Ask HN: Probability of a break out/unicorn app? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Probability of a break out/unicorn app?

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I have low hopes, don't think any big new app like Tik Tok will come out anymore.

I can remember when Facebook was huge in 2009.

Achieving that virality, userbase

It is easier now than ever to build things, make apps and infrastructure/compute to be rented

But what is the thing to make

The new VR/AR headset by Apple could have pushed towards new ideas/trends but that kind of died(?)

I just hope there is more to writing software than just work-business related CRUD apps, the virality I seek is about money (making it from success). I know there is more to write than apps eg. firmware for a humanoid robot.

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There are some big, doable ideas out there uncapitalized to date.

Look at (a) the history of computing for some hints. See the people who have written at length about what can/should be done with software/computers, but isn't.

Then (b), pulling those concepts off takes (1) chutzpah (or naivete) and (2) market forces that will be either tolerant or ripe.

In the past, (2) has been lamented (perhaps natively) as the slow rate of "social evolution". But (2) could also be viewed as politics by another name, or through another lens. Or call it "market education". Doesn't matter what you call it; it's been progressing full throttle.

I think (2) is basically there and/or getting there, whereas in the past (2) was the main blocker.

So, get your socks on, we're just getting started, IMO.

Ooh look at the past and see what they thought the future would be?

Almost. Not what they thought/predicted the future would be, just what they saw as possible and worthwhile (now as then).

Actually, people come up with the same ideas anew, too. I was just giving an example where to find the concepts already documented.

> But what is the thing to make

Anyone who knows what is the next thing to make, isn't lurking on HN waiting to give you the answer.

If there's any advice I can possibly give, it's just to be intensely curious about everything. That's how ideas are born

Luckily I am curious, guess I gotta go read more/make more stuff

There will inevitably be some Hot New Thing sooner or later. I think the thing is that it's literally impossible to predict when, or what, it will be.

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