Cover of Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution

Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution

by Uri Levine · first published 2023

4mentions
1recommended by
4HN commenters
2019–2026first – last mentioned

25% recommend75% neutral

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What Hacker News says

  • larryfreeman · Oct 11, 2024 · Recommends

    …non-fiction books are: * Mindset by Carol S. Dweck * Innovating: A Doer's Manifesto for Starting from a Hunch, Prototyping Problems, Scaling Up, and Learning to Be Productively Wrong by Luis Perez-Breva * Fall In Love with the Problem, Not the Solution: A Handbook for Entrepeneurs by Uri Levine These three books really changed my viewpoint and I've been rereading them every year.

    on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗
  • rafaelmdec · Feb 4, 2026 · Mentions

    I'm not gonna say don't do it. By all means, go ahead and try it out. My only advice is: don't get married to the solution. Or, in wiser words, fall in love with the problem, not the solution (I think Ury Levine coined that one). At the end of the day, either you'll have learned or succeeded.

    on “Ask HN: The Next Big OS Leap” ↗
  • haswell · Jul 25, 2022 · Mentions

    …working. The #1 priority should be focusing on the customer's problem, not the feature itself. I've often found the XY Problem [0] a helpful tool when trying to get people focused on the right things, and "Fall in love with the problem, not the solution" also comes to mind. Asking for a specific solution with no mention of the problem is often the big issue, and a hyper focus on articulating the problem itself can go a long way in navigating these conversations.…

    on “Ask HN: Good resources to teach a PM about YAGNI?” ↗
  • plaidfuji · Jan 27, 2019 · Mentions

    There was another blog post on HN a few months ago titled “Fall in Love with the Problem, not the Solution.” This is a very clear case of the latter. What problem is he trying to solve??? That humans are too slow? The bicycle solved that ages ago.

    on “What it’s like to pursue a dream for 30 years and fail” ↗

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