Why you should build an application (even if it already exists)
vaynermedia.com
vaynermedia.com
Define "team", but I think you are overgeneralizing.
"A company/team is getting a group of really smart people together to work towards the same common goal and vision while making a living. "
That's all it is to me. Have a goal/vision that is so awe inspiring that it attracts really smart and great people to work together with you to achieve it.
You can use this do-it-yourself argument in every sector of the industry. But it all comes down to the amount of reward per effort.
Do you want to be the first in a store on Black Friday or the last? Do you want to be the first in a gold rush or the last? As the amount of competitors increase, your profit will decrease.
From an economic perspective, a monopoly is usually more lucrative. If you feel there's enough money in a crowded sector and think you can carve out a niche or shake the industry, then it becomes economically viable. I think this is a more realistic outtake than the author's "just-do-it" message.
For business, being the second to do something is often a nice position to be in.
Google was not the first search engine. iPod was not the first digital music player. Microsoft was never first at anything, as far as I can remember.
Of course, once the market has a clear Google, iPod, or Word, probably time to try a different idea. But a product category with no clear leader can be a great market to enter.
This contributes to the perpetual oversupply of solutions from problems suffered by technically-inclined male twenty-somethings. Then you get to try shouting louder than all the other startups so that instead of the technically-inclined male twenty-somethings not paying for the thing the other guy makes they're not paying for the thing you make.
I built something I wanted: a business. It solves problems which were actually experienced by Real People. They also actually pay money for things, which is a nice feature to have in a customer.
from everything I've heard about it, I still don't understand what problem it solves that isn't already solved. It feels like a really esoteric use case for hyper-geeky people who for some reason aren't smart enough to use one of the 1000 other hyper-geeky fluffy techno-web-gizmos to do the same thing with already.
Now that I've said this, I'm sure in a year I'll be wave-ified. :)
Another point is that your way of doing it will be slightly different - in emphasis, in design, in features, in performance. It's even possible that an "defect" in your approach is actually benefit in some niche. So you are never in direct competition with anyone. It can be hard to accept not being the "best" or the one-and-only (for me, anyway), but if you're doing something that helps someone, something needed and/or wanted, then you're doing something worthwhile and valuable. And if you're doing something valuable, it's natural for some of that value to come to you.
Personal experience: after I made the first prototype of my product, I discovered that several other people had the idea (it was kinda obvious), and had launched products. If I'd done the research first, I would have been discouraged, to some extent, and maybe wouldn't have started. As it happens, I totally killed in that market.
It's really incredible that us techies are always looking for something completely different to do, when instead we could just do something that is already proven and make money out of it, and even more money if we do it really well. Think car dealerships for example, it doesn't matter that someone already invented them and that there are thousands of them, people still want to buy cars and try new stuff, same with restaurants, supermarkets, electronics..... you get the idea.
Even today, with lots of programmers wishing C would just die forever, I suspect a publisher could put out a new book on C and make it profitable if they found the right criteria.
There is a PDF in it that has basically the same thing for free, and you can print as many pages as you want.
(Direct zip link: http://960.gs/files/960_download.zip - The PDF is in a folder called "sketch_sheets")
Those stencils do look cool though ;)
I'm constantly questioning the value of my efforts when solutions already exist, but it turns out that irritation is a pretty solid motivator. =^)
This is how I learned CSS and jQuery -- working on http://take3.movielandmarks.com (which is nowhere near complete, and needs a rewrite in Python to keep me happy).
The phrase: "it's been done" Makes me shudder. The fact that there are lots of companies in a given market should invite, rather deter newcomers. The important point is to be different, unique, or superior in some way and that's what gives you an advantage.
In my long and multiple calls with customer support I could sense how frustrated the customer support people were with their project management software. I am sure a much better software can be written and probably already exists.
That being said, I'm still of the thought that an identical clone isn't something worth sinking hundreds of hours into; I think you need at least SOMETHING that is different (if only just a bit). Example: After a recent 2 week cross country road trip, I created a quick and dirty travel log to track our adventure on our web comic site. When we got back, I planned to implement this as a web app, but discovered Everlater, which does EXACTLY what I wanted to write (even down to the exact target markets and usages..). Reading their development blog felt like they were stealing the thoughts out of my head, so when it gets to that point I think finding another idea is best.
Ideas are a dime a dozen - if you need help, just use this list http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html.
That's not to say you shouldn't research your target market for competitors, but don't be discouraged by pools full of sharks. There's enough prey for everyone, I think.
I also thought it is quote obvious to do it anyways. No two apps are the same, just similar.
I've been told over and over again, don't write code that already exists! You're wasting your time!