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The only problem is that pretty much anything I can do has been done a zillion times by others.
by zeroc8 5y ago
The only problem is that pretty much anything I can do has been done a zillion times by others.
- kjksf 5y agoI doubt that's true. I have literally hundreds of ideas. As an experiment I put them on a website for anyone to see and "steal": https://blog.kowalczyk.info/article/e4132d5a44014b2aad81d8158c803ad1/ideas.html https://blog.kowalczyk.info/article/e4132d5a44014b2aad81d815... I'm not saying those are all great, profitable ideas. I'm saying that they are doable by a competent programmer and unique enough. Certainly not "done a zillion times by others".
- zepolen 5y agoThat list really drives home the 'ideas are cheap' phrase. I guess the good ideas are expensive.
- kjksf 5y agoI very much agree that ideas are cheap. I don't agree that "good ideas are expensive". The issue is: we don't know which ideas are good or bad. The stats from Venture Capital markets are showing that clearly. Before someone even gets a meeting with a good VC firm the idea is already filtered 100-1 if not 1000-1. Of those who get the meeting, maybe 1 in 100 get an investment. Of those that get an investment, out of 10 maybe 1 or 2 become the really great successes and the remaining 8 are somewhere between "mild return" and "complete failure". Since even the best of the best cannot tell what idea is good and which one is bad, we value all ideas as bad ideas i.e. at zero. I'm quite sure that in that list I've posted there are at least few good ideas i.e. ideas that, when well executed, would lead to a profitable, solo business. I just don't know which ones are good.
- bumby 5y ago>ideas that, when well executed I think this is part of the issue. Unlike the GP, I think the expectation is often both difficult and sometimes expensive. Often ideas seem bad only because they were executed poorly; good execution acts as a type of filter.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- antykodon 5y agoCould you please share the source of these VC stats?
- yayr 5y agoTry to translate this list into: Let [customer group] do [pain point solved].
- herval 5y agoAlmost all the “ideas” in your list are “make X with Y”. They’re not unique by definition. It’s a nice exercise for the brain, but you won’t really ship anything people use that way.
- myk9001 5y agoSorry for an off-topic comment! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your work on SumatraPDF. My favorite, hands down. (Following the link you posted, I realized you're the author.)
- sokoloff 5y agoThat might appear to be the case, but probably isn’t. There’s often not anything harder to implement a CRUD app that solves a novel problem than implementing a CRUD app that solves the same problem as 100 other people are hawking.
- adrianN 5y agoFiguring out what problem to solve is the most difficult part for most side projects. Unless you personally have an unsolved problem that by chance many other people also have, finding something good requires either luck or talking to many potential customers.
- bumby 5y agoI think one way to narrow down to something relatively unique is to look for the Ven diagram of skills and interests. If you layer enough, there's bound to be some areas where relatively few people how the knowledge and passion to pursue. It's no guarantee you'll make money, but it at least helps identify areas you can stand out.
- jhoechtl 5y agoWith the internet economy enabling perfect markets, everyone is competing with good enough monopolists so tiny niches remain to become successful. perfect market = Market with a perfect allocation between demand and supply, because of no information deficiencies.
- pvaldes 5y agoFind a specialized niche then
- tjpnz 5y agoHow thorough have you been in researching competitors? I'm willing to bet that there'll be some differences either in target market or execution. Even if it's effectively the same product maybe there's something they've missed which would give you a significant advantage early on?