It's okay to make something nobody wants • Hacker News Board

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#41

Post by Nevermark » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 7:21 AM UTC

m463 wrote: post #33

I see the darker side of this. Lots of companies make things they want, but people should not want. And they let people take up the slack. But I'm thinking of things like email - that reads people's mail. and on and on...

They want to be the master of that software, not the user.

Not surprising users don't want to be the users either!

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#42

Post by danjac » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 7:21 AM UTC

QuadrupleA wrote: post #17

uwagar wrote: post #15

its a sad state of affairs that a persons 'utility' is by how 'useful' they are in service of others.

Is that so sad? Sounds kind of altruistic.

Altruistic to whom? How many big companies with turnover in the millions rely on the unpaid work of volunteer open-source developers?

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#43

Post by chrismsimpson » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 7:22 AM UTC

Animats wrote: post #2

"I think it’s okay to make something that nobody wants. All you need to do is to make sure you’ve fully expressed your emotions in this product." Having hobbies is fine, but it's not a business model.

This smacks to me of peak late stage capitalism. Not everything ought to be about profit and growth. The world already has too much unwanted, useless mass produced surplus/crap.

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#44

Post by Nevermark » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 7:23 AM UTC

foreigner wrote: post #35

Cute sentiments, but I also like to eat.

Don't be discouraged, the world needs drones too! :)

Some of us have a primal urge to create something new, something we personally appreciate, regardless of whether that intersects with our job.

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#45

Post by Ekaros » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 7:24 AM UTC

Brian_K_White wrote: post #39

emodendroket wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it solves a problem they have?

How will that happen? If I don't know anything about photography, and don't even like it much, certainly don't care about it, my photography app will be garbage. Precisely as so many apps are garbage.

Lot of more traditional software is something the coders don't need or even use, but they still provide real value think of something like inventory tracking in warehouse.

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#46

Post by jhatemyjob » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 7:32 AM UTC

foreigner wrote: post #35

Cute sentiments, but I also like to eat.

Yea like.... I've been "following my heart" or whatever for over 15 years... sure, I made some cool shit, and some people really like it. But it doesn't pay. I need money.

Re: It's okay to make something nobody wants

#47

Post by Brian_K_White » Sat, Sep 23, 2023, 7:33 AM UTC

nsonha wrote: post #37

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand what you are saying. But open sourcing some code does not equal some kind of agreement to support people using it.

I didn’t say anything about supporting, just not to mislead people.

I can't figure out what you're even trying to say.

What risk of being misled is even possible in oss?

There are junk oss put out by companies that want to claim they do oss for PR, but no one is misled by that. If the code is junk that doesn't do anything but say, shim a blob which contains the actual goods, everyone knows that, as there is no way to hide it.

There are lots of crap oss, or high quality oss who's design goals I don't like, but none of that is misleading.

There are oss where the original author changed their terms after some time, but then everyone just forks the last good version and proceeds from there.

There are companies that try to steal oss, but the original thing they try to sell is still there.

In no case is there any opportunity for misleading that I see, because regardless of anyone's thoughts or intentions, the actions are all in the open.