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Comment by TeMPOraL | Hacker News Reader

Here goes my dream of being the first to create a CPS suit from Continuum.

It's actually a weird feeling - on the one hand I love the progress we have; on the other hand, I feel sad that I can't get to be a part of it. It also seems to me that any cool idea I have tend to become a mass-market product before I can get around to start prototyping.

Yeah, I know, the real world. Real world sucks :(.

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If you are predicting these things, and people are doing mass market products before you can even prototype, it just means that people had this idea before you did, and it isn't that unique any more.

I'm painfully aware of that, and I didn't want to suggest that I have unique ideas. Honestly, I don't believe there are unique ideas anymore, not for the last 200-300 years. Even scientific breakthroughs tend to be independently developed in different places simultaneously.

I guess I'm just whining about the hardware world equivalent of "every idea I have has already been done ten times on the Internet by people smarter than me" sentiment, which - from what I learned over the years - is shared by many people here on HN.

On the other hand, I started to believe there's still apparently place for things seemingly similar and non-unique, even "nearly the same", but in some way different or better. And they totally can have potential to break through, even in area that looks saturated. That said, it's sure not guaranteed, but absolutely possible.

You just need to be a little more focused, and less concerned about what others are doing (so-called FOMO, "fear of missing out"). So what if someone beats you to the punch? You're striving will not be in vain, and you'll be right at the very forefront when either of you finish your projects - maybe even a bit beyond.

Remember, 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration, etc.

Thanks for words of reassurance :).

I always considered FOMO to be a fear of missing out parties or Facebook status updates, both of which I fortunately don't have [i.e. fears, not parties and updates]. I never thought about looking at my emotions related to projects from this angle.

If you said, "I'm tired of thinking I came up with an potentially patentable product, but I will never know because a person with money filed the patent before me?". I would have more sympathy for your statement.

I know life is not fair. I just don't think the wealthy(meaning corporations mainly), shouldn't be able to file patent after patent just because they have the resources.

I just have a feeling their are wealthy entities scouring the internet, and society looking for original ideas/concepts in order to patent, and rush to market? Some of these entities are probally on HN? Yes, we all subconsciously steal ideas, and maybe even thought? The whole nothing is truly original?(B.F. skinner spent a lot of time thinking about this?).

My point is I know people steal other people's ideas. Can we prove it? Most of the time no--unless you're a Wilkelvoss? Do I have a solution--not really, but I have a suggestion.

I believe every poor American(lives under the federal poverty level) should get one free shot at applying for a patent. It could be tied to the Social Security number? If the patent was porely applied for, or denied; so be it. The poor would have one chance to protect their original invention. Just one! I know the negatives. My biggest concern is their would be too many people flooding the Patent office with their brilliant invention. I don't know how to handle that one, other than they would have to prove they did a thorough patent search before applying.(I don't know how you could verify this, or determine the applicant is compentant enough to even begin a proper search.)

Like I stated earlier, I don't know if a program like this is feasible. I was just kinda taken back a few years ago when I looked into the fees for a patent/trademark.

If you dissagree with me on this fine, I know it sound crazy.

How about this then. A patent/trademark application would increase in cost after a predetermined number of patents have been applied for? For instance, after the 300th patent, for a company like Apple, the fee for the 301 patent would be high enough to hurt? It just might prevent rounded corners?

(To tired to edit. Sorry, not feeling well.)

Patent fees in the US already depend on the size of the entity applying. Also, I believe most of the cost comes in the attorneys one typically hires to assist in the application, not the patent office fees themselves, particularly if you want to try to enforce your patent.

What do you mean "Here goes my dream". On the contrary, here's your chance to have that dream. Where there was little or none before.

So you basically say you keep predicting ideas that large corps put to market? Enjoy your savviness; it could also help you get a nicer job.

I was convinced that self-driving convoy trucks where they just follow the leader were already a thing for like 20 years. Downright certain of it. It just seemed so obvious and relatively easy to implement.

Then bam, a few months ago, someone makes a big deal out of making that a reality. I was very confused.

> It just seemed so obvious and relatively easy to implement

Most new things seem obvious and relatively easy to implement until you try to actually implement them.

Most new things are easy to implement if someone is willing to put a concentrated effort into them and support it with resources. For example, it took only 12 years from the first artificial satellite to putting a man on the Moon. The real bottleneck here is the market; you need to wait for it to be ready in order to get the required resources and a pressure for concentrated effort. Apparently, the market became ready for self-driving cars only recently.

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