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Re:Ask HN: What is the problem you try to solve? by mindcrime on Thursday December 19, 2013 @10:56AM (#6935367)
140 characters? Probably not, but this is a relatively concise summary of the problem we're working on:

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Knowledge workers spend too much time looking for information and knowledge[1] instead of, you know, thinking about problems. Organizations can be more effective when they provide tooling and processes to encourage and support knowledge sharing and transfer, and more efficient information retrieval.

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[1]: according to some research, up to 50% of knowledge workers' time is spent just looking for stuff. But to be fair, other research puts the number as low as 17%. Still, we believe that facilitating more efficient knowledge use, transfer and creation, will benefit all organizations.

Re:Ask HN: What is the problem you try to solve? by adamzerner on Thursday December 19, 2013 @11:39AM (#6935705)
More concise summary:

Give workers the information they need so they could spend more time thinking/building.

Re:Ask HN: What is the problem you try to solve? by mindcrime on Thursday December 19, 2013 @12:39PM (#6936220)
It's interesting, actually... that's definitely more concise, but I find myself wondering if it's better. What I mean is - I don't argue against being concise, but wonder "is there a point where you're so concise that you've reduced your message to a platitude that doesn't actually say anything"?

For example, we could reduce it further by saying:

"Make things better".

But I don't think that would be a very useful message.

So this, to me, is the struggle... to figure out how to be as concise as possible, while not being overly concise.

I freely admit that I'm not great at this, but it is something I hope to get better at - distilling the message to its essence, without losing the essence.

In this particular case, I will say that "Give workers the information they need so they could spend more time thinking/building" probably does strike that balance fairly well. I may have to crib that from you. :-)

Anyway, the point in saying all this was just to point out that while conciseness is a virtue, it can - I think - be taken too far if one isn't careful.

Re:Ask HN: What is the problem you try to solve? by adamzerner on Thursday December 19, 2013 @01:29PM (#6936609)
I agree, but it depends on the context. In this case, they were just asking what the problem is, not to prove that it is indeed a problem.
Re:Ask HN: What is the problem you try to solve? by mindcrime on Thursday December 19, 2013 @01:49PM (#6936795)
True. :-)