A weekly list of
problems worth solving.

Indie developers can build single-player role-playing games with tools like RPG Maker, but nothing similar exists for multiplayer online games. The poster built their own engine, made it easy to use without coding, and released it while it was still unfinished, about a month after starting. The first sale came within a week at $250, and the second was $400 (the higher-priced plan). By month 2.5, they had 14 active users and $2,700 in total revenue.

Developers are paying $250–$400 per user before the product is finished. The RPG Maker community has millions of users for single-player games; fewer of them build multiplayer online games, but they have no tool for it. That gap is still open.

The poster burned 2 hours last week on a single insurance call: 47 minutes on hold before getting disconnected, then 38 more minutes that ended at the wrong department. The tool they are building dials the number, works through the automated menus, and waits on hold for you. It only rings your phone when a real human is on the line. You handle the conversation and any verification yourself.

This problem affects anyone who calls an insurance company, a government office, or a hospital in any country. Some companies let you request a callback instead of waiting on hold. But that only works if the company has set it up. This AI works through the menus itself and waits on hold for you. No phone company offers that.

An Etsy seller had multiple orders refunded from their shop funds in the past month, all on packages USPS tracking showed as delivered. One order was purchased April 30, shipped the same day, tracked as delivered May 15, and refunded May 20 after the buyer filed a case. The seller met every requirement Etsy lists: same-day shipping, tracking, correct address, and a same-day reply to the buyer. Etsy still declined Purchase Protection.

Etsy has millions of active sellers. If the platform is cutting back on what qualifies for buyer protection, sellers who follow every rule still lose money with no way to recover it. A seller knows the exact dollar amount of each bad refund, which makes pricing a separate insurance product straightforward.

One attorney on r/Lawyertalk had their resume sent to "well over 100 firms" by BCG Attorney Search without knowing what that meant. Each submission starts a six-month period where that firm won't consider a direct application or a competing recruiter's submission. The poster says their "options in the market have been wiped out for half a year." No recruiter currently requires per-firm written approval before submitting.

Associates at large law firms earn $225K+ per year, so a six-month lockout from 100 top firms has real financial consequences. The recruiter fee model gives recruiters every reason to submit widely and no reason to be selective. Attorneys hurt by mass submissions would actively seek out a recruiter that required their approval first.

The poster got frustrated manually muting commercials on streaming services, even on paid plans that still show ads. He built a device that listens to the audio coming from the TV, detects ads, and cuts the volume. It connects via a headphone jack, red-and-white AV cables, or an optical cable, and plays through external speakers. External speakers are required because the TV's built-in copy-protection locks audio inside the TV.

People already pay monthly for "ad-free" tiers that often still run ads, which means there is a real price to beat with a one-time hardware purchase. A soundbar with this built in would remove the external speaker requirement for most households. No consumer hardware product does this today.

Standard table fans sweep the whole room on every pass, blowing air at empty spots between the people actually using them. The poster wants to "set 2 key points so it only oscillates between occupied zones": desk to bed, or sofa to chair. No current fan lets you define two specific boundary points this way. You get a fixed sweep angle or a stationary position. Nothing in between.

Oscillating fans sell in huge numbers every year, and no major brand currently lets buyers choose their own two start and stop points for the oscillation. A product that adds this with a simple dial or app would compete in a large market where buyers already exist and upgrade regularly.

This therapist was fired by two clients for losing track of what was covered in past sessions and giving no direction. The reason is time: when appointments run back-to-back, there's no chance to re-read full notes, so they rely on memory or skip the review entirely. They asked for something that makes follow-up items "more obvious in the note" or tracks them separately. Current note-taking apps for therapists store full session notes, but nothing lists the two or three things worth remembering before the next appointment starts.

Losing clients over this is a direct financial hit. A focused tool could charge a monthly fee and easily pay for itself. The problem is specific enough to solve without replacing the full note-taking process therapists already use.