Some may remember that Reddit used to have an item recommender a long time ago, back in its first year or so. It was a Bayesian classifier that, since it needed a bunch of input, only worked for the most hardcore members — who had already seen almost all of the recommendations!<p>This was originally the "hard problem" at the center of Reddit.<p>Let me explain what I mean by that. There used to be a quaint notion that to be a respectable tech startup, you had to have a "hard problem" (technologically speaking) at your core, which you had an innovative "secret sauce" solution for, preferably one you were patenting. After all, if not, then someone can just copy you and squash you like a bug, right?<p>Since then, YC's insistent focus on making something people want, Eric Ries' lean startup gospel and many entrepreneurs' own experiences have thankfully gone a long way to convince people (most importantly SV investors) that focusing on a "hard problem" is not only unnecessary, but may end up being a fatal distraction.<p>This is a pretty good example of how the "hard problem" can turn out to be completely irrelevant. Once it was clear that the recommendation engine wasn't a growth vector, the Reddit team seemed to drop it out of sheer pragmatism. They just needed to keep the site running.<p>I can't recall many who cared or even noticed that the "recommended" tab was gone. But from that point on, Reddit was more free to become not just a quirky "personalized news" startup, but what it has aspired to since: the front page of the internet. And only now, just now, do a good chunk of the millions of users think a recommender might be nice.<p>It's the startup version of "you aren't gonna need it" — if it doesn't drive growth, push it aside.