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> For me, the main issue is that every time I voice the idea about building something I get bombarded with premature growth and commercialization concerns inste

> For me, the main issue is that every time I voice the idea about building something I get bombarded with premature growth and commercialization concerns instead of excitement about how to solve the problem. I think this is endemic - the entire sector is short sighted and profit obsessed. Do you think some of this is idea related? If you're building software, many new ideas are not truly innovative in a way that would make execution seem like the place to focus? An experienced person might hear the idea and instantly have a general idea of how to build it -- but know that the real hard parts are distribution, finding customers, talking to customers, and building the profit flywheel that lets you do more of the previous. Taking AI as an example just because it's hot right now, but it's a very different conversation if your idea is building a alternative to the transformer (assuming you're talking to someone who could even speak authoritatively on the subject!), versus building an "chatgpt wrapper" app, even if it's very complex/tailored to an industry. Most people won't be able to discuss the industry specific bits so they focus on the tech bits, and then the differences seem to be mostly execution?

tossandthrow 2y ago
When I pitch my calorie counter app that uses AI - fair, that is not new. But eg. working on an idea around decentralized dating app that utilizes federated learning, blockchains, en cryptographic distributed filesystems to make a truly open and algorithmically transparent dating app - and the response is: "But how are you ever going to make money off that" instead of starting to jam on good privacy preserving techniques in FL that still yields good results. ... In honesty, I think the main issue is that the people have _not_ been able to understand these technologies. It has probably been _too_ innovative?
- gnkyfrg 2y ago
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- gr4vityWall 2y ago
  > and the response is: "But how are you ever going to make money off that" I believe one cause for this response is how someone tells the other person about that idea. If you make it clear that you are building something for fun, I think that response becomes less likely. But if they believe your project idea is also a start up idea, then they may ask about the business side. Sometimes I do see a cognitive dissonance when computer-first people and business-first people discuss software. IMO, making it clear where the person starting the conversation is coming from would help both groups not talk past each other when engaging. A startup-minded person won't necessarily ask about monetization if the other person made it clear they're talking about a hobby. I believe it would be less likely, at least.

tossandthrow 2y ago

When I pitch my calorie counter app that uses AI - fair, that is not new. But eg. working on an idea around decentralized dating app that utilizes federated learning, blockchains, en cryptographic distributed filesystems to make a truly open and algorithmically transparent dating app - and the response is: "But how are you ever going to make money off that" instead of starting to jam on good privacy preserving techniques in FL that still yields good results. ... In honesty, I think the main issue is that the people have _not_ been able to understand these technologies. It has probably been _too_ innovative?

gnkyfrg 2y ago
[dead]
gr4vityWall 2y ago
> and the response is: "But how are you ever going to make money off that" I believe one cause for this response is how someone tells the other person about that idea. If you make it clear that you are building something for fun, I think that response becomes less likely. But if they believe your project idea is also a start up idea, then they may ask about the business side. Sometimes I do see a cognitive dissonance when computer-first people and business-first people discuss software. IMO, making it clear where the person starting the conversation is coming from would help both groups not talk past each other when engaging. A startup-minded person won't necessarily ask about monetization if the other person made it clear they're talking about a hobby. I believe it would be less likely, at least.