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Ask HN: Why is my innovative IDEA is always behind the others?

1 points by juntz ↗ HN
When I have a innovative IDEA, I always find that there is others that implemented it faster than me. So in the fast deveploping tech these days, how to work to keep up with the times.

Anyone with the same feelings?

8 comments

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PaulHoule
You know this curve

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion_of_innovations

by definition if you are at the beginning you are in a tiny minority and will be struggling to explain what you're up to. You're describing the experience of people up at the top of the curve who are not innovators at all -- trouble is there is so much talk about innovation from people who are just following the herd these days.

yogiBear296148
Yes. But first to market is just 1 battle of the war.

Myspace beat facebook to the market, but lost the war.

Some guy in the stone age invented wheels. But modern companies reinventing better wheels dominate the market today.

fedupofslop
Agreed. Everyone seems to be making the same things with AI. I think typically the innovation is not in just the idea, but also in the timing. Harvey and Legora are doing well not because the idea is revolutionary, but because they were early to be kingmade. That doesn't mean they are undisruptable, if we see private market valuations crash and a huge architectural disruption that makes fine tuning extremely cheap and commoditized, then all of their edge is for nought, and the KKRs of the world might as well build custom stuff using an army of consultants hosted on their vanilla cloud ala good old transformation projects. So it's not just the idea, but also the timing that matters IMO, and timing determines execution strategy.
kylecazar
Definitely. Good news is you don't need to be first to be successful.

But, if you do want to be first -- weight your slightly out there/weird ideas more. If your idea is a natural next-step, someone's already building it.

respectattentio
It's the one who understands the universe and how it works wins. Not who got the first idea Not who built it first Not even in the middle

Any doubt? check Nikola Tesla's life.

I believe this aligns with what Peter Thiel said: "It’s much better to be the last mover—that is, to make the last great development in a specific market and enjoy years or even decades of monopoly profits."

My Take? If you are small like me, you have a bigger advantage way more than you think..