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> Where the author made a mistake was in trying to make "what the market wants" rather than just making stuff he/she actually wanted to make and trying to see i

> Where the author made a mistake was in trying to make "what the market wants" rather than just making stuff he/she actually wanted to make and trying to see if it was possible to make money from it. If you want to make a business, you must make what the market wants. Making your own stuff and trying to make money from it is possible, but it's no longer a business. I'm a professional software developer and a hobbyist software developer and while I could have sold some of my hobby software I explicitly choose not to. The reason is that selling something immediately creates responsibilities that, for my hobby, I just don't want to have. A business is something of it's own beast.

bawolff 3y ago
I dont really think you are disagreeing with each other. The first poster is saying find a niche where you can stand out. I'd agree with that - never fight a superior adversary on ther own turf. But it doesn't mean totally throwing market concerns to the wind.
lisasays 3y ago
If you want to make a business, you must make what the market wants. Making your own stuff and trying to make money from it is possible, but it's no longer a business. Right, we get it - but it's not binary, and in turns out there's considerable room for nuance. In fact some of the happiest and most genuinely successful people I know got there from figuring out how to navigate this valley, and knowing when to trust their gut. It also has a lot to do with taste -- specifically for stuff that is awesome and cool, but just a bit below the radar, as it were.
- wvenable 3y ago
  I wonder if there's a distinction between doing what you love as work and doing what you love as hobby. I love software development and I especially love software development as work. I actually prefer to solve other people's problems than my own. Perhaps some of this discussion is just talking at cross-purposes because the fundamental thing that we're discussing is not the same.
kelnos 3y ago
But you don't know what the market wants. I would think that a primary goal of turning a hobby into a business is to answer the question, "is my hobby something the market wants?" And sure, the answer might be a resounding "no", but you can change your focus once you figure that out. And that change in focus might make you hate it, which sucks.
- quickthrower2 3y ago
  You doing your hobby is never what the market wants. There might be a 10% intersection? Unless your hobby is business itself or you change what you want to what you actually need to do to make money.

bawolff 3y ago

I dont really think you are disagreeing with each other. The first poster is saying find a niche where you can stand out. I'd agree with that - never fight a superior adversary on ther own turf. But it doesn't mean totally throwing market concerns to the wind.

lisasays 3y ago

If you want to make a business, you must make what the market wants. Making your own stuff and trying to make money from it is possible, but it's no longer a business. Right, we get it - but it's not binary, and in turns out there's considerable room for nuance. In fact some of the happiest and most genuinely successful people I know got there from figuring out how to navigate this valley, and knowing when to trust their gut. It also has a lot to do with taste -- specifically for stuff that is awesome and cool, but just a bit below the radar, as it were.

wvenable 3y ago
I wonder if there's a distinction between doing what you love as work and doing what you love as hobby. I love software development and I especially love software development as work. I actually prefer to solve other people's problems than my own. Perhaps some of this discussion is just talking at cross-purposes because the fundamental thing that we're discussing is not the same.

kelnos 3y ago

But you don't know what the market wants. I would think that a primary goal of turning a hobby into a business is to answer the question, "is my hobby something the market wants?" And sure, the answer might be a resounding "no", but you can change your focus once you figure that out. And that change in focus might make you hate it, which sucks.

quickthrower2 3y ago
You doing your hobby is never what the market wants. There might be a 10% intersection? Unless your hobby is business itself or you change what you want to what you actually need to do to make money.