Hii,

In this article I will try to project some of the reasons as to why I personally think, we should only solve for problems which are unique to us specifically.

While there maybe many problems that we think require our attention, there aren't!

Problem Statement:

If we stop and look around for a bit, we will notice that we are surrounded by a lot of problem statements contrary to what we think are available. Yet there are only a certain few of them, that we can manage to take on in our finite timelines.

Now I will not be talking about the assessment of the problem statements that we should pick for ourselves as I have very little skin in the game when It comes to picking impactful problem statements but hopefully paras can guide you here :))

So what's the catch Aman?

Let's discuss how I pick my problem statements and what my perspectives are.

Problem Statement Specific To Us?

Now you may be thrown of by the term unique problem statement and while there may be 100 other connotations attached to this notion, let me clarify what I am referring to here.

I strongly believe that the problem statements we encounter, define who we become in our finite lifetimes and while this may not be true, this is where my beliefs currently converge.

From a personal standpoint, I have only ever iterated on problem statements that I specifically encountered and I think people should do the same.

When people start solving problem statements in which they are personally not invested in or just for the sake of adding it to their solution stack, they end up creating more noise than signal.

Problem statements can be as trivial as a silly doubt or can be as complex as the hardest mathematical problems that you have ever faced, what I am advocating for are the ones we specifically encounter.

The progression of this discussion may be very counterintuitive in general but still hear me out, even if it shakes your confirmation bias a little bit, It's worth a shot.

Noise >> Signal

Yes with the accessibility of Internet we have the library of Alexandria at our fingertips and thus the abundance of irrelevant solutions.

If you google 'How to learn programming' you will find yourself stockpiled with hundreds of approaches and that is completely fine with a question this generic.

Now if you google 'What are closures in JavaScript'

you will get thousands of answers, somewhat different in certain aspects like:

1/N: Language

2/N: Analogies

3/N: Examples

but mostly same conceptually. This is a case where I personally believe Internet has more noise compared to signal, yes there can be some unique responses to what closures are but just ask yourself, If you were learning JavaScript today and were encountered with such a problem would you write a blog on what it is?

Irrespective of what the answer to this question is, let me state my observations:

Now that technical blogs or blogs in general are considered as gems while hiring, and writing is being seen as something elitist, people have started writing on problem statements even if it is not specific or unique to them.

Yes content in a way is the lowest hanging fruit we have, for asymmetric opportunities but my views on this particular topic somewhat diverges from this norm.

Get paid for doing what only you can uniquely do. -Naval

Differentiation

In a world with overlapping generic interests, what separates us from the rest is our unique perspective and the problems that we uniquely face.

I have always tried solve for problems which very specific to me and now that I think about it, they also have helped me differentiate myself.

ReactJS - Tutorial : How To Work With Multiple Radio Buttons with Function Based Components

Side Project | Asynchronous JavaScript | Experiment - 001

Plan or not to plan a project!

Conclusion

This is what my current thoughts align with and how I choose my problem statements would love to know whether you agree with me or not, let's have a chat :))