Ask HN: Finding an idea of your own to work on as a programmer

If it feels like it's a problem, you maybe have something to hang a hat on there. Why is this drive so important to you? Is it about financial independence? Is it about some sense of achievement?

Business smarts to design a product or service are a skill which can be learned btw. Seriously, you can learn how to do that kind of thing. Some of the methods are a bit 7-steps but the fundamentals are, to identify a need, fulfilled or not, and work out how to do it, better. Mostly the sub-steps are about breaking it down.

Pivot, is just fancy word for "changing your mind in the light of some experience"

Agile, PM, Lifecycle, they're all acquirable skills.

The whole black skivvy, reveal on stage, Hiring Jony as a killer designer, getting the best aluminium blocks to shave down to your bespoke cigar-holder-lighter, thats kind-of a side issue. Its what we are seduced by, but there had to be an underlying value proposition.

And you know what? Everyone likes Woz. He was not very good at selling. He is however, a genuinely nice guy (from what I am told) and he is NOT a giant, narccissistic ass-hat.

I'm just curious about your work situation. Being the solo dev at a small company sounds interesting. What has your experience been like? And if you don't mind sharing, how did you find your job?

THAT'S how.

Or at least, that is one of the more reliable ways.

Of course, a plan that starts out "First, spend a couple of decades learning everything about a particular niche market... " isn't, by definition, a recipe for overnight success.

Nevertheless, you will have to become some sort of expert in your chosen market, or someone who is one might eat your lunch.

If you're creating a new market or category, you are by definition the expert, but that doesn't mean you will succeed, because perhaps you're an expert in a market that doesn't really exist, or is too small or too hard to monetize to support your business model.

You can start with a problem you see (or think you see) 'in the wild' (sharing files with friends is too hard), or you can start with a particular type of user (people who have an extra room to rent out), or you can start with an industry (eg. home landscaping).

But you almost certainly shouldn't start with the solution (although as technologists we are often sorely tempted), no matter how cool, except in the case where the user is themselves a technologist.

Anyway, starting with one of "I want to solve $PROBLEM" or "I want to help people like $NAME" or "I want to create solutions for $INDUSTRY" and you won't go too far wrong as long as you keep examining and testing your assumptions.

- As the only developer working on a software project that generates 6 figures in monthly revenue, yeah, you’re not going to have much time to iterate on your own idea on the side. Good ideas take time to develop. Consider a sabbatical, or just quit. You can get another job later without much trouble.

- Copy someone else’s idea, add missing features and put a better UX on it.

So many, mostly probably bad ideas.

So I am pretty sure you are able to come up with ideas. Perhaps you just see them as "bad" and don't even try to test them. I would suggest you to find the most promising idea and think how you could test whether this is a problem other's might have. As you noticed, I used "problem" here, because ultimately you want to solve a problem.

If you struggle with finding problems, try noticing your own inconveniences. Imagine that you have magic abilities to fix everything, what would you change in your own life?

If you can't come up with original ideas, copy existing ones and make them better. Get some experience with that and eventually you'll come up with something original.

I think you are in the right path; making rich others doesn't make much sense.

This statement is the key of finding idea. Pick a market, Immerse yourself in the market, consume everything about the market, talk to everyone in the market, analyze everyone in the market ...

I'm sure there are problems you need to handle every day or week but maybe there are not important enough, or you have already found a solution/hack to solve this issue.

First question, why are you even trying to find a unique idea? I thought the same way until I was asked by a mentor,

"Look at your desk, how many pens do you have? How many of those are different brands? If they can survive in such a crowded market, why can't you?"

What he meant was that you don't need a unique idea, and thinking so is a fallacy when most businesses are not unique. Clone a business you like and start competing. Competition is good because it actually validates the market. I'd be worrying there weren't any competition actually.

since its a small company and you’re the only dev, have you considered negotiating with the owners to become CTO and ask for partial ownership? i think the leverage you have is tremendous and you haven’t realized it yet.

I’d be interested in collaborating if you are.

I keep a list of problems when I notice them.

Another little trick you can apply is searching for new startups in different countries. Like maybe some early stage startup in Singapore, Hong Kong or Israel might be solving something that might work in your country as well. You can definitely get unique 'ideas' to get inspired using this.