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Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

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Re: Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

#241

Post by JohnFen »

rburhum wrote: post #171
alexobenauer wrote: post #38

Here's the recommendation I give to students when they ask me this question (it's a common one!): You come up with a brilliant idea, you obsess over it, you Google some info, and on your screen lies your idea, being done by someone else, for the last two years. You’re all too familiar with that sinking feeling in your stomach that follows. You abandon the idea almost immediately after all that excitement and ideation…

Great advice, so I am not going to repeat this because I 100% agree with it. However additionally I would add that if you think that it is the software alone that will make or break the company, then it is obvious that this is your first time doing this and that you have never brought a product to market. There are a ton of examples where one product that was of less quality absolutely annihilated another excellent p…

> good software is not enough to win.

This can be generalized: a good product is not sufficient. To succeed in the market requires a lot of things, a good product being only one of them.

Re: Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

#242

Post by JohnFen »

bluedino wrote: post #198
rburhum wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great advice, so I am not going to repeat this because I 100% agree with it. However additionally I would add that if you think that it is the software alone that will make or break the company, then it is obvious that this is your first time doing this and that you have never brought a product to market. There are a ton of examples where one product that was of less quality absolutely annihilated another excellent p…

Marketing always wins. So many business owners fail to understand this. We have a better product, better support, we're made in America.... None of that matters. How do you present the product? What image does it portray? How is your name viewed?

> Marketing always wins.

The lack of marketing will always cause failure, but history is littered with examples of how marketing alone does not always win.

Re: Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

#244

Post by rchaud »

aeorgnoieang wrote: post #206
babuskov wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Next time you come up with that great idea, don’t Google it for a week. Let your mind fester on the idea, allow it to grow like many branches from a trunk. Jot down all of the tangentially related but equally exciting ideas that inevitably follow. Allow your mind to take the idea far into new places. No, you won’t build 90% of them, but give yourself the time to enjoy exploring the idea totally. I can only confirm…

Your English is great.

I like the "Crank" potion idea, that was a bonkers action movie, and I'd love to see a modern game use those types of powerups.

Re: Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

#245

Post by Dragonai »

alexobenauer wrote: post #38

Here's the recommendation I give to students when they ask me this question (it's a common one!): You come up with a brilliant idea, you obsess over it, you Google some info, and on your screen lies your idea, being done by someone else, for the last two years. You’re all too familiar with that sinking feeling in your stomach that follows. You abandon the idea almost immediately after all that excitement and ideation…

Love this advice. Thanks so much for sharing!

Re: Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

#246

Post by HelloFellowDevs »

I had an idea, that I was going to implement over the month of May as soon as I finished my internship. I was very excited, I wrote up a pitch and mapped out the infrastructure. I just hadn't written code yet, I was saving that for when I could just write code for myself in May. This weekend someone else launched it. It's not as if I was thinking that my idea was novel, I just didn't think anyone else would get onto it let alone 'beat' me to market. I can still work on that idea for sure, but it really took the wind out of my sails.

Here's Overcast with Clip Sharing[0]

[0] https://marco.org/2019/04/27/overcast-clip-sharing

Re: Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

#247

Post by sah2ed »

ScottFree wrote: post #209

Just out of curiosity, is anybody here looking to create a new consumer operating system to compete with Windows and Mac? I'd like to, but I have no idea where to start. Talk about putting it off because something already exists! :)

You conveniently left out Linux, why :)?

Linus Torvalds recently did an interview [0], where he talked about, amongst other things, just how hard it is to get an OS off the ground.

Excerpt: “I used to think that some radical new and exciting OS would come around and supplant Linux some day (hey, back in 1994 I probably still thought that maybe Hurd would do it!), but it's not just that we've been doing this for a long time and are still doing very well, I've also come to realize that making a new operating system is just way harder than I ever thought. It really takes a lot of effort by a lot of people, and the strength of Linux—and open source in general, of course—is very much that you can build on top of the effort of all those other people.

So unless there is some absolutely enormous shift in the computing landscape, I think Linux will be doing quite well another quarter century from now.”

0: https://www.linuxjournal.com/content/25-years-later-intervie...

Re: Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

#249

Post by tombert »

I actually started on a project recently because a competing product already exists.

I really dislike Emby and Plex server (I don't want to besmirch them here but you can email me if you want a rant :) ), and as a result I've been working on/off on a product to replace them.

I probably won't monetize it any time soon, but it's not off the table honestly, since I personally feel that my system will be better. Even if it's not, I had a lot of fun making it.

Re: Ask HN: Are you put off building something because it already exists?

#250

Post by infinite8s »

JohnFen wrote: post #241
rburhum wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great advice, so I am not going to repeat this because I 100% agree with it. However additionally I would add that if you think that it is the software alone that will make or break the company, then it is obvious that this is your first time doing this and that you have never brought a product to market. There are a ton of examples where one product that was of less quality absolutely annihilated another excellent p…

> good software is not enough to win. This can be generalized: a good product is not sufficient. To succeed in the market requires a lot of things, a good product being only one of them.

In some cases a good product is not even necessary.
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