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Ask HN: Making something without a use case

1 points by xauronx ↗ HN
So, I've been working on something purely because I think it's neat, but I really don't have a valid use case for it. For the sake of making money, is it a valid hope to just say "Well, I'll make it... and see what people think, and then go from there."? I guess I could just be wasting my time, and that's perfectly fine with me if I enjoy the work (which I do). Does anyone have experience with this?

4 comments

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informatimago
Not everything in life is about making money. As long as your basic needs are fulfilled (and even if some are not), human spirit needs to go beyond and do things for fun and art.
justintocci
Why not say what your idea is and let us tear it up?

You don't say whether you would use the final product yourself, just that it would be neat. Would you?

xauronx
Oh yeah, I'm actually going to do a demo in the next week or two on HN. The idea is to provide a simple jQuery plugin to allow any element on your page to be drawn upon. Additionally, there is a way to sync that element up with a smart phone (scanning the QR code), and draw on it in real-time.

The initial idea was to add the ability to put your signature on a website using your finger on your smart phone. I dunno if that's a valid use case though, because if you're just signing once, its not worth your time to download the app. If you're signing something many times, you'd rather just press a button to add your signature.

I was thinking that perhaps marking up pages on a tablet could be useful. Just circling things on the iPad shows the circles on the page. Not sure.

justintocci
Ok, you said 'without a use case' but I think there are several. If you really meant you might not be able to sell it then, well, if I had a use for it I would pay. Honestly, I don't think this is a bad idea at all.