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How to Decide What to Build

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Re: How to Decide What to Build

#141

Post by mncharity »

kaiby wrote: post #56
mikekchar wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideas are a dime a dozen, execution is what wins (or sometimes you just get lucky). Your cooking annoyance is a good place to do thought experiments. I don't always want to cook, but in cases where I don't want to cook I don't always want to go out. Proposed solution: Get my neighbours to cook for me. It's a good idea, but after you investigated, it was infeasible. There are two ways you can go with this. First, you…

There's a number of sites that actually do as you describe, except it’s for Japanese candy, not ramen. An example: https://www.candyjapan.com

He provides a business overview: https://www.candyjapan.com/behind-the-scenes/2017-year-in-re... .

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#142

Post by smaddox »

skariel123 wrote: post #126
pryelluw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't normally talk about this, but here is what you are missing: Businesses that make (real) money revolve around one of two ideas: - They sell shovels - They are middlemen (middlepeople?) They sell shovels. This is stolen from the old saying that during the American gold rush the people who made the money were the ones selling shovels. Or facilitating others to go and do what they wanted (in this case, chase a wi…

if I build a gam then what is it as shovel? people will not makemoney out of it. I'm also not a middleman because there's just me and the end customer, I vuilt it from scratch. So who am I?!

A game is a shovel. People don't want to play games, they want to have fun, or disconnect from the real world for a period of time, or they want to connect with their friends. Games enable them to do so.

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#144

Post by mathgladiator »

pryelluw wrote: post #40
acconrad wrote: post #28

One of the points the author makes is that you should track the problems you have, and the ones that reoccur will be good signals to solve them. Does anyone else feel pretty content with what they have? Because this strategy I think Paul Graham has talked about in one of his essays for ideas. And to be honest, I do genuinely feel like I don't have much if anything to complain about, and so I can't really think of sta…

I don't normally talk about this, but here is what you are missing: Businesses that make (real) money revolve around one of two ideas: - They sell shovels - They are middlemen (middlepeople?) They sell shovels. This is stolen from the old saying that during the American gold rush the people who made the money were the ones selling shovels. Or facilitating others to go and do what they wanted (in this case, chase a wi…

Also, sell a dream. See boats, vacation, music, movies

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#145

Post by [deleted] »

skariel123 wrote: post #126
pryelluw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't normally talk about this, but here is what you are missing: Businesses that make (real) money revolve around one of two ideas: - They sell shovels - They are middlemen (middlepeople?) They sell shovels. This is stolen from the old saying that during the American gold rush the people who made the money were the ones selling shovels. Or facilitating others to go and do what they wanted (in this case, chase a wi…

if I build a gam then what is it as shovel? people will not makemoney out of it. I'm also not a middleman because there's just me and the end customer, I vuilt it from scratch. So who am I?!

[deleted]

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#146

Post by kenny87 »

pryelluw wrote: post #40
acconrad wrote: post #28

One of the points the author makes is that you should track the problems you have, and the ones that reoccur will be good signals to solve them. Does anyone else feel pretty content with what they have? Because this strategy I think Paul Graham has talked about in one of his essays for ideas. And to be honest, I do genuinely feel like I don't have much if anything to complain about, and so I can't really think of sta…

I don't normally talk about this, but here is what you are missing: Businesses that make (real) money revolve around one of two ideas: - They sell shovels - They are middlemen (middlepeople?) They sell shovels. This is stolen from the old saying that during the American gold rush the people who made the money were the ones selling shovels. Or facilitating others to go and do what they wanted (in this case, chase a wi…

Your point about shovels reminds me of something Alan Kay said about human universals. That is if you want to make a lot of money take one of the top 20 human universals and build a technological amplifier for them.

Link: https://www.fastcompany.com/40435064/what-alan-kay-thinks-ab...

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#147

Post by pythonaut_16 »

skariel123 wrote: post #126
pryelluw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't normally talk about this, but here is what you are missing: Businesses that make (real) money revolve around one of two ideas: - They sell shovels - They are middlemen (middlepeople?) They sell shovels. This is stolen from the old saying that during the American gold rush the people who made the money were the ones selling shovels. Or facilitating others to go and do what they wanted (in this case, chase a wi…

if I build a gam then what is it as shovel? people will not makemoney out of it. I'm also not a middleman because there's just me and the end customer, I vuilt it from scratch. So who am I?!

One of thousands of people entering into the highly competitive Indie Games market and hoping that you have the right combination of a desirable game and effective marketing that will get you enough sales that your time spent making the game is justified.

Or in other words, a gambler. Your profit from the game relies on convincing people that your game is fun and worthwhile; two ill defined concepts that vary from person to person.

With a business idea (shovels or middleman) your profit comes from convincing people that your product will help them make more money than they're paying you.

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#148

Post by Cactus2018 »

acconrad wrote: post #28

One of the points the author makes is that you should track the problems you have, and the ones that reoccur will be good signals to solve them. Does anyone else feel pretty content with what they have? Because this strategy I think Paul Graham has talked about in one of his essays for ideas. And to be honest, I do genuinely feel like I don't have much if anything to complain about, and so I can't really think of sta…

Crowdsource cooking from neighbors startup 'Josephine' recently shutdown https://medium.com/the-dish/continuing-the-home-cooking-move...

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#149

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

baxtr wrote: post #60
acconrad wrote: post #28

One of the points the author makes is that you should track the problems you have, and the ones that reoccur will be good signals to solve them. Does anyone else feel pretty content with what they have? Because this strategy I think Paul Graham has talked about in one of his essays for ideas. And to be honest, I do genuinely feel like I don't have much if anything to complain about, and so I can't really think of sta…

I agree with your observation. It is difficult to find problems worth solving. I thought and read about this a lot. And I think solving problems is just one way , one flavor of deciding which thing to build. I’d say this is the Silicon Valley school of thought, very much influenced by VCs. There is a another way, which I have picked up from Seth Godin: Tell the right story. People don’t always know why they buy thing…

a.k.a the Apple school of thought.

Re: How to Decide What to Build

#150

Post by pryelluw »

kenny87 wrote: post #146
pryelluw wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't normally talk about this, but here is what you are missing: Businesses that make (real) money revolve around one of two ideas: - They sell shovels - They are middlemen (middlepeople?) They sell shovels. This is stolen from the old saying that during the American gold rush the people who made the money were the ones selling shovels. Or facilitating others to go and do what they wanted (in this case, chase a wi…

Your point about shovels reminds me of something Alan Kay said about human universals. That is if you want to make a lot of money take one of the top 20 human universals and build a technological amplifier for them. Link: https://www.fastcompany.com/40435064/what-alan-kay-thinks-ab...

Thank you for posting that link.
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