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Depends on the frame of reference. The problems non-scientists consider important are usually tackled by motivated scientists because of their interestingness to them.
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And vice versus — most scientists won’t touch psychic phenomena or UFOs despite their being some of the most intensely interesting, potentially revolutionary subjects out there.
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Interesting to who? If interesting to too many people, it's an inverse signal - truly interesting problems which are *that* accessible tend to get solved quickly. But interesting to a select group of themselves-interesting people, that's different.
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Any problem whose interestingness is sufficiently obvious has been deeply investigated before the importance has been made legible I'm not sure if this is an alternate idea or a corollary, but: It's only by investigating interesting problems that we understand their importance.
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If you want to compete with the most creative, driven techies in the universe, try to get a job in video games. Cuz games are interesting to build.