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Comment by elliottcarlson | Hacker News Reader

You obviously have plenty of time available - so why not find ways to simplify what you have done and make it less targeted and thus being of broader appeal to other similar companies. Other options would be find other types of niches that you would give you that same excitement - your time is available so you wouldn't be losing out at all by experimenting with cool new projects.

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Thanks. Actually, another option I'm leaning towards is to temporarily get out of the computer biz all together and try something entireley new. The only way to find new technological discoveries is to go out in the real world again and see what kind of real world problems exist. The same way how biologists need to go out into nature to find new species and learn from interesting animal behaviors.

For example, if I were to apply to become a pizza delivery man, I'll find ways to simplify and optimize the traditional delivery process. Then when I open my own pizza store, I'll have the most efficient pizza delivery system, maybe this will be the killer service that will bring down Dominos and Pizza Hut.

So if you see a pizza delivery dude next time, maybe it'll be me... ;-)

Been a pizza delivery guy myself and there is not much to optimize since the core problem is delivery, which requires you to get in car, drive to location, give the pizza, get money and drive back. It is only when you have multiple deliveries do you have opportunity to optimize your path of travel on the basis of traffic and distance between the delivery places.

but there any many inefficiencies.

Just because you have so much leeway, don't be sloppy in your choice of what to do with your free time. [1]

For example, if you're actually considering the pizza delivery scheme, first research the maximal amount of efficiency that you would possibly be able to add to the system. Then decide if it is worth pursuing. This does not apply if you are passionate about delivering pizzas!

[1] Consider deliberate choice to be general advice for those with lots of time and the goal of doing something substantive. Or if you are young, newly graduated, and thinking about jumping into a startup with some friends.

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