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I had exactly the same problem, my solution was to not come up with the idea myself and instead to join as a technical founder to a very early stage venture. There is plenty of teams looking for cofounder, it took me 18 months to find one I was aligned with. Bonus is that you will hear lots of ideas so that might inspire your thinking as well In terms of motivation I went all in and quit my job for it.
I had exactly the same problem, my solution was to not come up with the idea myself and instead to join as a technical founder to a very early stage venture. There is plenty of teams looking for cofounder, it took me 18 months to find one I was aligned with. Bonus is that you will hear lots of ideas so that might inspire your thinking as well In terms of motivation I went all in and quit my job for it.
How did you search through those teams?
TL;DR: 1. Ideas are super easy. You just need to realize they don't need to be ground-breaking. The simpler the better. 2. None of us WANT to work more after 9-5 work, especially those of us with families, kids, other non-work commitments. So we need good HABITS and lots of DISCIPLINE to FORCE us to work when we don't want to. Motivation is overrated. 1. This always seems to be the easiest part for me. I never unders…
Why are you giving advice so confidently about a goal without actually having achieved said goal yourself?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why are you giving advice so confidently about a goal without actually having achieved said goal yourself?
What a fatuous remark. My dad was a business failure, but he had the audacity to offer me advice, with confidence no less! I'll concede his advice, and good advice generally, isn't nearly as long-winded nor rife with platitudes as GP.
I had exactly the same problem, my solution was to not come up with the idea myself and instead to join as a technical founder to a very early stage venture. There is plenty of teams looking for cofounder, it took me 18 months to find one I was aligned with. Bonus is that you will hear lots of ideas so that might inspire your thinking as well In terms of motivation I went all in and quit my job for it.
I had exactly the same problem, my solution was to not come up with the idea myself and instead to join as a technical founder to a very early stage venture. There is plenty of teams looking for cofounder, it took me 18 months to find one I was aligned with. Bonus is that you will hear lots of ideas so that might inspire your thinking as well In terms of motivation I went all in and quit my job for it.
How did you search through those teams?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
What a fatuous remark. My dad was a business failure, but he had the audacity to offer me advice, with confidence no less! I'll concede his advice, and good advice generally, isn't nearly as long-winded nor rife with platitudes as GP.
Sharing thoughts on the matter and asking questions is appreciated. Telling someone to quit their jobs and just grind it out through productivity and avoiding procrastination is bad advice.
you have to want to put in the work. if you don't want to, wait until a different time in the future where things are better and you can stomach spending a couple hours before or after work to build something.
TL;DR: 1. Ideas are super easy. You just need to realize they don't need to be ground-breaking. The simpler the better. 2. None of us WANT to work more after 9-5 work, especially those of us with families, kids, other non-work commitments. So we need good HABITS and lots of DISCIPLINE to FORCE us to work when we don't want to. Motivation is overrated. 1. This always seems to be the easiest part for me. I never unders…
Why are you giving advice so confidently about a goal without actually having achieved said goal yourself?
The question was 1. how to come up with ideas, and 2. how to work on those ideas with a 9-5.
I have achieved both of those. Successfully and profitably, or not, is another question altogether.
Even in the past when i've procrastinated, i still 1. had the ideas to work on, and 2. spent some time after work many days to work on the projects.
If the question had been 'how do you build profitable projects and earn $100k+ per year doing so?', i would not have commented.
But given the 2 questions asked, i definitely have an opinion i could share, regardless if it is agreed upn by anyone else.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why are you giving advice so confidently about a goal without actually having achieved said goal yourself?
i have achieved the goal. The question was 1. how to come up with ideas, and 2. how to work on those ideas with a 9-5. I have achieved both of those. Successfully and profitably, or not, is another question altogether. Even in the past when i've procrastinated, i still 1. had the ideas to work on, and 2. spent some time after work many days to work on the projects. If the question had been 'how do you build profitabl…
I intentionally use the word business, not product as a lot of people (including you it seems) conflate. I'm not trying to be an asshole, I'm trying to save you from a lot of potential pain, as I've been also through that and am trying to get you to reflect a bit.
I'm now almost 3 years in running a vc funded startup and things are not going so well because I didn't start off with the right fundamentals and have been focusing on product. I've had a look at the list of your startup ideas and I am almost certain you yourself, let alone many other people, don't pay for these types of things, and they don't seem to have network effects in order to scale up quickly and dominate a market.
It's not only about hunkering down and building things, it's about understanding what makes a viable business, where your potential customers congregate, which language they're using, is it really a problem for them that you're solving, how can you reach them in a scalable way, who are the technical/economical decision makers in b2b, or how do you achieve some kind of network effect if b2c... (obviously i'm generalising a bit, but it's a fascinating multidimensional problem and I feel this advice of grinding it out is repeated everywhere and is super harmful)
as far as ideas go, I can guarantee you that in your 15 years of professional experience you've seen many potential business problems that you just didn't recognise. Any repetitive annoying process you've seen somebody using a patched up excel sheet is potentially a business. if you're launching a cycling app without already having built an audience and a brand in the community, it's most likely going to be a painful experience. Really not trying to be an asshole, btw
Anyway, if that's what you want... the secret is to know your customer, which usually means knowing yourself. Find some domain that interests you, something you're already doing, and say, "Hey, I could automate that." It's easiest to see that something is slightly uncomfortable when you're the one being slightly uncomfortable.
You relieve that discomfort, and then you look for other people who are similarly uncomfortable. And convince them to pay for it, either in money or in attention. "Free with ads" is very low friction and helps you find those people.
This is the reason I encourage programmers to have interests outside of programming. Nobody wants to pay you to program. They want to pay you to make their lives better. That's easiest if you know their lives. Any outside interest -- ballet dancing, glassblowing, small engine repair -- puts you in touch with other people who might have needs that can only be recognized by other practitioners.
That you don't have any interests -- honestly, that sounds like a question for a therapist, not HN. You're doing something with those 8 hours you're spending neither working nor sleeping. If they're spent staring at a wall, or even a TV or a monitor, it might be worth taking a look at just what it is you want out of life.