Ask HN: Overdone "apps" are in abdundace, is that necessarily a bad thing?

3 points·Nowyouknow··4 comments

For example: Task management apps. They are a dime a dozen, sure the app doesn't have much chance of taking off, but it gets you off your ass to CREATE something. Does having something like that under your belt help your credibility? Is it a good jumping off point to becoming a "founder" of many things?

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Building something is certainly better than nothing. But a successful startup founder has an uncanny ability to fix problems.

Task management apps are, like you said, a dime a dozen. So a good project for a founder would be to download a bunch of those apps, see what they are all doing right and more importantly what they are all doing wrong. Then build one based on what you learned. That way you get technical experience but more importantly you are solving a problem.

Agreed.

I would say having something original is the best way to get some credibility. For instance, when I started out in app development I built a couple of calculators that are specific to my engineering course at University. Nobody else had done anything similar. From that my career took off.

Exactly. I think that's part of the reason WHY we see so many task management apps. Everyone organizes differently, and their apps try to reflect that. No two apps are the same, but for whatever reason, none really provide that "complete" experience.

I suspect that when a founder builds something tailored to themselves, not torn apart by superfluous outside input, is when they really shine. Workflowy for example.

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