"Don't start with 'solving a problem' because what you are really doing is polishing before you have a thing to polish." This taken out of context would be all

"Don't start with 'solving a problem' because what you are really doing is polishing before you have a thing to polish." This taken out of context would be all wrong. I never build anything that's not going to solve some core problem my users have. I think, though, that he means, "Don't start with solving a problem inherent to your, or a competitor's, product."