Ask HN: Problem finding/choosing an idea to work on

I have 3 things to tell you.

1) Consider taking another path on your college education. Web Dev curricula is awful almost everywhere, and borderline regular in the few places where it's not bad. Study business, engineering, design, computer science, etc. Universities just can't keep up with the advances in this sector right now, and the knowledge of managing a business, learning the aspects of graphic design and usability, or learning how to program in C (or Java, or Python, or whatever) will all have a bigger impact in your abilities than the curricula in a Web Dev degree. I'd also argue that for networking those degrees are better suited to put you in contact with the people you want to come in contact with.

I was hiring for the company I work for a few months ago, and to be honest, the only reason I interviewed 3 people with a "Web Dev" degree (2 where actually university certifications though) was because I had to fill a quota of people interviewed. Those 3 people totally failed the simple tests I had for them. Badly. I honestly believe this degree is actually frowned upon in the industry (don't take my word for it though, it might be a regional thing)

2) Consider that since you don't have any ideas yet, why not go on board at someone else's startup and get some experience. Hell you could even do so while you go to college.

3) The best way to come up with a great idea, is to scratch your own itch. What part of your life do you think is lacking that could be solved or improved on with a web app? Trust me, it seems hard at first, but with time you'll realize that there is lots to improve on.

Thanks for the reply.

1) For what it's worth, the web dev part of the course was given a complete overhaul to bring it to more of an industry standard this year, and 50% of the course is now design. I intended to study business but a massive amount of the curriculum (in this country anyway) would be of little use to me. I've had business as a subject for the last 5 years and found the syllabus to be appallingly orientated towards only management - there was literally just a chapter on entrepreneurial activity. I also considered CS, but there's a lot on the curriculum that doesn't really interest me, and since I'm certain I want to specialize in web/design I thought I'd be more interested in this course. Java is actually one of the languages on this web dev degree. As for networking, I've joined clubs and societies to network with people from these other departments.

2) I would definitely take that into consideration. Unfortunately there's little to no startup culture where I am, but I'm working on it.

3) I've heard that many times, but so far haven't found many personal itches. However I constantly get feedback from other people about their own itches and see what I could improve on there.

You are 17, have 3 months of work experience as a web developer, have more balls than brains, and you want to hit a home run right of the gate.

Take one of your niche ideas, build it, launch it, earn. Then once you finish that try to swing for the fences.

How long do you think it's going to take? The answer is always longer than you think, so get that lesson out of the way.

Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure if my post seemed to indicate I only have 3 months coding experience, but I've been coding for almost 2 years. I'm about to do exactly what you're suggesting with the niche ideas, but just thought I'd ask here first. There's a good chance I'll have to work on it longer than expected, but that's one of the reasons I want to have a great idea I'm passionate about.

Don't hold out on getting experience because you're waiting for passion. (If this is starting to sound like dating advice, my sincere apologies!)

Ok, I'm ten years older, I'll give some advice.

You're 17, you're just starting to get good at stuff, so don't sweat it so much. I think the best thing to do is take on an interesting, challenging project that has some potential to become a product, but will definitely push you to learn.

Hell, copy someone else's idea. As you work on it, you'll probably figure out something they aren't doing, or find a product that rests between the competition. For now, becoming a great hacker is more important than having a winning idea, because if you do it in the reverse order, you may not be able to implement said idea...

Thanks for the reply.

That's pretty much my train of thought, but I just want to maximize the potential.

Great point about figuring out something the competition aren't doing. And I understand about becoming a great hacker, that's why I haven't stopped learning despite not having solid project ideas.

What you're explaining is pretty normal. It's also a GOOD thing. The worst thing you can do is start on a project the moment you think of it. It's like the honeymoon period of a relationship, everything looks great, then you hit reality.

A really good idea you'll get to those problems and still be passionate enough about the idea to resolve them. If you can get past THAT point, that's when you start working. But you need to put effort into resolving the issues first. If you're giving up before then it's because you're either lazy (sorry!) or not that keen on the idea.

You may also need to reassess your expectation of success. I doubt anybody here has had an idea which they 100% knew was going to allow them to retire at 17. Most of the time you have something you think "could" work, or "might be cool". If you can live of your projects, that's a good place to start.

Thanks for the reply.

That's reassuring to hear. I highly expect it's less about laziness and more about not being keen on the idea!

My expectation of success isn't really retiring at 17. It's just not having to work for some big corporation when leaving college. Hell, if I had a few million in the bank already I'm pretty sure I'd still want to work on startups. The money would just be good security and also help fund projects.

I wouldn't say this problem is common, but it's not rare among developers or entrepreneurs either. I would say a couple things:

1) don't rush anything. At some point you'll create some beautiful ideas in your head which you just can't contain - you'll feel the urge to rush at your computer and stay up coding all night long. THIS is normal. I'm pretty sure this has happened to most every developer early on in their career (I still get this and I've been coding for well over 3ish years now)

2) if you really can't sit idly by while you finalize your ideas, try programming familiar applications which you enjoy. Friends of mine have cloned scripts similar to Digg, Twitter, Wordpress... it's fun and you build a lot of project experience.

Thanks for the reply. In response to point 2, that's actually exactly what I've been doing (making a Flickr clone), and have found it to be a great idea.

It's not that you are over thinking them. You are just giving up too early. Let's say there are two girls. You go on a first date with one and you see all the potential. By the time you're on your 67th date, there are a lot of flaws you've discovered. That's how projects work.

Each hour you spend thinking about it or working on it is like another date. The more dates you go on the uglier she gets, but also the richer the experience. Pick a project and just stick with it. The reason why your other ideas look so much better is because you haven't ever gone on a date with them yet.

Thanks for the reply.

Ha, that's an interesting analogy! Will take it into account and sample all the ladies.

You get really good ideas by learning a lot and cross referencing little groups of knowledge. My advice would be to build something solved already (for example a voting based photo site, maybe with tags) while you learn, learn, learn. You won't come up with any good finance/law/science/whatever related startups if you're not immersed with the material.

Also, now that you are in college I recommend taking 5 or 10 hours a term figuring out how to maximize your marks per course given the least amount of work/inputs. Highest time ROI you will ever come by.

Thanks for the reply.

Great point about the cross-referencing, will take it into account.

Not sure how much this is worth, I only recently discovered Hacker News (and am 17 also), but if you're having trouble coming up with ideas, it's probably best to find a co-founder who is really good at coming up with ideas....

One of the most common things you here from successful "entrepreneurs" is that they have an overflow of ideas and not enough time to work on all of them.

Don't get a co-founder because they are "really good with coming up with ideas", that is not a good idea. (pun intended)

Do get a co-founder who is good at coming up with customers/revenue if you don't want to do that side.

Thanks for the reply. I'm working on the co-founder thing, it's part of the reason for going to college. And yeah I hear that a lot, which is what makes me think I'm just too critical of my own ideas. I really couldn't be that bad.

So let me get this straight... You declined the job to pursue your own projects, while concurrently thinking you were "bad at generating good startup ideas"? I might have missed something in there, because that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. You must have had some idea of what projects you wanted to pursue when you declined the job, right?

Well I mostly declined it because of choosing college instead, but yes I did and still do have an idea of the projects to pursue.

Don't rush. You have a lot of time to figure it out. Just pick one idea you have now, try to launch it, learn something along the way, if it is not going to work out, move on. Sometimes I regret that at your age, I am too hungry to be success early, and that really doesn't help much.

Thanks for the reply.

I'm far from rushing at the moment. Launching one of the ideas is exactly what I intend to do, especially after this thread.

It's not about the idea dude. No matter how much you believe otherwise. It's about solving a problem and solving it well. And making money while doing it.

Best will be to work with a startup, colleges are no good when it comes to WebDev/Design.

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah I'm trying to discover said problems in any way possible. Possibly could with a startup but there's very few anywhere here, especially in web/tech. College seemed like the best way to network, and I don't mind having it for a fall-back plan since it's free.

I like your thinking- you should trust it.

Select a HUGE market that interests you and do something disruptive. Your youth, resources, and lack of risk make the timing perfect.

Your hunch that you're overthinking: probably right.

Advice: build experience by actually doing stuff.

ps: if you're not going to build your profitable niche ideas, mind sharing them?

Thanks for the reply. Don't really wish to immediately post the ideas, however I may post some of them in a new thread soon to get feedback as I don't believe in hiding them worrying if they'll be stolen. Stay tuned.

999 business ideas:

http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html

Thanks for that, some are a little out of my area but I'll read every last one.