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Comment by drivebyacct2 | Hacker News Reader

I always feel awkward with things like this... I'm more interested in building cool things and making them open source and/or interoperable than I am instantly trying to revenue-ize it. I'm so tired of all of these apps that do the same damn thing with (insert some random useless gimmick) that will never amount to much because they're all competing with each other for critical mass because their products are largely useless without a large-enough network.

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I just like building things. Cool things are more fun to build, but not everything needs to be in that category. I'm in software because it's significantly cheaper than other ways to build things. I love working on open source software because you can build bigger and better things with a team, it builds good will and unless it's core to a business, there's no reason not to. I'm shooting for a certain dollar amount that would let me work on what I want when I want, not just for the things that come with the money. But on the route there I refuse to give up the enjoyment of building things with a preference to cool things.

On the other hand, I only hear about the feature as a product or network effect startups here on HN. Around town, folks I interact with and companies I all work with have real products and at least a real revenue source.

It's like going to comic-con and deciding the rest of the world dresses like that.

I also love building things, but, to use an analogy, I also love playing music. I practised for years and years, until I could pick up whatever music I wanted to play, and then I wanted more - some kind of validation - so I wanted to play to other people.

It is a bit the same with me and programming/developing. Revenue is my new metric for how well I am doing. It makes it harder - yes I can come up with a solution, but can I do it in a short time, suppressing my perfectionism (come on - we all have it), and in a responsive enough manner to get people to pay for my work? It is just taking it to the next level.

And I do rather like money.

no, but seriously, this will be the best to-do list app ever

Hey! Doesn't matter if it's a another to-do list as long as you ship!

Don't listen to them OzzyB. Your to-do list app is really going to be revolutionary. ;)

Once it ships.

Yeah, get this: it syncs across multiple devices. Revolutionary!

Well, it really is different this time.

It is a big data local social gamified MVP'd pivoted to-do list built on a distributed paxos consistent lock-free real-time column-based k/v persistent memory grid.

No bootstrapping? That's my favorite word.

Not really compatible; bootstrapping (in the business sense) is kinda the opposite of VC-chasing, which is what such buzzword-fests are typically a symptom of.

bigdatalocalsocialgamifiedmvpdpivotedtodolist.io

The .io is critical.

It will be if you can have a so well designed UI that it's in Octarine.

This is broadly my take on things; I love the inspiration that I get from the startup community, but I'm not motivated at all by the rapid growth aspect. I'm sure that if one of my slow-growth projects developed into something bigger I would change my tune, but I don't feel like joining the high-growth scene for the sake of it.

I admire people who can identify a useful, positive seed idea and grow it to something that enriches a wider audience though. That's kind of why I lurk around HN.

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