

Ask HN: I'll build any web app - stagas

Over the past few weeks I've been having this sort of burn out in motivation for work. I'm a web developer, and I like creating web apps that people will find some use for. I am overwhelmed by the ideas that pop into my head, but I can't seem to be motivated enough to actually work on something. I write some code, but when I discuss these ideas with friends and family they are all like "hmmm, yeah that's nice...", totally killing my initial enthusiasm.<p>So in an attempt to get my enthusiasm back and kill my burn out, I ask you, what simple yet cool webapp that doesn't yet exist (or isn't good enough) do you want me to create, that you'll find some use for? It can be anything really. Advice is welcome also.
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user24
Share your ideas. Writing them down in a blog post in a way that tries to sell
them is a very helpful way of deciding what's actually useful or not. It can
also rekindle enthusiasm for old ideas.

For inspiration, see this post about ten web app ideas:
<http://www.puremango.co.uk/2010/10/ten-ideas/>

~~~
stagas
I'm not really good at writing blog posts but I'll try it, thank you.

------
willheim
I don't get this "ask friends and family" approach. Unless your friends and
family are on the bleeding edge of tech I fail to see how much understanding
and enthusiasm they could give you. Friends will often be supportive no matter
the idea. Family will often shrug and say "interesting" without having any
idea what you're talking about. Not every idea has mass appeal. You likely got
the same kind of answers when explaining any number of successful start-ups.
Imagine if the Farmville folk had "tested" their idea on friends and family.
Yeah! A virtual farm! Forget about FPS or puzzle games... now you can
virtually plant peas! (My mum would say "why don't people go plant real peas
or have a real farm?").

What it really sounds like is that you have too many ideas and not enough
focus. Sounds like you need to pick one and stick to it. Even a failure is a
completion and that is a success.

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gallerytungsten
Instead of telling your ideas to friend and family, ask for theirs. Go to the
mall or other public place and ask people. Want to go all out? Take a cooler
of ice cold beer and a big sign saying you'll give out beer for great web app
ideas. If you do it on a slow news day, some tv reporter might put you on the
news. Someone watching might call you with the best idea ever. Embrace
serendipity and seek out new sources of ideas.

~~~
stagas
I ask for theirs and it's mainly Facebook-for-that with 'that' being a random
value, or it's impossible / huge for me. No, my problem isn't ideas, I have
plenty of them myself. My problem is motivation. I usually give up after
building a working prototype because I lose interest and enthusiasm, because I
was the only one who cared. I was hoping that by posting this issue here, I
see it as a commitment. When someone expects something from me I would put
more effort in, rather than building something that I came up with and perhaps
noone really cares. +1 for original advice though :)

------
binarymax
Might want to check this out...plenty of ideas there.

[https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ag-
R_ZlGO21NdE9HSWR...](https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ag-
R_ZlGO21NdE9HSWRkbjNyUGRxS2JIV3NxYVdiaXc&hl=en_GB#gid=2)

EDIT - the original post: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1190974>

~~~
stagas
This is very interesting, thank you for pointing out this. But still I'm not
looking for a startup, I just want to escape burn out, and build something
cool in the process that people would like to use. I have no interest in
making money out of it, and money is no motivator for intellectual processes.
People's enthusiasm and feedback, though, are great motivators, that's why I'm
asking this here.

Sure there are a lot of good ideas in that document, but they're all business
ideas, there is no passion or enthusiasm around them. But thanks again, it
still is helpful.

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EastCoastLA
Hello stagas. What is your technical skill with javascript. I have a idea that
needs more polish, but I think it would make a great open source library and I
could use it in my job. It's a visualization tool that I saw a Google tech
talk about a few months ago. I have not had time to sit down and code for it,
but if it was available, I would sure use it.

~~~
stagas
Hello EastCoastLA. I would say I am advanced in Javascript. Please email me
with the details so I can check it out.

~~~
EastCoastLA

      I am interested in use of data visualization of information that has an endpoint of simple dynamic well known picture/image.  Every item in the picture is linked to the data.  
     
      Imagine a picture of a harbor with boats, calm water, clear sky,etc..  (Still looking for the specific tech talk)
     Every distinct visual category in the picture should have a distinct data link.  

I would model it in the same way as Protovis
<http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/> But with pictures linked to the data.

Some links: Hans Rosling shows the best stats you've ever seen
[http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_y...](http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html)

Digital Arts@Google: W. Bradford Paley, Martin Wattenberg, and Fernanda Viegas
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRrmE7BFdJs&feature=playe...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRrmE7BFdJs&feature=player_embedded)

[http://www.slideshare.net/fichter/data-20-harnessing-new-
dat...](http://www.slideshare.net/fichter/data-20-harnessing-new-data-
visualization-tools-343275)

~~~
stagas
Protovis pretty much covers everything, from what I can see. What you're
looking for (I think) is an implementation on some specific data you have,
mapped to hyperlinks from Wikipedia or similar? Please correct me if I didn't
understand correctly or elaborate a bit.

~~~
EastCoastLA
Protovis is very close, but imagine one of the digital frames you put pictures
in. The date dynamically creates the one image. Each element of the picture
might represent a data element I feel is important. The javascript API will
allow me to select the picture which could be a landscape or water-scape or
mountain scape. The data can be encoded in JSON. The user could look at the
image and have a visual representation of the data in a familiar format.

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heliodor
Don't ask your friends and family. most of them, I assume, don't understand
the field. Ask people who understand. Go to an entrepreneurship meetup, such
as the HN meetups in various cities, and talk to those people. They'll
understand what you're saying, and challenge your business/tech assumptions
and decisions.

~~~
stagas
I understand your point here, but it's really hard where I live to even reach
those. I live in an island in the mediterranean, called Crete, and travelling
by airplane to go to such meetups isn't something I can afford, and developers
living here don't really care more than doing a website in Joomla for a hotel
or so. I've tried talking to them also but in vain. So the Internet is my only
real connection at the moment with these kinds of things. I feel like I have
so much creativity and really want to build things, but I'm alone here and
feel like nobody understands me in real life.

------
Luyt
Have a look at Jacques' list of ideas:
[http://jacquesmattheij.com/My+list+of+ideas+for+when+you+are...](http://jacquesmattheij.com/My+list+of+ideas+for+when+you+are+looking+for+inspiration)

Many of them!

~~~
stagas
Thanks! Looks interesting.

------
ithayer
Hey, this is one of the founders of Ready for Zero (recently featured on HN).
We have a simple webapp idea that might be fun to do on the side. If you're
interested, mail me at nacho _at_ readyforzero _dot_com.

