
Ask HN: Is there a platform for sharing ideas that people want to “give away”? - balzss
I&#x27;m in the camp of &quot;Ideas are worthless, execution is everything&quot;. Not in a literal sense, obviously, but I definitely have more ideas than time for executing them. Most of them are fun little thing or tools that would be helpful but not enough to actually do them.<p>I would like to submit them somewhere and maybe someone likes it and wants to create it. Or maybe I could get input why it&#x27;s a stupid idea or how to improve them.<p>It would be also nice to see others&#x27; fun ideas. Maybe find a collaborator to work on them together.<p>Are you aware of such a platform? If there is none, what do you think about the concept?
======
cdiamand
I tried to tackle this problem, or atleast the problem of helping people find
ideas. I built [http://oppsdaily.com](http://oppsdaily.com) and
[http://oppslist.com](http://oppslist.com). They're both now sunset and I'm no
longer sending emails out or updating the platform.

I will say that ideas are generally far less valuable than a first customer.
My readers told me time and time again that they wanted to be connected to
someone who would pay for the idea. That is the real challenge, and if you can
figure that out, you're going to have a booming business. And I think there is
opportunity in the space somewhere between e-lance and just "ideas". Some kind
of platform that matches a developer and an initial customer in a way that
rewards both. Finding these people is a challenge, but I think it's possible,
and the person who figures out how to do it is going to have a MASSIVE
business on their hands. I could go on about this a lot further, but I wholly
recommend exploring it.

I'm onto my next project now, which interestingly is helping people find
investing ideas. We launched yesterday so we'll see how it goes. If you want
to chat about the idea space - cory @t topstonks.com or check out the the new
project its at [http://topstonks.com](http://topstonks.com). Good luck!

~~~
stanmancan
Sharing idea's are pretty useless in general, if you're not excited enough to
work on your own idea, why would someone else be excited to work on it?

I'm curious if people posting things they NEED would be more functional, along
with a bounty. Other people who also want it can contribute to the bounty.
Anyone can work on the idea's and the bounty is awarded to whoever solves it
first/best. (I think you would need some sort of oversight to make sure the
bounty is awarded to the rightful solution).

"$1,500 - An API that lets me send send snail mail by posting a PDF and
address to an endpoint"

Maybe it slowly gets up to $4,000 with 15 other people contributing to the
bounty. That's finally high enough that someone solves it, posts it, collects
the bounty, and already has 16 customers.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
I have more ideas than I have time to implement, so I focus on the ones that
are most interesting/doable/potentially profitable.

The bounty idea is a good one, but again, I think it will rapidly become a
race to the bottom on price. As soon as the bounty gets to the point where
someone in e.g., Eastern Europe thinks it's good money, they'll bid on it even
though a dev in SF thinks it's pocket change. I'll bet dollars to doughnuts
that in a lot of cases it will happen as soon as the bounty hits $100.

~~~
sailfast
Wouldn't that be an excellent outcome for the person with the idea?

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
Absolutely. But OP is focused on getting good projects for the developers and
usually the devs saying they can't find customers are in locations where the
COL is too high for this to be profitable for them.

One to get around this problem is to focus on only doing the same kind of work
and getting better at doing it quickly so it becomes profitable to you, or
doing it in a more Productized Service fashion. But that's a solution to a
different problem, not what the OP was asking about.

~~~
fullstackchris
This is huge, and what plagues a lot of software engineers / product
developers to this day. You may find a super cheap software company somewhere
out in the world - but if the project is anything more than something like a
webpage with jquery (as most modern projects involving software are) you end
up spending more on fixing, re-fixing, and billing than you would have if you
had just paid one time for the more expensive company / service / consultant
that is well vouched for or acreddited

~~~
sailfast
Sure, this is absolutely true. That said, if you can test a prototype for $100
and validate the business idea it's easier to figure out how to pay for
(and/or that it is worth spending the time building yourself) the better,
built from scratch version. You'll probably also get some good feedback.

I think this is the disconnect for me when reading this question. If the
question is "where do I find good ideas for my personal tinkering projects"
that's one thing, but if you're looking for profitable startup ideas it's not
about the engineering - it's about testing quickly and validating the business
so the development piece can be much less important (unless of course the
business is software tooling)

------
pjmorris
I'm reminded of the Halfbakery [0]

"The Halfbakery is a communal database of original, fictitious inventions,
edited by its users. It was created by people who like to speculate, both as a
form of satire and as a form of creative expression." [1]

[0] [https://www.halfbakery.com/](https://www.halfbakery.com/)

[1]
[https://www.halfbakery.com/editorial/about.html](https://www.halfbakery.com/editorial/about.html)

~~~
beamatronic
Fictitious? I put my very best ideas on there.

~~~
pjmorris
:) I am just quoting their about page verbatim. Personally, I think the
statement undersells its value considerably.

------
wpietri
For a while I ran an event called Pitchosaurus. We'd get together in the
evening with beers. The general structure was:

Someone pitches the core of an idea. The idea can be either serious or
ridiculous, but they should always pitch it as if it were serious.

Then everybody else, one at a time, proposed amendments or amplifications.
These too may be serious or ridiculous, but they must be done in a "yes and"
[1] style. No criticism is allowed (although add-ons may of course address a
perceived flaw.

Eventually, when the amendments stop coming, a brief discussion of the idea
and related topics is allowed. When that runs down, start again.

It was a lot of fun. I stopped doing it for life-happens reasons, but I'd
encourage anybody to pick it up and run with it. It might be possible to
capture the spirit in a website as well. Feel free to email or tweet at me if
I can be of service.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes,_and..](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes,_and..).

~~~
frankus
There's a card game that was recently on KickStarter called Pitch Deck:
[https://pitchdeck.business](https://pitchdeck.business), sort of in the vein
of Schmoovie.

------
jcadam
There are a lot of us with the technical chops (and/or can get a team
together) to make a good software solution/product/service that are stuck on
step 1: Identifying a real problem that companies will pay money to have
solved for them.

I wish there was a place/service that would connect businesses with real
problems (that they either can't or would rather not solve in-house) with
aspiring (tech) entrepreneurs. I'm sure there's a large number of such
opportunities out there, probably in industries/domains most software devs
don't have much experience in and wouldn't think to explore.

~~~
yourapostasy
You identified a sales problem. There is a giant gulf between problems that
companies say they have, even say they want to pay for, and actually cutting a
purchase order when the rubber meets the road.

What we are lacking is a blockchain-verifiable reputation audit trail into an
escrow-like system tied to an ideas factory on one side, implementers on
another side, and funders on a third side, down to the individual natural
person level. The problem with an escrow is no one wants to park unused
capital, but implementers are screwed if they put up the effort and when it
comes time to collect all the "funders" evaporate.

Milestone-based backing also encounters problems with funders getting screwed
when implementers reel off an endless stream of milestones with no real end in
sight, like with Star Citizen.

If you can trace escrow and delivery promises (perhaps with time bounds) not
just to an organization but to a natural person sponsor within that
organization, then over time the actual probability of funders and
implementers actually delivering can be tracked and algorithmically computed
for present and future promises to fund or deliver. This tends to flush out
sociopathic individuals who hide their track record behind their hops from
organization to organization (especially those who implement dark patterns
that only show up in the long-run).

This is just recognizing a general scaling problem with monetary systems in
general: they preserve pricing information but lossy encode all other aspects
of the transaction, and that doesn't work efficiently in a global economy.

~~~
pseudozach
oh please don't bring blockchain into this and put a simple task/bounty
website on a giant replicated public db.

~~~
yourapostasy
Sure, how else can I ensure that the records are distributed, replicated and
simultaneously not tampered with? And timestamps with verifiable attestations?
I thought of trying to use signed keys, but the key management quickly became
a non-starter, so how else could I structure this without it turning into a
nightmare human factors challenge?

Upvoted, because I honestly was hoping someone would challenge the blockchain
part and show me a better solution. I'm not keen on that piece myself, but
don't know how to design around it without raising other concerns I'd rather
not deal with.

------
ataylor32
[https://www.reddit.com/r/SomebodyMakeThis/](https://www.reddit.com/r/SomebodyMakeThis/)

------
NateEag
I just maintain such a list on my website:

[http://www.nateeag.com/software/ideas.html](http://www.nateeag.com/software/ideas.html)

I haven't tried to publicize it at all (well, until this post).

Start the list on a website somewhere, and if you want people to look at it,
submit it to HN, Reddit, et al.

That should give you everything you need.

Not everything needs to be a platform.

~~~
balzss
> Not everything needs to be a platform

I couldn't agree more. I was thinking about a github repo so people can
contribute via pull requests. I should have put more emphasis on the _fun_
part and how I don't want it to be a Business Ideas™ because that goes against
the spirit of my original goal.

I also like your list. Maybe I should put my list on my website as well.
Thanks for sharing.

~~~
NateEag
You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed it.

The whole site is just a static thing whose code and content lives on GitHub:
[https://github.com/NateEag/nateeag.com](https://github.com/NateEag/nateeag.com)

Good luck putting yours together!

------
xwowsersx
Products that people wish existed are usually (not always) terrible ideas.
There's no barrier to just blurting out something you wish existed - you know,
something you want to exist, but you definitely won't be building and can't
promise you'll use and definitely won't pay for. There's literally nothing
holding you back from stating something that you wish existed even if it's
just a tiny thing that you personally want in this specific moment for this
specific use case.

------
pjeziorowski
I've just started an opensource project (platform) that closely matches your
idea. We gathered over 60 people interested in contributing on Slack in just
two days.

A quote from my post on dev.to where it all started -

"A platform where people can express their app wishes (e.g. "I wish I had an
app for X and Y") and vote up other people's great ideas.

Developers can use Appwish to keep track of the most wanted apps and features.
They can assign themselves to projects, create dev teams and collaborate to
fulfil people's needs.

In the future, the platform could also introduce elements of fund-raising or
voluntary donations for the most appreciated developers and teams."

At the moment we are on stage of planning features/architecture and the
development will start soon - we got frontend developers, backend devs,
devops, a few designers and even mobile devs. + We were offered free hosting
on one of startups offering managed Kubernetes clusters.

If anyone is interested, I can share our Slack channel/Github URL - we put
everything in public anyways :)

~~~
craze3
Yes, post the Slack invite link... This sounds really interesting!

~~~
pjeziorowski
Here you are -
[https://join.slack.com/t/appwish/shared_invite/enQtODk4MTgzO...](https://join.slack.com/t/appwish/shared_invite/enQtODk4MTgzOTMwMjg4LWUwZGFlNjQ5ZWZiMzIyYWRmYjA1NDgyMzVlMjIxNzc4NTU0NmUyMWIzYzgyNzk0YjVlMDkzMjZjMmUzYmQyMTg)

------
mynegation
[https://www.producthunt.com/posts/ideasdrop](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/ideasdrop)

Producthunt link instead of a direct one so you can check “related” as well.

------
samsquire
I've got my list of ideas here;
[https://github.com/samsquire/ideas](https://github.com/samsquire/ideas)

~~~
karlicoss
Wow, that's fantastic! Bookmarked as it would take a while to read through :)

Have you considered adding table of contents by the way?

P.S. from a quick glance we seem to share some:

\- personal infrastructure:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21844105](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21844105)

\- personal data api, separating frontend and backend:
[https://beepb00p.xyz/mypkg.html#examples](https://beepb00p.xyz/mypkg.html#examples)
(draft)

\- life engine: I've got a personal dashboard for health, exercise and sleep;
also timeline for life events

Exciting!

------
SilasX
I thought that Kickstarter/Indiegogo had effectively become this. A common
complaint is, "hey, I launched a Kickstarter, got funded, and some Chinese
factory stole the idea!"

My response is always, "so? Aren't those sites more for 'I wish this existed
so I could be a customer' than 'I want to personally profit from this idea'?"

So, yeah, if you don't care about someone stealing it, you might be able to
repurpose Kickstarter that way:

1) Start a KS for the idea.

2) Wait for someone to steal it.

3) Cancel and refund everyone's money.

~~~
nitwit005
I assume there's still some friction from credit card charges and whatnot, but
I do like that plan as a cheap way to get something made.

~~~
SilasX
I wasn't sure, so I checked their help page, and apparently, failed projects
aren't charged anything:

>If a project does not reach its funding goal, no fees are collected.

[https://help.kickstarter.com/hc/en-
us/articles/115005028634-...](https://help.kickstarter.com/hc/en-
us/articles/115005028634-What-are-the-fees-)

I don't know how they handle -- or if it would be an issue if you went the
route of -- "Funding goal met but canceled anyway".

Or if they have rules against, "I have no idea how to make this thing but that
stereotypical overseas factory says they can do it so I'm contracting it out
to them."

------
karlicoss
I keep mine on my personal blog
[https://beepb00p.xyz/ideas.html](https://beepb00p.xyz/ideas.html)

In fact one of main drives to write for me is to spread ideas on other people
so someone else works on them!

~~~
gitgud
Wow pretty interesting, I too wonder why avocados are the only fatty fruit!

Does that page use a framework? Or is it designed from scratch? Very cool
design.

~~~
karlicoss
Thanks! I don't have much imagination so compensate for it by at least having
clean design, glad when people like it :)

These are all just static pages, exported from org-mode (as most of my blog
pages) + org-css theme [0] + some minor HTML/CSS tweaks and posprocessing I'm
describing in github readme [1]

I'll upload all org-mode sources at some point as well, just need to think of
a good way of cleaning them up from even more chaotic personal notes (which
aren't exported).

[0]
[https://github.com/gongzhitaao/orgcss](https://github.com/gongzhitaao/orgcss)

[1] [https://github.com/karlicoss/beepb00p#org-
mode](https://github.com/karlicoss/beepb00p#org-mode)

------
scotttheamazing
We have a podcast that covers these kinds of ideas! Basically every week we
give out million dollar business ideas and encourage people to steal them!

[https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/steal-this-
idea/id1472...](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/steal-this-
idea/id1472895373)

------
hananbo
I've built [https://willpayfor.com](https://willpayfor.com) scratching my own
itch. You're all welcome to share ideas there, please also mention how
valuable a product or service idea might be or specify how you think it should
be monitized

------
iloveitaly
Here's a twitter-sourced list of product ideas:

[https://www.requestforproduct.co](https://www.requestforproduct.co)

------
ken
I appreciate the sentiment, but at the same time, most ideas _are_ worthless.
Even if you had knowledge of some successful system of today, went to an
alternate universe that lacked it, and described it to them in detail, the
team would still screw it up. It's not their baby. They need a leader who gets
it, not just an idea dump.

Recall the story of Bezos and his challenge to let customers order from Amazon
"with a single click". His team's first prototype required _twelve_ clicks. He
sent them back to work, and the second prototype required _two_ clicks. It's
not a question of complexity, because ideas don't get any simpler than that.

------
mindcrime
Dig through the HN archives... I'm pretty sure that some variation of the
basic idea of "a platform for sharing ideas that people want to give away" has
been developed about 100 times over the past 10 years or so. OK, maybe not
quite 100, but this seems to come up fairly often, and I'm pretty sure I
remember more than a few people saying "I'm building a site to X" where X is
pretty close to the above notion.

------
DannyDover
The podcast, Steal This Idea, does exactly what you are looking for. The hosts
and their guests come up with most of the ideas, but listeners can submit
ideas as well: [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/steal-this-
idea/id1472...](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/steal-this-
idea/id1472895373)

------
elicash
A more honest way to say "ideas are worthless" would be to claim that there's
no such thing as a first mover advantage.

Here's a take that looks into that question fairly:
[https://hbr.org/2005/04/the-half-truth-of-first-mover-
advant...](https://hbr.org/2005/04/the-half-truth-of-first-mover-advantage)

~~~
balzss
I totally agree with you and thanks for sharing the article. I'll read it
later.

------
nabnob
Follow up question - Does anyone have advice for changing your mindset so you
actually notice a potential idea when you have some pain point? I feel like I
ignore my own ideas that seem insignificant. It just isn't a reflex to think
"hey I should write a program to solve this".

~~~
gamerDude
You could take a route similar to how you train your brain to notice that you
are dreaming.

Basically, start making it a priority in your mind to notice these ideas by
creating a habit to think about them intentionally. Take some time everyday to
write down any and every idea you have for a software that would help solve
something, anything. It's not the ideas the matter, it's about training your
brain to make them important. If possible, do it multiple times a day.

Fast forward a couple weeks and you'll be writing down that "insignificant"
idea you just had!

~~~
nabnob
This is good advice, thanks!

------
kamranahmedse
I am not aware of such platform but you can just create a GitHub repository
and dump your ideas there.

Alot of people especially new developers are looking for project ideas; you
can just put your ideas there and share the repository in /r/learnprogramming
or similar subreddits.

------
sne11ius
Live your idea ;)

I built [https://egghead.space](https://egghead.space) exeggdly for this -
absolutely some pun intended ;)

Just look at this awesome idea:
[https://egghead.space/sketch/iKGw9vQ9Qmub39Djz1ZR/Fallout+4+...](https://egghead.space/sketch/iKGw9vQ9Qmub39Djz1ZR/Fallout+4+face+generator)

I never managed to bring it beyond alpha stage though and no one ever used it.

Main problem for me was that I always got the feeling it looked just ugly. I'm
not a designer, so that was really demotivating...

------
aabbcc1241
The Idea Machine

A live crowd-sourced collection of ideas for new apps & business ideas that
have been requested by the internet. Sorted by Hot, Top and New. With upvotes
and downvotes. To post your own idea use the hashtag #ideaMachine or click the
"submit a new idea" button below.

[http://www.ideamachine.io/](http://www.ideamachine.io/)

(I'm not the owner, just share it here)

------
buboard
[https://www.reddit.com/r/AppIdeas/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AppIdeas/)

------
mmmuhd
Well I am in the camp of "ideas and even execution are worthless" now, what
really matters is strong focus, I have executed 3 ideas from November of last
year but after building them to what I feel like is a finished mvp, I always
feel strong irresistible desire to build something else that I think is the
coolest thing only to throw it after finishing, this is really my problem now.

------
melicerte
My humble suggestion: write a web page with all your ideas, publish the page
on HN and let people comments. It has already been done in the past.

------
aanonymouse
[https://www.fiveideasaday.com/](https://www.fiveideasaday.com/)

Could run into same issues as others, but right now looks to be focused on the
light-hearted, fun aspect of idea generation and potential for sparking
creativity. Unsure about the intent to start a sub community that is paid,
don’t think this will be the long term winning approach.

------
anant90
I've been trying to give away ideas via a simple Twitter thread that I hope to
keep updating over time:

[https://twitter.com/anant90/status/1171867648285540352](https://twitter.com/anant90/status/1171867648285540352)

Incidentally, "a platform for sharing well-researched ideas" is #11 on this
list :)

------
AlchemistCamp
Yes, there is: [https://nugget.one/nuggets](https://nugget.one/nuggets)

------
pseudozach
Ironically this is on my to-do list. A site where devs can put out ideas,
users can lock money on them and the person that develops it and brings it
live can claim the bounty. I have so many ideas but I'm tired of putting out
things that only a few people use as are lots of others on here.

------
BlameKaneda
When I'm bored, I occasionally find myself here:
[https://unawaz.github.io/stochastic-hill-
climbing/tasks/](https://unawaz.github.io/stochastic-hill-climbing/tasks/)

Unfortunately there isn't a way to submit anything.

------
Dumblydorr
What if HN built out a post type for idea sharing? Maybe a monthly post your
coding project ideas thread?

------
Can_Not
I found a similar platform to what to are describing once in the past, the
main issue was that 100% of the ideas I found were wildly outside the scope of
apps I was interested in making. Maybe if I could categorically exclude IOT,
iPhone ideas, blockchain, full video games, etc..

------
kerridge0
used to be one called the global ideas bank but went away presumably due to
lack of funding. Founded by Nicholas Albery
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Albery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Albery)

------
kerkeslager
I'm in the camp of "Ideas are worthless, execution is everything", in a
literal sense. I'd rather have an executed bad idea than a good idea.

An obvious conclusion of this is that even though I think your "platform for
sharing ideas" idea is bad, just execute it. :)

~~~
ada1981
Intend to think of ideas as an exponent to execution.

You can take 5 years working your ass off to build a local pizza shop or Uber.
And from working with both small and large business people the hours and
stress is about the same.

A great idea will reward execution much more than a bad idea.

------
philshem
Slight variation:

[http://highdeas.com/](http://highdeas.com/)

------
rtx
Kickstarter look at products which have good response and see if you can
execute faster and better.

~~~
AznHisoka
Same for upwork requests. See if you can find common tasks that can be
automated or generalized into a product.

------
jelliclesfarm
You said that you are of the camp that ‘ideas of worthless’. That strikes me
as predatory.

People who are technical and don’t have creativity to come up with new ideas
should be employees, not creators. People who can come up with ideas but
cannot manage need managers. All those who cannot come up with any of the
above should be investors.

It is a cunning trick that I observed in the past decade in the start up
scene. Instinctively I don’t trust anyone who says that ‘ideas are worthless’.

Perhaps this is the reason why many start ups fail. There is no creator or
domain expert. I see that in Agtech. The best Agtech companies are those who
have some connection to farming. A handful of them are technical.

Even those who are technical do not work in the field. It is the uneducated
non technical Joses and Marias who are immigrant labour that do all the work
that needs to be automated.

They are not technical. They barely know English. But by not including those
who Agtech is seeking to replace with tech and robots at the table, they set
themselves up for failure.

I have a small farm and a little technical, but Ag robotics is multiple
platforms. As a small farm owner who also has to keep the farm financially
solvent and someone who also does manual work that needs to be replaced, I can
spot right away how many of the Agtech companies will fail. And most of them
will fail. The ones that will make it are those who have someone in the team
with in-field experience.

It’s this non technical team that will come up with the best ideas because
they know where they need help desperately. This is also why Europe will
likely succeed first in Agtech than America. Because they have technical
expertise as well as the idea team.

I hope those who dismiss ideas will reconsider. An idea is like a possibility.
There are many ways it can fail and a narrower path to succeed. Only the
person who came up with the idea will know the limitations and by excluding
them, the chances of failures are multiplied.

As an aside: YC is also guilty of this dismissive attitude. This is also why
most start ups will fail. Failure is not necessarily a bad thing but failed
start ups are graveyard of what may have succeeded. It’s an enormous waste of
space and resources. The only upside is redistribution of capital and creation
of jobs. Hence even failed start ups and bad ideas that get funding is not
necessary a bad thing. If we don’t have jobs, I guess there won’t be a way to
employ the hordes of STEM educated young people pouring out into the world as
they come of age.

------
zekehernandez
I love thinking of video game ideas, so much so that I made a website to
publish the ideas in a rather fleshed out manner:
[http://creativeowlet.com/](http://creativeowlet.com/)

------
gitgud
This mailing list share ideas with an execution plan too. Fun to read in the
inbox every now and then.

[https://www.startupsfromthebottom.com/](https://www.startupsfromthebottom.com/)

------
dwrodri
I keep an idea list on my personal website. I like the thought of my ideas
being valuable enough to hide in plain sight, but interesting enough to be
worth saving and sharing with my fellow nerd friends on occasion.

------
Iv
Ideas are not just cheap, the huge majority of them are actually bad. Most
ideas are actually not worth the time to consider them.

If you want a repository for good ideas, I think first you need to find a way
to filter the bad ones.

~~~
NateEag
And if you could do that reliably, you should already be a billionaire from
your many successful startups.

~~~
Iv
Success is 1% inspiration 99% perspiration.

Being successful at business is a different skillset than having good
technical ideas. The best idea in the world won't build you a sales force
magically nor will it put into place a manufacturing chain for you.

~~~
NateEag
Yes, agreed.

But if you can consistently predict whether an idea is "good", by definition
you should be either hitting it out of the park consistently or getting
massive returns on investments.

------
PookMook
I'm building [https://makeithappen.dev](https://makeithappen.dev) just for
that, it's in the MVP stage and pretty slow, but it will get there eventually!

~~~
PookMook
(btw, looking for other people that would want to build something like that,
feel free to reach if interested!)

------
perk
Not a platform but relevant:

Products I'd Pay For, 2020 Edition
[https://dmonn.ch/smb-2020/](https://dmonn.ch/smb-2020/)

I'm not the author.

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rapnie
Open source ideas:

[https://github.com/open-source-ideas/open-source-
ideas](https://github.com/open-source-ideas/open-source-ideas)

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akman
Y Combinator Requests for Startups:
[https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/](https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/)

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BigBalli
I believe most of us techies have our own personal list saved somewhere. Your
best bet is probably Reddit if you do not have a large following on social
media.

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hananbo
I've built willpayfor.com not long ago. You're all welcome to share ideas and
mention how valuable in terms of money a product or service might be.

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mcxlog
The journal of brief ideas,
[https://beta.briefideas.org/about](https://beta.briefideas.org/about)

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d99kris
Perhaps [https://www.ideaswatch.com/](https://www.ideaswatch.com/)

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fullstackchris
a few from product hunt product i occasionally look at that are fun:

[http://problemoftheday.co/](http://problemoftheday.co/)

[https://ideasareworthless.io/](https://ideasareworthless.io/)

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thedevindevops
Quality varies wildly but if you're not adverse to reddit, check out
/r/AppIdeas

~~~
balzss
Thanks for suggesting it, I didn't know about that place. It seems like a
flood of unrefined ideas coming from non technical people. I also see a lot of
"that would be a good business" type of ideas which is definitely not what I'm
after.

The good thing about that place is that it points out some obvious flaws with
my initial idea. Maybe doing it on Github instead of reddit and focusing on
developers and requiring a bit more details before submitting a suggestion
would solve these? I don't know.

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ogou
Yes, it's called "grandparents" and can also be found on "in-laws."

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meerita
You can do that on Twitter.

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Razengan
> _I 'm in the camp of ”Ideas are worthless”_

Then why ask people here for ideas for a platform?

You are here because you couldn’t think of all possibilities yourself.

Ideas are the first step, without which everything that comes after, wouldn’t.

~~~
balzss
I didn't used the expression in a literal sense (which I tried to state but
maybe I didn't do it well enough). For me "ideas are worthless" represents the
opposite of the mindset where people get secretive about their ideas or not
wanting to give them away because they are afraid that someone will make good
money with it.

I clearly care about ideas if I want everybody to share theirs. I just want to
do it openly and freely without people thinking that others will steal them
and make advantage of them.

~~~
lidHanteyk
Grandparent is right, though; _everybody_ starts out as an ideas-first person.
That's because having ideas is really easy and anybody can do it.

It sounds like you want the validation and esteem of your peers on the basis
of your ideas. The cold reality is that having an idea does not at all entitle
you to a reward; other people will also have your idea, and you'll feel like
they have "stolen" or "made advantage of" your dream.

Many ideas are counterproductive; if they were carried out to fruition, they
would either need to be retrofitted to the point of being a different idea
entirely, or consume too many resources in proportion to the resources being
saved. It is completely reasonable, therefore, to insist that ideas are not
enough and that prototypes are required before designs can be considered for
production.

Finally, consider a Kantian perspective. We can't _all_ be ideas-first people.
Therefore it'd be a lot more moral of you if you developed some programming
skills.

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xena
Twitter

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acvny
Producthunt

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carapace
WWW

Start a web-ring?

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oth001
Good idea!

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egypturnash
Twiter

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justboxing
24K Members:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Startup_Ideas/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Startup_Ideas/)

569K Members:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/CrazyIdeas/](https://www.reddit.com/r/CrazyIdeas/)

The 1st one is pretty active in that you get feedback also from the community.

~~~
zhamisen
There is also
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Lightbulb/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Lightbulb/)

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gowld
"Ideas are worthless, execution is everything" means that with high
probability everyone who can execute already knows your ideas.

If your idea isn't good enough for you to work on it, why would it inspire
anyone else?

~~~
neverartful
That's a good point. On the other hand one may have ideas that are not pursued
because of: lack of domain expertise, lack of capital, family commitments,
etc.

~~~
archi42
Exactly this. If I woke up with a million-$ idea tomorrow, chances are good I
could not just get up and just pursue it. Why not let someone else take the
chance?

Add to this that, as time progresses, more and more ideas that are doable by a
person (or a small group) are already done. So your idea needs to solve its
problem better (by whatever metric, e.g. price/usability/...).

This is somewhat countered by improved tooling (e.g. stripe, node.js,
$stack_of_the_week) and cheaper tech (e.g. raw compute power), as well as by
growing and better interconnected global markets (the global equivalent to
opening a specialty shop in a tiny village or a booming mega city).

