4 ms·
Maybe I lack vision, but I think there's still interesting programs that will never achieve startup success. For example, I'm currently writing a Lisp program
by tsm 14y ago
Maybe I lack vision, but I think there's still interesting programs that will never achieve startup success.
For example, I'm currently writing a Lisp program that uses an LSTM neural network to compose Scottish fiddle music. As a Scottish fiddler (and composer) and AI enthusiast, this is an intensely interesting project to me. And it's certainly an insane idea with a tiny market and no way to monetize. And that's how it will remain. Scottish fiddling will always be an obscure niche, even within that community there will never be much demand for new music (and there's so many buried gems from the 18th century that this will virtually never change), and any existing demand can be easily fulfilled by the scores of people--including myself--who compose fiddle music the old-fashioned way.
Unlike Altair BASIC, this isn't a case of somebody creating a product in a growing industry people don't realize they need yet. Even I--the "founder"--don't see any potential and realize I'm providing free labor. I'm just in it because it's a great hack.
tl;dr - Distinguish between "anticipating public demand" and "doing something only for yourself".
- ghshephard 14y agoFlash Forward seven years - tsm is now the CEO of the world's largest machine-generated entertainment consortium, with their LISP generated performances routinely topping the charts across the planet.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- Tichy 14y agoExactly - music in the future will be algorithms. (Edit: to clarify, I mean instead of something like an MP3, you could download an algorithm that creates music on the fly. Why bother with recordings when you can have the live composer?)
- PlanetFunk 14y agoThere's something about that last statement that blew my mind. your own personal composer, writing your own personal theme music, specifically designed to catch your current mood, or even modify it.
- StavrosK 14y agoYou can't make that post and not give us samples! What kind of a man are you?!
- tsm 14y agoIt's still WIP, sorry! I managed to backdoor it into an "Applied Math Project" class at school, so I'll be done (must be done!) by early May.
- 6ren 14y agoThat's the title, but in the text he says "an order of magnitude better". There's also a primary filter that the founder believes it has commercial potential.