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Your own problems as a programmer tend to be shared by other people who are equally motivated to—and capable of—solving them. By picking a programmer's problem,

Your own problems as a programmer tend to be shared by other people who are equally motivated to—and capable of—solving them. By picking a programmer's problem, you're picking an oversaturated market. If the goal is really to make a reliable profit, then you should specifically look for problems programmers don't relate to. Make something for parents, old folks, hikers, knitting clubs, etc. They may not be as avid software consumers as programmers, but when you service is the first solution they've found, it's an easy sell.

a1exyz 9y ago
Interesting. Ive run into this issue before. How do you get around it? I am not a parent, old person, hiker or knitter (a generalization but you know what I mean). Thus how can I solve their problems and solve my own problems at the same time? Basically is there a way around this inconvenient truth?
- Jtsummers 9y ago
  What hobbies, activities, or interests do you have? What problems do those near you have? Maybe your "problem" is that you don't know tech stack X very well. You're a competent (or good) programmer, you can come up with something good but need a motivator to further develop that skillset.
shanecleveland 9y ago
But it worked for gesman ...
- fosco 9y ago
  https://m.xkcd.com/1827/ https://m.xkcd.com/1827/
  - shanecleveland 9y ago
    Point taken. Perhaps my reply could have been more constructive, as well. The original suggestion to "solve your own problem" is a sound one. He doesn't say that it has to be a problem programmers have. And I doubt he was implying it would absolutely lead to lottery-winning results ;) I believe that is better advice than finding a problem you can't relate to at all. As Jtsummers also suggests, choose something you will be interested in. Will you want to spend your spare time working on a solution for knitters if you have never touched a piece of yarn in your life? I would also look at gearing any project towards the B2B market, as opposed to B2C market. I spend much more money with much less hesitancy for tech and software when it helps me or my employer make more or waste less money. And I hope that most HN commenters can feel free to say "here's what's worked for me" when asked for advice without first offering up a disclaimer, and I suspect most readers can discern a lot for themselves.
mysterypie 9y ago
> By picking a programmer's problem, you're picking an oversaturated market. The majority of programmers' ideas on what they'd like to build fall into three categories: (1) games (2) tools (a utility, a compiler, etc.) (3) social version of ______ Yeah, great fortunes have been made in all 3 areas. But every programmer is getting those same ideas, so you're going to have insane competition. In the case of (2), people do those for free. In the case of (3), because of network effect, out of 1000 people that try it, one will be winner-take-all. A good first pass might be to eliminate ideas for games, tools, and social whatnot. > Make something for parents, old folks, hikers, knitting clubs, etc. But intersect that list with problems where people are already paying significant money but getting mediocre results. Eg., old folks pay $3000 for hearing aids, but elderly people often say that the results are awful. For many old folks, it's a speech discrimination problem -- sound amplification is not what's needed. What if you built a system that captures what the senior is listening to, and repeats it back in a slow, smooth, clear voice into his ear in near real-time? For further refinement, you could eliminate extraneous noises and conversations from the input, use a voice and accent that the old person is accustomed to, and allow for automatic repeating if he tilts his head slightly left.
gesman 9y ago
“In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.”
jakobegger 9y ago
The market for programmer tools is only saturated with crappy tools. There's lots of opportunity in the not-quite-as-crappy-tool space.

a1exyz 9y ago

Interesting. Ive run into this issue before. How do you get around it? I am not a parent, old person, hiker or knitter (a generalization but you know what I mean). Thus how can I solve their problems and solve my own problems at the same time? Basically is there a way around this inconvenient truth?

Jtsummers 9y ago
What hobbies, activities, or interests do you have? What problems do those near you have? Maybe your "problem" is that you don't know tech stack X very well. You're a competent (or good) programmer, you can come up with something good but need a motivator to further develop that skillset.

shanecleveland 9y ago

But it worked for gesman ...

fosco 9y ago
https://m.xkcd.com/1827/ https://m.xkcd.com/1827/
- shanecleveland 9y ago
  Point taken. Perhaps my reply could have been more constructive, as well. The original suggestion to "solve your own problem" is a sound one. He doesn't say that it has to be a problem programmers have. And I doubt he was implying it would absolutely lead to lottery-winning results ;) I believe that is better advice than finding a problem you can't relate to at all. As Jtsummers also suggests, choose something you will be interested in. Will you want to spend your spare time working on a solution for knitters if you have never touched a piece of yarn in your life? I would also look at gearing any project towards the B2B market, as opposed to B2C market. I spend much more money with much less hesitancy for tech and software when it helps me or my employer make more or waste less money. And I hope that most HN commenters can feel free to say "here's what's worked for me" when asked for advice without first offering up a disclaimer, and I suspect most readers can discern a lot for themselves.

mysterypie 9y ago

> By picking a programmer's problem, you're picking an oversaturated market. The majority of programmers' ideas on what they'd like to build fall into three categories: (1) games (2) tools (a utility, a compiler, etc.) (3) social version of ______ Yeah, great fortunes have been made in all 3 areas. But every programmer is getting those same ideas, so you're going to have insane competition. In the case of (2), people do those for free. In the case of (3), because of network effect, out of 1000 people that try it, one will be winner-take-all. A good first pass might be to eliminate ideas for games, tools, and social whatnot. > Make something for parents, old folks, hikers, knitting clubs, etc. But intersect that list with problems where people are already paying significant money but getting mediocre results. Eg., old folks pay $3000 for hearing aids, but elderly people often say that the results are awful. For many old folks, it's a speech discrimination problem -- sound amplification is not what's needed. What if you built a system that captures what the senior is listening to, and repeats it back in a slow, smooth, clear voice into his ear in near real-time? For further refinement, you could eliminate extraneous noises and conversations from the input, use a voice and accent that the old person is accustomed to, and allow for automatic repeating if he tilts his head slightly left.

gesman 9y ago

“In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.”

jakobegger 9y ago

The market for programmer tools is only saturated with crappy tools. There's lots of opportunity in the not-quite-as-crappy-tool space.