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Any advice on actually finding the idea that is worth doing? I have a notion page with 20+ tiny ideas, but I still don't find any of them encouraging enough to

Any advice on actually finding the idea that is worth doing? I have a notion page with 20+ tiny ideas, but I still don't find any of them encouraging enough to spend time on. How to overcome this very first step?

almostarockstar 5y ago
I have two solutions for you that have served me well. 1. Don't wait for the right idea. Just build a less than ideal idea and iterate. More than likely you will gain insight that leads to a better idea along the way. 2. Copy somebody else's idea. Nobody executes perfectly, and no two founders will execute the same way. There is always room for competition.
samsquire 5y ago
I publish all my ideas online if you are interested. They're not really startup ideas though. They're just computer ideas I wish existed. Links in profile.
- MattGaiser 5y ago
  Reading your ideas now. You are a fascinating fellow.
showHNshow 5y ago
Is this list of ideas public? I would be interested in reading them.
codingdave 5y ago
It is the same advice you hear for any other project - solve a problem. The projects that work are the ones that solve people's problems. The ones that fail are the ones that try to create solutions for problems people do not have.
- PUSH_AX 5y ago
  To add to this, advice from people successful in this area really recommend solving a problem *you* have and avoid trying to solve problems you know exist but aren't a problem for you.
  - cestith 5y ago
    This is good advice. Problems you have yourself you understand better and have probably already had some thoughts on how to solve them. Even idle thoughts in the past can be really handy when it comes time to think deeper about solving it in code.
hypertele-Xii 5y ago
20 is a very small amount of ideas. Keep coming up with more, and they keep getting better. It's a skill like any other.
- giarc 5y ago
  The real learning comes from executing on even those dumb ideas. I learned more from 2 dumb Shopify sites I built and ran then listing out ideas.
Rastonbury 5y ago
If the idea is tiny, they literally should take no longer than 2 weeks. Just start an hour a day at night or in the morning and chip away an hour by hour. Managed to get a tiny idea I had live in 2 months doing it like this
- geomark 5y ago
  I've had some luck building toy websites for the main purpose of trying out or practicing some tools or skills. Most recently was a site where I was semi-automatically collecting stock price data, creating and posting stock charts and attempting (unsuccessfully) to identify buy opportunities. It was on the domain BuyTheDip.com. After I was done dabbling the site just sat for a few years until a buyer approached with an attractive offer. It was during the Wall Street Bets frenzy so I think it might have been related. Now the domain redirects to a Discord group, so I guess they just liked the domain name. Point being, you might just keep building and dabbling and score a winner now and then.
allenu 5y ago
I don't think you'll ever know off the bat if an idea is worth doing. A lot of ideas sound good to you, but there are so many unknowns, like whether you have a suitable audience and whether there's a good ROI. As an exercise, you could try doing a rough design of a working system to get a feel for how much work it would be. On top of that, you could try imagining all the things that could go wrong and try to predict the likelihood of each. That's what I would do, anyway.
notJim 5y ago
I have a theory that once you get something out there, it establishes you as a person who can ship stuff independently. Even if it's not a success, it'll introduce you to people who may help you discover better ideas. If you can build a bit of a brand, some people will follow you around and help promote your projects just because they like you. I haven't tested this yet, because I haven't shipped my 90%-complete project from 2 years ago yet…

almostarockstar 5y ago

I have two solutions for you that have served me well. 1. Don't wait for the right idea. Just build a less than ideal idea and iterate. More than likely you will gain insight that leads to a better idea along the way. 2. Copy somebody else's idea. Nobody executes perfectly, and no two founders will execute the same way. There is always room for competition.

samsquire 5y ago

I publish all my ideas online if you are interested. They're not really startup ideas though. They're just computer ideas I wish existed. Links in profile.

MattGaiser 5y ago
Reading your ideas now. You are a fascinating fellow.

showHNshow 5y ago

Is this list of ideas public? I would be interested in reading them.

codingdave 5y ago

It is the same advice you hear for any other project - solve a problem. The projects that work are the ones that solve people's problems. The ones that fail are the ones that try to create solutions for problems people do not have.

PUSH_AX 5y ago
To add to this, advice from people successful in this area really recommend solving a problem *you* have and avoid trying to solve problems you know exist but aren't a problem for you.
- cestith 5y ago
  This is good advice. Problems you have yourself you understand better and have probably already had some thoughts on how to solve them. Even idle thoughts in the past can be really handy when it comes time to think deeper about solving it in code.

hypertele-Xii 5y ago

20 is a very small amount of ideas. Keep coming up with more, and they keep getting better. It's a skill like any other.

giarc 5y ago
The real learning comes from executing on even those dumb ideas. I learned more from 2 dumb Shopify sites I built and ran then listing out ideas.

Rastonbury 5y ago

If the idea is tiny, they literally should take no longer than 2 weeks. Just start an hour a day at night or in the morning and chip away an hour by hour. Managed to get a tiny idea I had live in 2 months doing it like this

geomark 5y ago
I've had some luck building toy websites for the main purpose of trying out or practicing some tools or skills. Most recently was a site where I was semi-automatically collecting stock price data, creating and posting stock charts and attempting (unsuccessfully) to identify buy opportunities. It was on the domain BuyTheDip.com. After I was done dabbling the site just sat for a few years until a buyer approached with an attractive offer. It was during the Wall Street Bets frenzy so I think it might have been related. Now the domain redirects to a Discord group, so I guess they just liked the domain name. Point being, you might just keep building and dabbling and score a winner now and then.

allenu 5y ago

I don't think you'll ever know off the bat if an idea is worth doing. A lot of ideas sound good to you, but there are so many unknowns, like whether you have a suitable audience and whether there's a good ROI. As an exercise, you could try doing a rough design of a working system to get a feel for how much work it would be. On top of that, you could try imagining all the things that could go wrong and try to predict the likelihood of each. That's what I would do, anyway.

notJim 5y ago

I have a theory that once you get something out there, it establishes you as a person who can ship stuff independently. Even if it's not a success, it'll introduce you to people who may help you discover better ideas. If you can build a bit of a brand, some people will follow you around and help promote your projects just because they like you. I haven't tested this yet, because I haven't shipped my 90%-complete project from 2 years ago yet…