highly configurable, and privacy-
supporting browser.

------
weaksauce
> 5\. Neighborhood (and corporate?) pollution sensor networks.

purpleair seems to do much of this.

------
dr_dshiv
Are there other rundown like this? I appreciate the concept more than the
content.

~~~
jborichevskiy
Less focused on business ideas and more on digital tools, but I wrote
something similar a month or so ago:

[https://jborichevskiy.com/posts/digital-
tools/](https://jborichevskiy.com/posts/digital-tools/)

~~~
samatman
Link to HN discussion at the time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21659876](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21659876)

------
mintone
For #4 I have had good experiences thus far with Simpli Safe.

------
biolurker1
I just love the Green Atomics rebranding idea

------
ejz
Look at useparagon.com for #9

------
blackbrokkoli
> 4\. ADT 2.0: Digital neighborhood watch.

That this is not only a market, but a "wish" which seems to get traction even
here on HN confirms to me that the old joke "1984 is not a manual" is more
relevant than ever, and scarily not only in regards to the usual suspects,
corporate and nation states, but people themselves.

Can anyone explain to me why _anyone_ would advocate a profit-driven,
systematic eradication of soul and character around each and every human
residence?

Why would you trade the vibrancy of your young urban block or the sense of
trust and community in your suburb against prevention of low-impact black-swan
events like serial packet thiefs?

Why would you surrender your home, not only your safe haven in life but also
your gateway to low effort exploration of your surroundings to wide-spanning
AI surveillance and automated purge of any nuisance?

Maybe I am just weird or out of touch but I can absolutely not get in my head
how people surrender to such a dull dystopia based on an apparent fetish for
weaponized gossip and abnormal levels of fear of petty crimes...

~~~
munificent
I agree with your overall point. However:

 _> low-impact black-swan events like serial packet thiefs?_

I live in Seattle. Package theft is a white swan event here. Everyone I know
has had packages stolen. Most people are forced to come up with some strategy
to deal with it: get things shipped to work, use Amazon lockers, get a camera
on your porch and make sure to bring the package inside as soon as it shows
up, etc.

You are right that materially it is a low-impact event. However,
psychologically it isn't. It _sucks_ having shit stolen from in front of your
own home. It immediately undermines that "sense of trust and community" you
mention. My home no longer feels like a sanctuary, and random people ambling
down my street no longer feel like friendly neighbors. Any of them could be a
thief scoping out porches and the evidence is clear that at least _some_ of
them are.

It is a maddeningly disempowering feeling to _know_ that I am unable to
prevent someone from stealing shit from my own property. Worse, I know the
police won't do a thing about it either. I literally have video of the dude
grabbing shit off my porch, but can do nothing about it.

I think it is that feeling of helplnessness that leads people to buy security
systems.

~~~
blackbrokkoli
Fair enough, but as you literally state yourself, the security system _does
not even help_. I repeat, it does nothing.

> I literally have video of the dude grabbing shit off my porch, but can do
> nothing about it.

The only thing all this security theater does is aiding super convoluted
scenarios where your neighbors system informs you to take your package in, if
you have one currently out, and are fast enough, and are at home. In the long
run, all this does for prevention is creating an arms race easily won by
covering up your face and randomizing routes as the thief...

So: Make a startup selling big-ass secure post boxes. Minimize crime by, you
know, education and financial aid. Kill this excessive package-delivery
culture which is super damaging anyways somehow. Make the police force more
efficient. Make small package-taking centrals. Whatever. I understand. But
this cloud-based security is the absolute worst thing you can do.

edit: spelling

~~~
munificent
_> but as you literally state yourself, the security system does not even
help. I repeat, it does nothing._

My first sentence said I agree with your overall point.

In my case, the main reason we have the cameras is because my wife felt they
would help her feel more secure. They have been somewhat useful and/or
worthwhile for other things:

* We can see who's at the door and ignore them if they are solicitors.

* When we're not home and someone knocks on the door, we can respond to them since the camera also has a speaker. When our friends dropped off a few Christmas presents while we were out at dinner, it was cool to be able to say thanks right then.

* On the off chance a more serious crime is committed, we may have footage of it. The police don't care about package theft, but they are likely to investigate trespassing, breaking and entering, etc.

* Sometimes we see bunnies and baby raccoons meandering around the alley, which is always cute.

I'm not a big fan of the system, but it is occasionally handy or rewarding to
have access to a live camera around my house.

------
thrwaway69
> The rise of machine learning and machine vision as analytical tools opens up
> the door for a new contractor to emerge to challenge incumbents, and also to
> provide new applications not available in the pre-ML world.

Actually, I was thinking of building detection system for taking down
protests. Currently, government has a need to identify muslims, illegal
immigrants and violent college students. Looking at whatever video is there,
it seems you can find them with 60-70% accuracy. For taking down protests, I
figure something like automated human warnings or high intensity sound could
work. It can generate list of people found and match them against existing
database, give proximity of where they might live. Long term, you can track
movements and other uniquely identifying data. All stored in cloud so for
every camera you install, accuracy should improve.

I wonder if some kind long range radar would be able to detect protestors like
activities.

For the attention economy, someone needs to build a prioritization system.
Something that can jam all notifications and only allow higher priority ones
to go through, scheduling, hiding things I probably don't care about.

example - taking care of unread emails by building a sorted list of them and
removing junk based on how you interact with top ones.

> Digital neighborhood watch

Could be useful for various purposes like keeping away people on restraining
orders with facial recognition, it should notify police with proof or
observing fires, violence, and keeping away certain people you don't want near
you.

Human sounding warnings will scare off a lot of low noisy actors.

Edit: Surveillance state = bad. I get it. I am against it too but are you not
minority when most of your country doesn't care?

If there is a market need for a product, what do you use for determining
whether it is correct or not. You can kill people with knives or ropes (more
people killed than security cameras) but that doesn't make those two unethical
or wrong to supply. You can defer to legality but that is not a good vector
probably. Ethics are subjective and based more on intentions than other
variables.

Just a genuine question, what if you are minority in a democratic state?
Should you have power to impose your will on others despite whatever _they_
voted for? If someone is harassing me, I can legally remove him. Harassing
someone is wrong but what if protests turn into harassment or destruction of
your private property, should you use legal system to stop protests? Should
you think about the whole country of billion when making a decision that is
against you in terms of favorability?

Is selling anything to state a crime now that they can use for violence or
suppression of protestor? What makes detection systems so bad compared to
other things people call 'ethical'?

------
macspoofing
>Nuclear is a strong potential solution for climate change but is politically
unpopular. Could something be done to address this

No. There are no political champions for nuclear, and most environmentalists
are actively hostile to it. And to be fair, starting reinvestment in nuclear
infrastructure in light of how inexpensive natural gas is, would be expensive.
Nuclear also doesn't play well with solar and wind, while natural gas is a
perfect complement to renewables.

------
FailMore
I'm building two social networks and you are gonna L-O-V-E them.

> Taaalk (originally launched in 2016)

A place for online publicly available conversations. For example:

i) How to play chess
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160427044603/http://taaalk.co/...](https://web.archive.org/web/20160427044603/http://taaalk.co/taaalk/chess/robert-
heaton-josh-summers)

ii) Value Investing
[https://web.archive.org/web/20160427023909/http://taaalk.co/...](https://web.archive.org/web/20160427023909/http://taaalk.co/taaalk/investing/value-
investor-josh-summers)

> Nerdverse.xyz

A url only social network (a bit like HN, but with more content and
discussions with people you know - you're only allowed to talk after you have
been introduced to, and accepted by, the owner of the group). All chats are
publicly available to read, but you can only participate after an
introduction.

Please signup to my beta list:
[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScnuDIskbCAabMtGHQd...](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScnuDIskbCAabMtGHQd-K7rghfzSCjIbxp14Cf7_IcaTYYqFQ/viewform?usp=sf_link)

Thanks for reading

