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Beg HN: Share some ideas.

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.

#11

Post by RiderOfGiraffes »

You need to have experience in trying stuff out before you stake your future on "The One Big Idea." Unless you've tried and implemented several, perhaps lots, of ideas, you won't know where the hard bits are.

When writing a thesis you have two problems: writing and the ideas you are trying to convey. When you need to write a thesis, start by writing something, anything, every single day. Non-trivial amounts, and expect to throw it away. by the time you have to write the important stuff for real, the writing is second nature and you can concentrate on the bits that really matter.

So it is with implementation of startups. Do it several times over. Pick something and see it through to launch. Don't expect to make money from it, but get a minimally working, not too shabby version actually working with other people using it for real. Until you have that experience, making a product to make money requires that you solve more problems at once than you have time for.

Experience failure to learn about success.

Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.

#12

Post by alttab »

edw519 wrote: post #10

Here's an idea: get a job. After a year, you'll have plenty of ideas, maybe even one of your own. I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but the thought of begging for ideas in an on-line forum is just so alien to me. The best predictor of your success in any endeavor is your own determination. With someone else's idea, you're much more likely to bail at the first sign of difficulty. Once you get a little real world expe…

This is some of the best advice I've seen on here in a while.

Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.

#13

Post by icey »

edw519 wrote: post #10

Here's an idea: get a job. After a year, you'll have plenty of ideas, maybe even one of your own. I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but the thought of begging for ideas in an on-line forum is just so alien to me. The best predictor of your success in any endeavor is your own determination. With someone else's idea, you're much more likely to bail at the first sign of difficulty. Once you get a little real world expe…

I'd like to add a caveat to this: If you go out and get a job, do yourself a favor and live as lean as possible while working it. Save every dime you can. That cushion will make startup life significantly easier.

Plus, you won't have a huge overhead draining you when you do finally make the leap. It's very easy to spend up to your income level when you start making decent money... but it's a trap! Keep your eye on the prize if you really want to start up.

Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.

#14

Post by Tichy »

edw519 wrote: post #10

Here's an idea: get a job. After a year, you'll have plenty of ideas, maybe even one of your own. I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but the thought of begging for ideas in an on-line forum is just so alien to me. The best predictor of your success in any endeavor is your own determination. With someone else's idea, you're much more likely to bail at the first sign of difficulty. Once you get a little real world expe…

It doesn't work for everybody, though. For me, a job tends to completely numb my mind and kill off any creativity I have. YMMV.

Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.

#15

Post by bryanh »

edw519 wrote: post #10

Here's an idea: get a job. After a year, you'll have plenty of ideas, maybe even one of your own. I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but the thought of begging for ideas in an on-line forum is just so alien to me. The best predictor of your success in any endeavor is your own determination. With someone else's idea, you're much more likely to bail at the first sign of difficulty. Once you get a little real world expe…

This is brilliant advice. Remember all that shit about pain points and building a product that has value? That's what living and breathing a 9-5 in a specialty domain will teach you. Think you might want to build an online property management system? Go get a job managing properties. Etc.

Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.

#16

Post by Tichy »

Start with the small web applications. They might turn out bigger than you expected. There are lots of stupid web sites raking in money. And if they don't turn out big, they still provide you with a lot of learning opportunities. Also, you have something to demonstrate should you ever decide to apply for a job.

Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.

#18

Post by ojbyrne »

icey wrote: post #7

Every time someone brings up the idea of starting an site based around giving away ideas, someone else brings up halfbakery, so I suppose you could start there: http://www.halfbakery.com/ I personally don't think the ideas there are all that great. Fortunately there are lots of places where people post ideas that they'd love to see implemented: http://www.reddit.com/r/somebodymakethis/ http://search.twitter.com/searc…

The first one in the "Computer" category - "copy and paste between computers." can be done with Synergy.

Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.

#20

Post by iends »

chegra wrote: post #6

smiles, and pulls out trusty phone full of ideas These are ideas that I wish to capitalize on in the future but since I dont want to jump from project to project you can have them: 1) A language learning api- Website and games can add value to their service by allowing people to learn a new language as they visit their site. I did a small implementation of it in a Software Engineering Module. 2) Collective mnemonics…

Regarding chess bots, there are a lot of places that already do this...ICC And playchess to name two, plus there are lots of rating lists such as http://ssdf.bosjo.net/list.htm
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