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This is why software development is such a great space. Its quite easy to find a task that no existing software does or the existing software is bad. You don't

This is why software development is such a great space. Its quite easy to find a task that no existing software does or the existing software is bad. You don't have to be the worlds best developer but you can make stuff that people will use because you are the only one making it. With a painting you are getting compared to every other painting, with a program you are compared to other programs for the same task.

akhilcacharya 8y ago
I disagree. There are gradients to the type of engineer you are and the type of employer you have (or are, in the case of the HN crowd), how much you make/raise, etc.
- qwertay 8y ago
  I'm talking more about as a hobby. In a weekend you can write a useful script or website with a fairly low level of skills.
TeMPOraL 8y ago
> This is why software development is such a great space. Its quite easy to find a task that no existing software does or the existing software is bad. Maybe I hail from an alternate universe, but on my planet, everything that's obviously worth doing in software is already being done by 5 different startups and 20 open source projects (I'll grant that it's often done badly, though). How do you find "tasks that no existing software does"? On my planet, I'm learning to settle for "doing better", or "doing more fully", or "being more accessible in environment X".
- mbel 8y ago
  It's even better. Start a project for fun in existing field and people will question why did you even start it. Projects X, Y and Z already exist and have features A, B and C which you haven't implemented yet, how dare you?
- qwertay 8y ago
  The stuff that programmers are interested in usually have 10000 tools made already but if you look at other industries or hobbies there are a lot of people using crappy expensive tools. A few times I have found areas where no tool exists like a few months ago I needed a ruby library that could download a picture from stitched together OSM tiles and nothing did that. You can pretty easily find an area where you can easily be the only/best open source tool for the job and there are a lot of people who will use your tool just because it's open source.
  - JohnBooty 8y ago
    This is very true. And to be honest, there are actually piles and piles of money just waiting to be made this way. We (as an industry) are trying to invent flying cars and the world's 482,382nd social networking app with zero revenue model and other crap crap like that. Meanwhile, your dentist's office is using software that sucks, probably costs $20K a year, and looks like Microsoft Office 2K3 threw up all over their computer screen. But we ignore that, in favor of creating yet another new Javascript framework-of-the-week or something else the world doesn't even remotely need. I'm currently working at a privately-owned company that makes software for one of these unsexy niches and they're making very solid money. They're literally the only one making software in this space. It will never be a billion dollar space, and probably never a $100mil space, but there is a need and a market of companies willing to pay well for this software.
    - ozim 8y ago
      Yes developers are quite narrow sighted, we nag about how silly interviews in our area are, we don't even know what is it like to be interviewed as chemical engineer for example. Follow up with that we get bunch of startups and tools from developers for developers because that is what we focus on. Where making small tool for some other profession could be even more interesting than trying to write better left pad or another package manager for javascript. But also people in different fields have to use some stuff from 10 years ago or god forbid from previous century like 90's and you don't want to get dirty.
      - 8y ago
- krautsourced 8y ago
  I think it's still "easy" to find something if you are looking in terms of bespoke software for one very specific use case. Like in our company, I'm building business and pipeline tools that reflect specifically our workflow, so it is very useful for us - but utterly irrelevant for 99.9% of other people or companies, probably. Meaning, it's hard to find ideas that apply to lots of people AND possibly make money of, but it's relatively easy to find things to do that are bespoke. If you are just looking for ways to make your own life easier, not everyone else's.
- jpindar 8y ago
  Could you please point me to some of the 25 programs for managing windows icon overlays?
mbel 8y ago
> With a painting you are getting compared to every other painting, with a program you are compared to other programs for the same task. Usually you are compared to other paintings done with the same technique and/or style. No one is going to compare your impressionist watercolors with abstract geometric acrylic painting. So in a way it's the same. There are categories both in painting and in software development.
sjapkee 8y ago
>Its quite easy to find a task that no existing software does or the existing software is bad No, it's damn hard.
- wtracy 8y ago
  Really? Because I see these things all the time. Of course, there's usually market forces keeping things that way. In case you need examples: I can't find a good surface subdivision modeler for Android tablets. The desktop clients for Upwork are a bloated mess. The Field Nation mobile client crashes twice a day for me, and both the mobile client and desktop website present a massive amount of information in a cluttered, completely disorganized fashion. The inventory/shipping tracking systems for ecommerce are either clunky, or priced out of reach for Mom and Pop eBay sellers. I can't think of any CMSs that are particularly helpful for that vertical, either. You could make a bunch of people happy by fixing any of those (okay, I may be the only person chafing for a good surface subdivision tool for Android). Unfortunately, you're going to have a hard time making real money from any of those niches.

akhilcacharya 8y ago

I disagree. There are gradients to the type of engineer you are and the type of employer you have (or are, in the case of the HN crowd), how much you make/raise, etc.

qwertay 8y ago
I'm talking more about as a hobby. In a weekend you can write a useful script or website with a fairly low level of skills.

TeMPOraL 8y ago

> This is why software development is such a great space. Its quite easy to find a task that no existing software does or the existing software is bad. Maybe I hail from an alternate universe, but on my planet, everything that's obviously worth doing in software is already being done by 5 different startups and 20 open source projects (I'll grant that it's often done badly, though). How do you find "tasks that no existing software does"? On my planet, I'm learning to settle for "doing better", or "doing more fully", or "being more accessible in environment X".

mbel 8y ago
It's even better. Start a project for fun in existing field and people will question why did you even start it. Projects X, Y and Z already exist and have features A, B and C which you haven't implemented yet, how dare you?
qwertay 8y ago
The stuff that programmers are interested in usually have 10000 tools made already but if you look at other industries or hobbies there are a lot of people using crappy expensive tools. A few times I have found areas where no tool exists like a few months ago I needed a ruby library that could download a picture from stitched together OSM tiles and nothing did that. You can pretty easily find an area where you can easily be the only/best open source tool for the job and there are a lot of people who will use your tool just because it's open source.
- JohnBooty 8y ago
  This is very true. And to be honest, there are actually piles and piles of money just waiting to be made this way. We (as an industry) are trying to invent flying cars and the world's 482,382nd social networking app with zero revenue model and other crap crap like that. Meanwhile, your dentist's office is using software that sucks, probably costs $20K a year, and looks like Microsoft Office 2K3 threw up all over their computer screen. But we ignore that, in favor of creating yet another new Javascript framework-of-the-week or something else the world doesn't even remotely need. I'm currently working at a privately-owned company that makes software for one of these unsexy niches and they're making very solid money. They're literally the only one making software in this space. It will never be a billion dollar space, and probably never a $100mil space, but there is a need and a market of companies willing to pay well for this software.
  - ozim 8y ago
    Yes developers are quite narrow sighted, we nag about how silly interviews in our area are, we don't even know what is it like to be interviewed as chemical engineer for example. Follow up with that we get bunch of startups and tools from developers for developers because that is what we focus on. Where making small tool for some other profession could be even more interesting than trying to write better left pad or another package manager for javascript. But also people in different fields have to use some stuff from 10 years ago or god forbid from previous century like 90's and you don't want to get dirty.
    - 8y ago
krautsourced 8y ago
I think it's still "easy" to find something if you are looking in terms of bespoke software for one very specific use case. Like in our company, I'm building business and pipeline tools that reflect specifically our workflow, so it is very useful for us - but utterly irrelevant for 99.9% of other people or companies, probably. Meaning, it's hard to find ideas that apply to lots of people AND possibly make money of, but it's relatively easy to find things to do that are bespoke. If you are just looking for ways to make your own life easier, not everyone else's.
jpindar 8y ago
Could you please point me to some of the 25 programs for managing windows icon overlays?

mbel 8y ago

> With a painting you are getting compared to every other painting, with a program you are compared to other programs for the same task. Usually you are compared to other paintings done with the same technique and/or style. No one is going to compare your impressionist watercolors with abstract geometric acrylic painting. So in a way it's the same. There are categories both in painting and in software development.

sjapkee 8y ago

>Its quite easy to find a task that no existing software does or the existing software is bad No, it's damn hard.

wtracy 8y ago
Really? Because I see these things all the time. Of course, there's usually market forces keeping things that way. In case you need examples: I can't find a good surface subdivision modeler for Android tablets. The desktop clients for Upwork are a bloated mess. The Field Nation mobile client crashes twice a day for me, and both the mobile client and desktop website present a massive amount of information in a cluttered, completely disorganized fashion. The inventory/shipping tracking systems for ecommerce are either clunky, or priced out of reach for Mom and Pop eBay sellers. I can't think of any CMSs that are particularly helpful for that vertical, either. You could make a bunch of people happy by fixing any of those (okay, I may be the only person chafing for a good surface subdivision tool for Android). Unfortunately, you're going to have a hard time making real money from any of those niches.