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Ask HN: What unsolved frustrations do you experience daily?

11 points by arikr ↗ HN
For me:

- Taking the trash out (fills up most days)

- Loading the dishwasher

- Emptying the dishwasher

- Falling asleep quickly (mostly solved this now)

- Falling back asleep if I wake up earlier than I want to (mostly solved this now, but I include because while I was experiencing it I talked to others and realized it's semi-common)

There's certainly more.

Why am I posting this?

Fodder for people looking for problems to solve. Problems with high frequency are good because it means you have many opportunities to acquire a customer, and that customer will use you daily for a long time.

7 comments

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makecheck
My frustrations are mostly with people, frankly.

A huge problem is that people are not self-aware: they cause major problems just by being in the way (whether it’s car traffic on roads, or foot traffic on sidewalks, or traffic in shopping aisles, etc.). They desperately need a clue.

Maybe there is a technological solution: some sort of location-based system where you receive a message saying “MOVE; the people all around you have voted, and agree: you’re IN THE WAY”.

max0563
But then the people who wouldn't otherwise be on their phones have to then look at their phones to say "MOVE" which creates more people who don't have a clue. I have found that a nice honk of a horn or a firm "Let's go" does the job.
max0563
For me, it is remembering my keys. I have since attached them to my phone case (hackily) but on numerous occasions people have come up to me saying, "Whoa, what kind of phone case do you have? That's awesome" and they are disappointed when they found out I have literally just clipped my keys to one of the area where my headphone jack is located.

tl;dr a way to clip keys to a cell phone so that finally everything can be carried easily. (Credit/Debit cards, cash, and keys)

Broken_Hippo
One of my biggest frustrations is waking up. I have an amazing ability to sleep through things. Even with good sleeping habits, I occasionally sleep through alarms - volume doesn't seem to matter, though sometimes tone does. I'd love to have a cheap alarm that vibrates my pillow - the ones they sell for the hearing impared are often expensive.

Additionally, I snore. Loudly. It wakes my spouse. He was going to strap his phone to his ankle and sleep with earphones, but found there was no vibrate-only function on the phone. Such a function would be great, as well as an alarm-only sort of system that can do the same.

wallflower
Taking the trash out - If you own a house and can make improvements, an in-home trash compactor will generate about 3,000 pounds of force to compact your trash. If you do rent, try finding a trash can that is large and stable enough for one to step into. Use a step stool and add a plywood disk platform cut out to less than the inside diameter to stomp on the trash to compact it. Much of the trash we throw out can be compacted, even with just a simple stomp. Also, if you have a yard, you can potentially compost raw food scraps.
[dead] olivercreashe
For me, it's people thinking that everything needs to be solved by technology...

And startups... how I HATE startups and every idiot in them and every snot-brain trying to create one.

How about living life without looking at it like it needs solving?

How about enjoying life for a change, without wanting money in exchange for everything?