What's Your Problem?: Finding Something to Build
03/10/25

There's nothing new

There's nothing new. Never has been. Never will be.

Many engineers struggle with what to build, feeling like everything important already exists. The problem isn't a lack of ideas—it’s the wrong approach. Instead of chasing novelty, they seek problems they find interesting, leading to yet another TODO list app. But this time with recursive tags.

And don't get me wrong, I too have made several recursive-tag TODO Lists.

The answer isn't in novelty but in value. Not what you value, but what others truly need.

What is a problem?

A problem isn't about the presence or absence of something—it’s the gap between what someone values more and what they value less. Solving a problem means offering a trade: providing what someone values in exchange for something they value less.

It sounds abstract, but it's not. Let’s make it concrete.

Say you're out looking for somewhere to eat and realize you don’t have your wallet. You have a $5 bill in your pocket and a meeting in an hour.

What’s the real problem? That depends entirely on what you value.

Someone who values their career above all else might find missing the meeting to be the real problem. If we suggest they go home to get their wallet, they might see that as a worse problem since they’d risk being late and jeopardizing their job.

If, on the other hand, they want to get fired so they can collect benefits while job hunting, missing the meeting might be the solution. In that case, they might use the $5 to catch a bus home instead.

The key idea? Problems don’t exist in isolation. They’re defined by what matters most to the person experiencing them—and solutions are simply trades between lesser and greater values.

You’ll hear broad claims like “people pay for time” or “everyone wants more money and security.” These statements are useful but too simplistic. In an era where anyone can spin up an AI startup by “vibe coding” with ChatGPT, following generic assumptions won’t lead to real innovation.

The more thorough, timeless answer is this: a problem is an unresolved differential between values, and a solution is a trade between a lower value and a higher value.

OK, Then What Should I Build?

I can’t answer this question for you. What I can do is give you a process that might get you closer to answering it for yourself, along with an example of how it applies.

1. Figure Out What You Value

Watch yourself for some time. Don’t judge or get in your own way—just observe. Watch your actions.

Don’t sit in a café on a Saturday afternoon making a list of values. Instead, notice what you do when faced with something difficult. Write down what you lost and what you gained. Consider what value you placed above everything else in making that trade. Again, don’t judge yourself—no should or shouldn’t. Just watch and annotate.

2. Notice What Others Value

You might value novelty. Maybe you spend time (lower value) scrolling through social media to find new music, because discovering something fresh (higher value) is important to you.

The mistake is assuming your values are universal. They aren't. They are yours.

A common misstep would be building a platform that lets people sift through music like you do. But you might quickly realize that most people don’t prioritize novelty over time. Once you recognize how people value things differently, you stop trying to change them—and start looking for a way to trade with them instead.

3. Offer a Trade

Instead of making people hunt for new music, maybe you create a platform that curates the best of what you've already found. That’s what DJs, brands, and influencers do. They take what they love and trade it for what others value.

Even as an engineer, your job is to do the same—find what you love, understand what others value, and make the trade. You must do the same.