[pier25]

I kinda agree. I just don't see the value in 90% of those ideas even if they are well executed. Maybe I'm getting old too but it seems most of these propositions are based on the premise of making something attractive and getting funding from VCs wanting to diversify their investments and play the lottery.

The lowest hanging fruit in tech has already been taken years ago and the human needs haven't changed that much. We need to communicate, we need to listen to music, we need to move around, etc.

[fra]

I vehemently disagree with you. There are million dollar checks laying on the pavement, you just have to spend a bit of time outside of software engineering to see it. So much time is waiting executing rote processes by hand across industries, and billions of dollars are spent with the likes of Accenture to build custom applications.

[mdorazio]

That's rarely because of a lack of technology, though. Entrenched business processes, human bias, "old boy networks", fear of losing jobs, etc. are far bigger factors in things outside of SV often sucking. You can build the perfect solution for a problem at an amazing price and Accenture would still win because the people making the decisions want Accenture, not the actual best solution.

[pier25]

> So much time is waiting executing rote processes by hand across industries

I've personally seen many times how companies prefer doing those hand processes, even after having paid me for developing a solution to solves that. Humans are strange creatures.

The big problems that most people want solved and can indeed be solved have already been solved. For the most part we're now in the phase of solving small problems, refining current solutions, and maybe creating new problems with its own set of solutions.

Of course there are many big problems that haven't been solved because those are extremely difficult and expensive to solve which falls outside of the realm of startups. For example an HIV vaccine, super efficient solar cells, cold fusion, efficient energy storage, brain computer interface, dark energy, dark matter, etc.

[ericd]

With all the advancements in ML, there's a new set of lowest hanging fruit, and it's incredibly exciting.

[pier25]

I'm not an expert, but I imagine that the companies working on those easier problems already started a couple of years ago.

Hard problems like self driving cars and natural language interfaces are way beyond the capabilities of a small startup.

[ericd]

Cruise was a small startup that got at least basic self driving working before they sold to GM. IIRC it was <10 people when I rode in one of their converted Audis. Lots of startups are working on NLP. I wouldn't be so pessimistic.

[pier25]

Cruise was founded about 5 years ago which is what I was saying on my previous comment.

[ericd]

Alright, there was a startup doing self driving trucks in YC this batch. It’s far from a solved problem, and scrappy teams can still make headway.

But anyway, the point is that there are a lot of new opportunities opening up because of that new enabling tech, and many of them are accessible to small companies.