But… I could have written that in a week

Reminds me of a blog post about Stack Overflow[0], which references a HN discussion[1] where people were guesstimating that they could reproduce all of SO in a weekend.

We're tinkerers - when we see something, we immediately think about how it works under the hood. And because we're too clever by half, we're dogged optimists, thinking there is always a way to accomplish something.

As we mature, we realize that things are often more complicated than they seem on the surface, that often a lot of engineering goes into making something appear simple and easy, and especially, that there is more to the value of something than the effort it would take to build a copy of it.

[0] http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/07/code-its-trivial.ht... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=678501

This argument is very similar to that about the 'value' of modern art. We traditionally place all the value on the amount of effort that goes directly into producing the item, and discount any of the other effort involved in making it a success.

Perhaps the cliche `success = perspiration + inspiration` needs to be updated to include `marketing`.

I think it also matters where you eventually want to be. Is the problem you are solving help a million users? Is it repeatable business?

Not judging on what is wrong approach or right approach. But startups tend to go after ideas which can get a few million users or generate a few million dollars in revenue.

It's a good lesson to learn. After all- most web apps aren't that complicated in the first place. To steal a quote, they're just "skins over databases". Yet, they have immense value.

Crappy, rip-off products can make money. That's hard to accept.

Do you have a week? You can be their first competitor!