I'm not sure why this has turned into a photo editing app conversation. I think the paragraph that would be a better use of time to discuss was the last one; "

I'm not sure why this has turned into a photo editing app conversation. I think the paragraph that would be a better use of time to discuss was the last one; "If you find yourself creating something, and you don't understand how it will be used, and you don't plan on using it yourself, then it's time to take a few steps back and reevaluate what you're doing." This is a pretty good rule, right? Even if no one else pays to use it at least you've built a tool to make your life a little easier, or solve a problem you have. An exception to this rule though, would be people already selling a service to customers and turning this into a product you can reuse for others (I think Carbonmade started kind of like this - they had non-technical friends/acquaintances that needed galleries set up). In fact this would probably be better than simply building a product you'd use yourself as you've already validated that people are willing to pay to use it, not just use it.