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Comment by stanmancan | Hacker News Reader

I think more people have these ideas than they realize, but it’s the failure to act that holds them back.

Just because there are competitors doesn’t mean there’s no room for you.

Don’t look for reasons not to give it a shot.

Don’t tell anyone about it. There’s a lot of psychology trickery going on when you share your idea with people. Either they shit on the idea and you lose incentive to work on it, or the praise you and your brain takes that dopamine rush and considers the job over. Don’t tell anyone, just get to work.

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I can’t agree more with the tip to never tell anyone your plans. That dopamine rush you get by discussing ideas with others quite literally is enough to never actually start anything.

Some bars and restaurants make most of their income off such conversations

Competitors are great, and how our company picks many of its projects. Lots of stuff out there has serious deficiencies, especially when it comes to UX. A not insignificant number of our projects started because someone thought some app or website was more convoluted and difficult to use than it should be.

If you don't tell anyone about your idea, how will you get customers?

Tell everyone about your idea. But you have to silo people's feedback. Do they have enough knowledge to actually tell you if the idea is good or bad? Are they a potential customer? If they are a potential customer and they like it, are they willing to pay for it? If they are a potential customer and don't like it, why not? What would need to change about it for them to pay for it?

Build stuff for the people who will pay you for it and then you'll have a side hustle.

Clearly at some point you’ll have to share it but the point is to get building and at least get an MVP out first. If you have the mental fortitude to press on after having your idea praised or put down then that’s fantastic but realize you’re an anomaly.

Kind of funny about that last bit of advice, as that is the opposite of the advice for other creative endeavours. In https://savethecat.com/ the book talks about telling your story ideas to everyone so that your creative juices get excited.

I do think you're right about tech. Try it yourself, build it out, have some fun, be a dork. Then tell people.

Yes, I would like to stress out that it's VERY likely that there are competitors. I believe nearly everything has been already created, and the idea of finding a niche market doesn't necessarily mean to innovate and do something nobody ever ever did, but it's more about offering another perspective of it -> simplification? Modern UI? Same business problem but different solution?

We're almost 8 billion people. If even just a half/quarter of them has a phone or a computer, you can't not find 100 freaking human beings that like what you built.

I am proudly building something in my free time that was probably made over and over, but always without something that I need. Or I have ideas on how such apps could improve, and I have the skill to do it myself, so... Plus the pleasure of learning new things in your free time, why not. Worst case scenario, you can still use your own app.

Even Amazon had competitors when it started. Although it was the first online bookstore, they were competing with physical bookstores. Same for Google, Netflix, and Facebook.

Yeah, but for some reason, maybe just "luck" (in the sense of "fortune"), I was always surrounded by people who google your idea and say "look at this, xyz is also doing it" which can be extremely demotivating.

That would be motivating for me. It’s validation that your idea isn’t bad. If someone is else independently thought of it, then there must be reason for it.

First-to-market is overvalued. You want others to make mistakes so you can draft behind them and take over.

Which is why it’s important that you don’t share it until you have some momentum. Then once you do just realize that many people naturally look for reasons not to put in the work, instead of the opposite. Fear of failure? Fear of wasting their time? Fear of finding out they don’t have what it takes? That it’s not all dumb luck? Who knows. Either way; just keep trucking along.

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