

Ask HN: What small problems do you face frequently? - windsurfer

I really am looking for small rants about a problem, and a possible solution to the problem.<p>Example: "I have trouble figuring out where all my time goes. I need an application that makes it really quick for me to keep a log of my activities."
======
tonystubblebine
Oh, I have a rant. I have trouble hanging up on telemarketers who prey on
entrepreneurs (VC associates, recruiters, biz dev, consulting firms). My
problem was that hanging up violently put me in a violent mood. So I went as
far as writing up scripts that were polite but moved toward hanging up within
10 seconds. Full rant/solution here:

[http://www.stubbleblog.com/index.php/2009/03/productivity-
ha...](http://www.stubbleblog.com/index.php/2009/03/productivity-hack-hangup-
politely/)

Why did you ask the question?

~~~
windsurfer
I'm trying to think up some sort of quick project I could complete in a couple
of months that would solve someone's problem :)

Also, it's kind of neat to hear how people would/have solve[d] these problems.

------
spaghetti
I have trouble finding the "Programming Pearls" of various topics. For example
I'd like to find a book of similar quality and style that deals w/ networking
computers. This applies to non-computer related subjects too... for example
I'd love to find great books/lectures etc about caring for animals but I don't
want to search a lot. Maybe my problem is I'm lazy :-p

I've noticed a recurring pattern where I'll find something really interesting
every once in a while... for example I just discovered the Graphics
Programming Black Book by accident. Would be nice to just have a list of
learning materials that are highly likely to be good matches for me.

~~~
IsaacL
This was an idea I had for a website I while back - basically an aggregator
for grouping learning resources by topic then ranking them by skill level and
quality. (So you could find the best "beginner's guides to x" or "expert tips
for x" and so on).

You can take a look at www.nohao.co.uk. It's very basic, and I haven't
developed it for a while, mostly because no-one seemed interested. Wasn't sure
if it was because the problem it attempted to solve wasn't really a problem,
or lack of features, or just not promoting it to the right people.

What could be cool is a site that (using algorithms/crowdsourcing/whatever)
generated guides like this one: <http://ruby-metaprogramming.heroku.com/> ,
where multiple resources are compiled into a programme you can follow. I had a
few other ideas for the site, such as automatically setting up study groups.
Though as I said, I'm not sure if I'd just be building something that no-one
would use, so I haven't worked on it for a while.

------
richcollins
If you're looking for good startup ideas watch Mixergy. Each episode gives me
a few.

------
maxklein
I have a problem hooking up my TV to my PC

I have a problem making my playlist play good songs, but not just then keep
repeating those songs till I got sick of them

I have a problem finding good accessories for my home that match the color,
tone and style.

Socks & Underwear. Regular delivery. Cheap price.

Daily Expenditure: Hassle free non-detailed tracking.

Easy & short reading material for travelling. Something that pushes only
interesting and current reading material based off an interest of mine -
"business", "science fiction", "humour" and so on

------
adatta02
I have trouble finding interesting and attractive girls to go drinking with ;)

~~~
sid
if your looking for a Web solution there is always dating sites ;)

~~~
petercooper
True, but he/she said "interesting and attractive."

------
neodude
windsurfer, are you trying to find startup ideas? ;)

~~~
windsurfer
_looks around_

Is that a bad thing? ;)

~~~
tjr
Nope, not at all! Though this particular crowd may be a suboptimal one to ask
that question of, as we are more likely than most to start our own startup (or
at least write our own shell script) to solve our problems... :-)

Maybe next time you're at your local dry cleaner, ask this same question.

~~~
windsurfer
I find that this crowd would be more willing to use or pay for a solution, as
opposed to the average person would would just slug their way through the
problem, ignoring any better or easier way of doing things. Most people aren't
even aware of something being a problem until they are shown a solution.
People here on HN are more apt to be thinking of easier and faster ways of
doing things.

As I sometimes say: Most people don't know what they want.

------
diN0bot
i wonder about your example. is it that i don't know where my time goes, or
that i lack the means to change my habits? perhaps both are occurring, since
sometimes knowing just how much time is wasted on <foo> provides motivation to
stop....but really, the means are the tough part.

how can we motivate positive change beyond simple tracking?

~~~
windsurfer
Presumably one could store the data in an accessible format and create some
interesting projects around it.

------
pkc
I have one problem - Recently launched products are always in need of
spreading the word about them. One of the better ways to do it would be find
blogs, articles or discussions going on to related to the product. I would
like to setup a service which sends me some N urls everyday where I can go and
add some useful insights to the discussions as well as put my service url
there, so that it brings in some new users to my site. Let me know if you are
interested in this.

~~~
kleine2
Yeah. That is cool and I was thinking the same thing. I also thought that the
more real time it will be the better, so you can get into the discussion while
people are still reading it :).

I would love to talk more about it.

~~~
pkc
Hi Kleine2,

Please mail me at pk@roorky.com. We can discuss more on the same idea. :)

------
DanielBMarkham
I would like one spot to go to remind me of when everything is going to
expire. I have warranties, domain names, web services, SVN services, email
accounts, airline miles -- all kinds of crap that has some sort of expiration
date on it. And I can't keep track of any of it.

And I want the machine to do all the work -- heck if I want to go around
entering everything. I want to answer a few questions, maybe have it "follow
me" around as I surf, and then keep a list of when things are going to run
out.

~~~
petercooper
Can't deny it's a problem for you, but I add all that sort of stuff to my
Google Calendar as it crops up. I have lots of things in my calendar years in
advance. Works a treat.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
Just trying to help out with a rant. As you said, there are lots of easy
solutions to this.

But I find it hard to believe you track _everything_ this way. Things like
airline miles expire 2 years from the last time you flew. Do you update Google
every time you fly? When you buy a toaster, do you note whether it has a
90-day full replacement or a 30-day parts warranty? We got an email from
Google last month with coupons for free AdSense -- they expired in a couple of
weeks or so. Amazon sends out sale notices all the time. Little stuff like
that adds up over time. It's easy for me to catch the big stuff, but do you
really catch all the little stuff on Google calendar as well?

~~~
moe
I agree that this would be an interesting problem to solve.

But I doubt it could be made conclusive without manual data-entry. Even a tool
following you around the web can't possibly understand "Ah, he just ordered a
toaster" - much less when that toaster actually arrives, gets returned etc.

I think at the bottom of this lies an interesting UI challenge. How to make
data-entry painless enough so that you, me and others would actually use it?

~~~
nitrogen
Or, perhaps, instead of data entry, a more universal data format and
communication protocol for exchanging and synchronizing date information, so
that supermarket purchases, websites etc. automatically add the data to a
person's centralized calendaring system. This is something I want to make a
(small) part of my current project, so someone please beat me to it, and then
you can make a plugin for my project once I've launched :).

