Ask HN: Would you rather work in a crowded field or a wide-open one?

6 points by tezzer ↗ HN
On a recent HN item[1] about Open edX, a user asked about online education frameworks, and got (at last count) 7 replies saying "come look at my framework" or "My framework is going to be released Real Soon Now, here's how it's different". It makes the online education framework field look very crowded, and if you think about the early history of the auto or aviation industry, you'd imagine not many of these hopefuls will survive.

So, HN, do you find a crowded field exciting? Do you find it intellectually engaging, does the prospect of competition to the death, fighting twelve other startups for every single customer get your blood moving? Or would you rather focus your attention on a less crowded arena, like tools to help users fill out their government form SF-86.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6360793

2 comments

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I'd rather find a niche and become a domain expert in the problems related to the discipline.
So in your case, a crowded field is a boon, because lots of companies could then be expected to hit the problems you've got a solution for, yes?