Interactions.

I love this question. My answer is Beauty. we are surrounded by ugliness and it pains me. almost everything could be made more beautiful.

You, me, them over there

A lost cause for the most part, communication. Seems like most of what passes for communication these days is one way; what can I get out of it? how can I use this? do I agree or disagree? do I like this? what does this say about me? etc? etc? etc?. These days, people love to blame this sort of narcissism on the internet but things were not much different in the 80s, it was just easier to believe there was something better, we still had our ignorance.

Doing good and making the world a better place, finding love, having good relationships with friends and family, solving interesting problems, intellectual growth

Every problem stems from roughly half the population fearing the idea of people and practices that are different from their own. It feels like addressing any other problem is palliative. There has to be a way to improve this.

Personal accountability

My parents, pets, and friends.

Life. All life. Though, mosquitos, bacteria, and parasites are a struggle.

Also, I try constantly to be a better father and husband. This too is challenging.

Quality user experience in things that are core functions of use, and specifically them not getting bogged down (or potentially “bricked” by) the need for luxury, or ads, or ease of use.

In a car, the driver seat should, in my mind, be manually adjusted. Why? Because if the motor breaks because it has to adjust each time you sit down, and the last person to use the car is my mother or girlfriend, I literally cannot drive my car until it gets fixed because I am too tall.

But something like heated/cooled seats is perfectly fine to have as a luxury, because if my seat cooler fan breaks, I just have a sweaty back as if I didn’t have a seat cooler.

Same with manual transmissions: if I ever have my transmission start acting up and I don’t have the money to bring my car to the shop, I could probably fix it, albeit with a lot of difficulty and cursing. But an automatic? No way in hell.

Plus, my manual lasts longer, stays cooler, tows more, is more fun, provides more control, keeps me more aware and focused while driving, and is a theft deterrent.

You can apply this logic to anything: if the object becomes useless without it, it should be as basic, durable, strong, resilient, and/or foolproof as possible, but when the object would not break without it, it can have as much luxury as desired.