
Ask HN: How to spend your day when you are searching for the next idea? - valachio
When you are searching for the next project&#x2F;startup to work on, what kind of things should you do to fill up your day?<p>With so much free time on my hands, I find it quite difficult to not get distracted by video games or mindlessly browsing the Internet.  The devil finds work for idle hands.<p>It seems like ideas for projects&#x2F;startups don&#x27;t really come about if you sit down and just think super hard.  Ideas usually come to me spontaneously from some life experience, so it doesn&#x27;t seem like I can force it.  Unless I am doing it wrong somehow...<p>One thing I tried to do is to just work on various side projects.  But I find it really hard to work on a project without a clear vision on what I want the project to become.  I just lose interest and stop.<p>I find that I can only persevere with a project when I have a clear vision on what it will become.<p>It&#x27;s been quite awhile since I felt genuine excitement about working on something.  I know what that feels like and every day I&#x27;m trying to find a way to find that excitement again.<p>So how do you go about living each day when you are unsure of what you want to work on?
======
extremelearning
My suggestion is to keep a notebook with you at all times, and keep track of
the following 3 things:

# 1. Every time you need to do something, but you don't don't know how to do
it.

Chances are you aren't the only one who doesn't know how to do it.

So once you learn how to do it, write a tutorial and then publish it on the
web. The advantage of writing something soon after you learnt it yourself, is
you remember which bits were tricky. (If you leave it too long, everything
becomes obvious in hindsight and so you think what you write is obvious and
thus maybe not worth explaining, writing or sharing.)

Get some feedback and then sell a premium version of it.

# 2. Every time you want to do something but you don't want to do it.

Chances are that you aren't the only one who doesn't want to do it, either.

It is said, the only things people either pay for are fun, knowledge, time, or
safety.

So if you have an engineering mindset, you might be inclined to figure out how
to automate or outsource this task. Once you have streamlined this for
yourself, consider offering this same service to others.

#3. Every time a product or service that you already have, frustrates you.

Chances are that you aren't the only one with the same frustration.

What is the smallest modification you could make to the existing product that
would eliminate this frustration.

Cloning / reverse-engineering a product for MVP is almost always faster than
building a new product out of thin air. So then build this product and then
share it on the web. Get some feedback and if positive, sell an improved
version of it.

------
poletopole
You should first ask if you really even want to make something. As developers,
we like building stuff and solving problems, but sometimes you truly are just
“forcing it”. The biggest problem for me isn’t deciding what to build, it’s
finding the time to make something. When my time is so constrained, I find
myself prioritizing higher pursuits in my life than just hacking on projects.

Personally, I only make something when a problem becomes so annoying or time
consuming, that I’m forced to make it. This is why you should always do things
the hard way or manual way first before automating it and only then can you
say “Wow, this could make money”.

Contrary to what others have mentioned, I advise against keeping a notebook on
you at all times. You end up obsessing over things and overdeveloping the idea
and much of it is wasted effort. If a concept for a project/idea you randomly
think of is truly good, you’ll remember it, otherwise it wasn’t really that
important. The exception to this rule is if if the scope of what you want to
do or the problem is very large and requires tons of research, such as
developing a new programming language or OS, etc, and not just an app or
farming ads.

Overall, I would say to keep your process organic and invest more time in
learning new things than you do on gambling on what may be half baked ideas.
When I’m not sure what to build and have time to, I just buy a book on a
subject I’m interested in, that has some overlap with the idea and but more so
with what I’m interested in as an individual—-hell, maybe consider writing a
book. Otherwise, be very experimental and conduct small hypothesis tests,
starting with your largest to smallest, to make conclusions and _do_ keep a
notebook of them. This is simply a matter of taking inventory of what
assumptions/conjectures you have and either rejecting them or failing to. What
I usually do is take an assumption and do the exact opposite; if, say, you
wanted to make a new chat app, then write an essay on why making a new chat
app is a bad idea and publish it. You’ll be surprised how much software out
there is “broken by design”.

------
anotheryou
This works for me (when I have the time):

\- keep a notebook with you all the time. Get in to a "mode" where you collect
ideas (shitty or not :) ). Similar to to the photographers look when walking
through the city you might end up seeing ideas you where not open to see
before.

\- Get out of the house. Go ta a cafe, to the river, woods etc. Helps focusing
and "doing work".

\- For finding ideas I use sort of a systematic exploration (prefer a keyboard
over a notebook for that one). I guess it helps that I enjoy doing this.

 _Systematic Exploration:_

\- find constrains or focus

\- see what fits

\- once you found something explore in depth

Constrains/Focus:

\- I'm good at UI and computers

\- I'm fascinated by the nature of information

\- I won't be able to build AI

Possible Fit:

\- I can see problems in organizing information, maybe there is something.

Explore:

\- So what is "organizing information"? Writing down, re-organizing, consuming
again. How do they relate? If I can record everything, is that good? Nope,
need to be good for consumption or my knowledge doesn't help at all...

\- So what might be wrong is a lack of focus on later consumption when taking
notes, how can we improve that? Where do people take notes, can I modify that
environment? Here we are getting closer to a product...

There is more approaches to the exploration, I could also start with: What
costs time and effort in my work? Can I make it more efficient?

Also get used to 98% of the ideas not working out or having flaws when
sleeping over them for a night. You will get better at ideas and once you have
one worth perusing it will also give you new ideas or morph into another one
(nothing ever goes as planned).

------
mindhash
In such times, I spend most of my time studying products that I use.
Understand what makes them work, why people are buying, who is buying etc It
just help train your mind to identify what matters when building a successful
product

I have also started blogging, which helps me organise my research and past
learning

------
scorecard
The interplay between CS innovation and computer games goes all the way back
to the days of spacewar and Ken Thompson's chess programs.

With this in mind, I put together a free linux compendium of classic PC
simulation games: [https://alternativeto.net/software/esports-for-
engineers/](https://alternativeto.net/software/esports-for-engineers/)

This was a way of building up momentum to work on more serious projects.

------
giantg2
I think I am sort of similar. Most of my ideas are spontaneous products
involving the combination of one or more disciplines and/or life experiences.

I would focus on hobbies and maybe look at combining it with software. For
example, I think a beekeeper in Sweden created an app that can identify and
count varroa mites on bees.

------
helph67
> Ideas usually come to me spontaneously from some life experience, so it
> doesn't seem like I can force it. You already have the answer. Relax.
> Distract yourself temporarily with some gardening where you're not
> concentrating on the main problem. Gardening is good for your health in many
> ways.

------
crobertsbmw
Entertain some hobbies. You'll find when you are fishing everyday that you
start to have ideas on how you can improve the fishing experience for yourself
and possibly others.

If you have a hard time finishing side projects, then work on a smaller or
simpler idea that you can finish in a weekend or two.

------
verdverm
I studied many different things and read many books.

I'm about to put down my projects and work with some others on their idea.
Maybe you too can find another's project to work on rather than starting one
from scratch?

------
quickthrower2
Maybe get a job. A job gives you two things: problems and a context in which
people pay for solutions. You can then use these pains as ideas of problems to
solve.

