Ask HN: Where do you get ideas to build side-projects?

Your life is perfect? Every single object your hand touches and every website you go to each day can be improved. Innovation is a sort of mindset. You're not going out looking for a quick billion dollar idea, you're trying to improve that 5 minute unpleasant experience we all encounter at some point each day.

For me it's often some new tech as main trigger for new ideas and projects. I see new stuff and I just want to use this tech and look what could be done with it. Not the best way because tech-driven ideas often bring up solutions which don't have a problem but at least you get started, play around and then better ideas come by themselves.

I.e. Node was the main trigger for many of my projects and brought me back to web development when it came out and web development was kind of crusty and stagnating.

Are there problems in your immediate community? (Online or otherwise)

Are there any open source projects you make great use of but have yet to give back?

I'm one of those people with too many ideas. Can I give you my ideas to build and we split any profits?

So, what you're saying is - you want to build an online community of people with time and skills, to match them up with people who have ideas and inspiration for co-founded projects?

Obligatory pg essay: http://www.paulgraham.com/startupideas.html. Start here.

Don't require that they'd pay to see them solved. Start building the prototype anyways.

Once people find out that you build software, they are (in my experience, at least) all too happy to tell you what kind of app/website you should build.

The bad news is that most of the ideas they have are unworkable, unmarketable, or just plain stupid. The good news is that underneath it all, there is often a kernel of a good need that can be solved in a better way than they are expecting and/or applied more generally.

Over the holidays, my sisters told me about an app I should build - it seemed silly and unmarketable to me at first, but as I thought about it more, I saw a lot of potential uses (many of them applicable to a commercial context) for a more general solution to their problem. I'm working on that app now on the side.

The other thing to think about is the way you approach people for ideas - don't ask them what app you could build to help them, ask them what their problems are. Even better if this is in the context of their job - this makes it far more likely that you could charge enough money for your software to make it worthwhile.

> I've looked around, to my friends and family, but they have no problems they'd possibly pay for to see solved.

The biggest problem my business has is convincing potential customers that they have a problem. We do electronic timesheeting, staff attendance, and rostering, but most businesses think that paper timesheets are "good enough" - convincing them how much cheaper and more efficient things could be when done in the cloud is a tough slog.

So don't assume that just because people don't say they have a problem (that they'll pay for, or otherwise) doesn't mean there isn't a problem lurking, waiting to be brought into the light. And if you solve the problem well enough, people will pay you for things you never imagined charging for.

Pick up a new non-tech hobby. You'll almost certainly run into some type of problem or aspect which could be improved upon.

A side-project that doesn't set you on fire (figuratively, that is, unless you're really into pyrotechnics!) is likely to be disappointingly like work, without the reward of actually getting paid.

Take inspiration from the things that irritate you, or those moments where you think "Wouldn't it be cool if…"

And remember, it doesn't have to be just software - there's immense fun in mechatronics…especially things that fly, float, or zoom along the ground at high speed!

Speaking of ideas, are there any books that help me notice problems waiting to be solved?

I find my ideas from my own frustrations in my daily life. I wrote about it on my blog: http://aymeric.gaurat.net/2010/my-frustrations/

My answer in a similar thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1454465

Pick people you care about. And solve problems for them.

To be precise:

* Problems can be Jobs[1] they have in their daily life

* Learn to listen[2]

* Think of Space > Problem > Solution.

* Zoom out. As Developers we tend to be in the details. This is not where inspiration comes from.

* Work with ideas like with with clay. See the whole piece, look patterns while working with it, simplify and fine tune the things that work.

[1] http://businessofsoftware.org/2012/02/professor-clayton-chri...

[2] http://dex.io/robfitz/how-to-do-and-what-to-expect-from-cust...

Most importantly: have fun.

I see ideas in every conversation with everyone I have.

I can't help but constantly ask the question of whether there is a better way, whether the existing approach is even the right way, and whether by seeing a similarity in the essence of a problem with something in a different field altogether (than technology) we might find a more interesting and successful solution.

Don't listen for problems that you might work on, just listen to how things currently work and be inquisitive. Is the way something works today the best way? Does it represent the final iteration?

You already see with evolution that things change over time, and so will solutions. Once you've accepted that everything will change and get better, and start forgetting the concept of "Everything's been done already.", you'll start to see room in everything for the next small improvement, or if you're lucky (and transferred knowledge from one domain to another) some major improvement.

With side projects it obviously helps to pick small things. You want to be done in a weekend, or a few months at the pace of an evening here or there.

If you would like a side project of interest, the last couple of weeks I've been nagged by the thought of privacy online and the idea that the internet fails to allow people to learn from their past mistakes and errors as the internet does not forget and forgive and so people can never move on and improve.

As such, I've been pondering what forgetfulness might look like on the internet. And I think it must be possible to create a little Python script that takes credentials for social networks and various services online and helps introduce forgetfulness by deleting old content. Perhaps not everything, mimicing memory the lesser events initially, and then the major events eventually. Say... everything over 12 months old that received no likes/retweets or engagement gets deleted immediately, and higher engaged items of more significance get flagged up and you can opt to forget them or not.

What does forgetfulness look like on the web, and how can it be applied?

You can see the fundamental problem, "Lack of rehabilitation within society and the ability to better oneself", and you can see a proposed solution, "Bring forgetfulness to the web". If the problems are real enough and chime with people then you'll likely find people willing to pay. In my example the likely market are those in their mid-20s just starting on a career but having lived a lot of their life online and who may now regret the wide-exposure given to their drunken escapades a mere 5 years earlier.

I'd also say not to look at side projects to make money. They're mostly inquisitive exercises. Some make money, but most scratch an inquisitive itch.

I'm quite frustrated that I barely get to work on the thoughts I have, but even then they never go to waste. Even the ideas not pursued help to gradually improve my understanding of how things work and new angles of attack for existing problems. Just question everything.

So the question is: Why don't you have the ideas?

My overflow stems from looking at what happens everyday, and seeing suck. When one of the phones in my family is lying on a shelf and is about to run out of power, why doesn't it warn the other phones on the WLAN? Or if it's latish and the phone knows that unless someone picks it up and charges it, it'll run out of juice during the night and be a hard-to-find brick next day.

So... could you try to talk a little bit about why such things don't strike you? (I realise I'm digressing here, but I'm curious about the difference.)

Let's get in touch I have many ideas

I don't think side projects should necessarily be profitable or money-making. What about the process of just creating something to solve a problem you, or others, have? What about it just being fun?

I have been working on and off for a couple of years on a personal finance manager simply to track my finances in the way I wanted. I am pretty sure no one is going to pay for that, but I do it because I need it and because i enjoy coding and building stuff. In the process, you might get other ideas.

Also, I'd like to echo another comment here that says to take up a non-tech hobby. Lots of problems to solve in everything but the challenge is to find one that people would pay for.

May be you get some jump reading this nice article on Side Projects by Sacha Grief: http://sachagreif.com/the-side-project-project/

I have too many ideas, way too less time. This is why/how:

1. "Scratch your own itch". You can't possibly be living a life where you didn't want to make something easier for yourself, something different.

2. Don't worry about money for side projects, especially initially.

3. Read a lot - fiction and applied CS. It'll take you to a lot of different places you haven't been and won't ever be. My personal bias is towards fantasy fiction. In applied CS, read books like "Exploring Everyday Things with R and Ruby: Learning About Everyday Things" [1]

4. Be curious and observant. Look around you and ask why things are the way they are. Example - People enjoy watching soccer/football (on TV and live). But in a lot of high profile games the referee makes a mistake about whether the ball has crossed the line or not. Try reading about goal line technology. Maybe a book on Computer Vision[2] to figure out how you would solve the problem .

[1] http://amzn.to/YpwqkL [2] http://amzn.to/Z7mcGB Note: None of these links are affiliated

Make something for other developers? The success of FUSIONCHARTS is one of many examples.

Experiences. Try to get involved with people and events of this world.

You have pointed yourself what you are lacking. You should be loving programming, not liking it.Be passionate about it. If you love something you would invariably be pulled into doing something with it. You don't have to build something spectacular to show to others. Start small, write small programs that do one specific thing particularly well. For example pick any linux utility commands and try to write it in your choice of language. Just start with whatever idea you have, if you start coding the project, I am sure everything will fall in to place. Like a great man once said "Almost everything you do will seem insignificant, but it is important that you do it"

What frustrates you ? Why does it ? Why is it that way. Ask the why 5 more times. You'd pretty much get at something to work on.

You just need to practice. Don't worry about making money in the beginning, just about making something people will like.

I once was at a place where i couldn't really think of anything but i constantly pushed myself and worked hard to try to spot opportunities; which can either be "unmet needs" or more commonly needs that are poorly met.

Anytime you are using an app that makes you do more work than you need to, you have a side-project idea right there.

The key is not to think-up an idea, but to notice opportunities.

Here are some of my ideas that you can play with if you like:

Grouper for Founders - will probably make business networking easier and a bit more fun (Goal: meet 3 founders every week)

A hosted crowd-funding campaign builder - think of selfstarter.us for people who don't know how to code. Like a kickstarter that you can host on your own domain. (apparently crowdtilt is already working on this but that shouldn't stop you or me or anyone)

Blog Comment Platform - disquss is good but there is a lot of room for improvement. Something that works like HN comments would be ideal.

Project Management for Individuals - Basecamp can do this built it was designed for teams i would really love one designed for individuals and i am building one as my side project. You can do this too.

A Blogging platform that provides a pre-existing audience - I had this idea before quora released quora blogs but as quora doesn't allow you to use your own domain name, there is a great opportunity here.

A habit Tracker - most apps that help you keep track of the habits you want to form are decent at best. Make a better one.

Life Tracker - this was inspired by a blog-post by Dustin Curtis (on his original blog dcurt.is) that has since been taken down. It's basically an app that will help you keep track of how much time you have left to live based on your life expectancy, how much you have lived, what you have accomplished and what you still hope to accomplish with the time you have left.

A twitter for video - yes it sounds stupid but keek.com is becoming popular; go figure.