HN: How do I know if I have a worthy idea to implement? | Hacker News Reader

HN: How do I know if I have a worthy idea to implement?

7 pointsPhr34Ck9 comments

This post is inspired by PHP Fog news. I had this very idea (almost 100% the same) around an year ago and I didn't do anything about it. I didn't know if it's any good and so I let it go even though I thought about it every now and again.

How do you know if your idea is good enough to actually implement? Implementing every single idea that you have is simply not possible. I get like 10 ideas per day! (I know the number because I write all my ideas down in fear that I might forget). There must be a way to know that an idea is better then the other.

I'm kind of lost in this realm. Any input? thanks.

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It depends very much on what you want out of life.

Find what you want out of life, then find what you need to get it. Then work towards it.

Long story short, there are some tradeoffs involved. If you want a product that can make stupid amounts of money, it needs to be automated and scalable that provides people something they value in a way they cannot otherwise get it in a fashion such that competition is hard or impossible. It's also a good idea to have a clear income stream. It takes a lot of thought, a lot of effort and a lot of time to produce something like this.

So you need to ask yourself, do I really need the billions of dollars? Or would something more modest be "worth it". You are then a lot less limited in the things you can work on, and can think of other options. Small niche things that can't really be turned into the next blockbuster idea, but still make reasonable returns may still be worth your time if it achieves your goals in life.

Tl;dr: Learn what you want from life. Once you understand that, then you will have have solved this.

Talk to the people for whom you think this will solve a problem and find out if it solves a big enough pain that they would be willing to open their wallets. Word to pg. Make something people want.

I'm sorry but what kind of people I should be asking? I don't think asking my friends will be actually beneficial?

Talk to the people for whom you think this will solve a problem

If you don't know who those people are or how to find them then it doesn't matter whether or not you implement your idea. I know that this isn't always easy, but finding your target market and communicating with them before you write a line of code is extremely valuable. For certain niches this can be accomplished by posting on forums, other times it involves physically visiting a place.

It's very hard to be honest. I have always thought about ideas without actually doing anything (either talking with people about it or actually implementing it). I don't know why I'm like that, maybe because I'm new to all of this. Takes a step back and sighs.

Absolutely agree. If you don't know where to find your target market, then you probably haven't communicated with them.

If you haven't communicated with them, then how do you know that the problem is actually a problem? Even if it is a problem, how do you know your solution addresses it? How do you know you understand the problem well enough to have actually solved it without creating other, bigger problems?

If you don't know where your customers congregate, or have a way to get in touch with them, how are you going to sell it? I can tell you that it's the VERY rare startup that you can just put online and get customers. Even if it gets covered by tech blogs (which are generally the startup coverers) how do you know if it's reaching your target market?

You should be asking the people to whom you think will be selling the product or service.

Scratch your own itch. Startups that solve your own problem are great ideas: you know the need exists and in turn you become passionate about a solution.

Tell me your ideas and I will say whether they are good or not...

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