Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt that's true. I have literally hundreds of ideas. As an experiment I put them on a website for anyone to see and "steal": https://blog.kowalczyk.info/article/e4132d5a44014b2aad81d815... I'm not saying those are all great, profitable ideas. I'm saying that they are doable by a competent programmer and unique enough. Certainly not "done a zillion times by others".
That list really drives home the 'ideas are cheap' phrase. I guess the good ideas are expensive.
I don't agree that "good ideas are expensive".
The issue is: we don't know which ideas are good or bad.
The stats from Venture Capital markets are showing that clearly.
Before someone even gets a meeting with a good VC firm the idea is already filtered 100-1 if not 1000-1.
Of those who get the meeting, maybe 1 in 100 get an investment.
Of those that get an investment, out of 10 maybe 1 or 2 become the really great successes and the remaining 8 are somewhere between "mild return" and "complete failure".
Since even the best of the best cannot tell what idea is good and which one is bad, we value all ideas as bad ideas i.e. at zero.
I'm quite sure that in that list I've posted there are at least few good ideas i.e. ideas that, when well executed, would lead to a profitable, solo business.
I just don't know which ones are good.