According to the article, ignorance (of the complexity) is one of the best conditions when starting large projects.<p>I have heard anecdotes from people finishing large projects that they would have never started had they known how hard it would have been.<p>Not everyone can turn their ignorant mind on and will always think about all sorts of problems at the start of a project, but perhaps it helps to not get intimidated or blocked by them and get into a mindset that "we'll cross that bridge when we get there".
This question is so important:
> "what problem do I wish someone else would solve for me?"<p>Otherwise you might fall in the trap thinking just because a problem is hard, it's worth starting a startup to solve it.
Start with ignorance, but then make the schleps as conscious and explicit as possible?<p>People literally assemble jigsaws and exercise on treadmills in their spare time. Repeatedly! So it seems that even the most apparently mechanical tasks can be made interesting with some creative engagement.<p><i>In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and - SNAP - the job's a game</i> -- Mary Poppins
I think that the pendulum has swung too far the other way: Startups that get funded are disproportionately trying to solve some annoyance. There's no room for whimsy or lovable products (like Apple and Blackberry were early on). There's no room for disrupting an entrenched player with an agile team. No. Solve a pain point or no funding for you.
So, to turn it around, what in the current day is schlep work par excellence? A few things stick out like very sore thumbs.<p>* AWS permissions management, and IAM in general.<p>* Data cleansing and data governance at scale.<p>* IoT costing and specifications.<p>* Rural broadband, in all its forms and associated problems. This one is especially close to the heart for me in Wisconsin.<p>* Negotiate best offers on service renewal.