431–440 of 580 posts
I can give you one idea for something I would really love if it existed, but I don't have the resources to do it myself: A marketplace for sales people and SaaS products. Every sales agent can sell any product and get commission. This way, an agent walks to a business, and instead of offering him 1 product he doesn't need, he can offer him from dozens of products a few he really needs.
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In Norway we have sheep roaming the mountains in summer....and wolves. How many wolves to kill is a huge political issue. Government reimburses sheep killed by wolves. Building fences around the areas is basically impossible. But I hope some day drone-shepherds can do the job.
This would be cool but then the debate remains almost the same, just how many wolves can the drone guarding the sheep shoot, a wolf has got to eat so some programmers got to randomize a few 'look the other way' actions in.
I was thinking flashlights and sounds to scare them off.
My simple advice is to stop looking for ideas and to start looking for problems. Look for the pain, and to do that talk to people. The challenge will be that most people accommodate the pain in order to get something done, but they don't like it. A recent pain point I came across was that 501.c(3) organizations are good at organizing but often poor at "the Internet". That suggested that if you talked to a half dozen…
>My simple advice is to stop looking for ideas and to start looking for problems. I concur, and add that HN could really help OP by complaining about random stuff here. Just complain about the first thing that comes to mind that's been bugging you, OP will really appreciate it!
i like the idea - we just need a new tag
HN Pain Point:
that seems more like it
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This is solid advice. Find people who aren't technically inclined but 'forced' to use the Internet to do something vital. They often have many things they would like automated.
Yeah these are the people I like to talk to. I've built some great apps based on things I've been told by these folks.
Probably an unpopular question given HN audience, but how does one know a team is great if said team hasn't successfully tackled any problems? Is it similar to my cat being a great pilot because she hasn't crashed any planes?
The fact that they've spent the past year toying around without direction supports your conclusion as well. CVs are just one metric by which to judge a team.
My simple advice is to stop looking for ideas and to start looking for problems. Look for the pain, and to do that talk to people. The challenge will be that most people accommodate the pain in order to get something done, but they don't like it. A recent pain point I came across was that 501.c(3) organizations are good at organizing but often poor at "the Internet". That suggested that if you talked to a half dozen…
Talk with your early users. Once you've detected a pain point, pivot and double down on it.
Good luck!
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>My simple advice is to stop looking for ideas and to start looking for problems. I concur, and add that HN could really help OP by complaining about random stuff here. Just complain about the first thing that comes to mind that's been bugging you, OP will really appreciate it!
Hah, good point. I don't like to rant usually, but this is for the good cause. I'm annoyed I feel the internet is turning more and more hateful. I'm annoyed writing and fixing tests takes half of my time when writing code. I'm annoyed business people only see the difference of salary asked and not what experience brings when having to choose between a junior dev and a senior one.
Then just don't write tests and wait for what happens, when you find a bug 6 month into production. ;-)
You sound like really competent people, but working under people without their own vision and without their own ideas is a wrist slashing inducing experience... The people with the ideas/vision should be in charge, not ever the other way around! If you're execution people, find some "idea/vision people" and merge (like in 100% equal partners) with them and make you team whole.
Nobody wants more "execution people" in charge. If it's not vision/ideas what drives something... it's not worth doing it! we're all better without it! I'd work anytime under/with and asshole with good vision/ideas than another "executionist optimizer" that makes everyone's life hell trying to optimize profit and efficiency when nobody wants more optimizing. People want meaning from their leaders and managers, and this can only come from vision/ideas.
Go head hunt for "you team's Steve Jobs", not for "ideas". You want the "idea generator" and you want yo put him/her half-in-charge...
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Yeah these are the people I like to talk to. I've built some great apps based on things I've been told by these folks.
Finding these people is a big challenge in itself...