
Ask HN: I can't think of anything that I could make that people would want.  - sown
Have you run into this? How did you find a way to create something people would want?
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patio11
Talk to people, preferably people with money, and ask them what their problems
are. Some portion of those problems will be amenable to solution with a
computer, phone, etc etc. Sketch out a low fidelity prototype of what the
solution looks like, bring it back, and ask them to pay for it. If they'll pay
for it, they want it.

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sown
I have to go meet people first, but this seems like good advice. :)

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schoash
Made my day :D

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pg
Isn't there anything you want?

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sown
Heh, I'm not really sure.

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alid
My suggestion is to look at everything through the lens of "how can I make
this better?"...from that angle, suddenly the world starts looking like one,
massive, un-tapped opportunity. When you hit on something you're passionate
about do a deep-dive on the market and you'll find people who will want it
(it's just about refining in what form and at what price). The reason you'll
need to be passionate is that sometimes people don't know what they want until
they see it - it takes passion to drive demand :)

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cscharenberg
Talk to your friends working at small non-technology businesses. You will be
amazed at some of the workflow problems they experience and that you could
write software to fix. For example, using emailed spreadsheets to track
specific data, or manual tracking of time off, outdated scheduling systems,
etc.

There are a lot of niches out there to help smaller businesses in various
industries do their work easier. Ask around and see how they do things. I get
a lot of interesting ideas I only wish I had time to follow up on this way.

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DanBC
I have a million idea. I have no idea if they're worth anything.

Here's one idea:

Something that does most of what Calibre does, but without being the awful
experience that is calibre. Some GUI that can convert ebooks between different
formats is one part. A gui to standardise file names would be something else.
A catalogue so you know what you have would be a third part. But not all in
one ugly weird god-awful gui mess like calibre.

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late2part
<http://www.16-9.dk/2007-02/side11_inenglish.htm>

Groucho Marx sent the following wire to a Hollywood club he had joined:
"Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to any club that will
accept me as a member.”

If you can't think of anything you can make that people would want, then you
need to either:

1\. Learn to make different things

2\. Learn more about what people want

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digitalWestie
Absolutely I've ran into this. Here's one of my ideas on why that is and maybe
what we can do about it -

I think everyone has made it pretty clear that it's all about finding a pain
point / frustration.

Most of us have our day to day routine and we've worked out short-cuts and/or
answers to obstacles that stand in the way of the things we do most often.

It's either this or we've just put up with whatever issue is at hand. However,
I reckon most of us here don't settle for this option. Hackers are usually the
ones to come up with a workaround or a quick-fix anyway. This may also be why
they make bad customers.

The result is we don't feel like we encounter huge problems very often. So
yea, in summary I think that's why speaking to people is very important. But
another route is to just do something you don't normally do.

Perhaps there's something you're putting off doing because it just seems so
bothersome?

Or maybe there's a project that you'd like to do but you've put off because
you're not sure where to start?

A good way to find problems is to put yourself in difficult situations.

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LarryMade
What ticks you off? Does Facebook not work for you for some particular reason
or maybe something on craigslist is missing... Maybe in your community you
want to do or find out something but there is no resource for it.

When you work on your computer is there something you consider a stumbling
block, or do you have a trick that does well but its hard to explain or the
process isn't quite acceptable for non techies.

Do you find it hard to locate things you have interest in? Why is it so hard?
Do you see folks struggle on some process or device and are sure there could
be a better way to do it?

Do you think it would be really cool if there was ??? Do you think you can do
something way better than what has already been done?

Do you dream something that is totally out of your reach but would be
interesting to just try to do it?

These are some of the seeds of projects.

As far as what people would want, you are people. Unless you know some
specific market or the need trying to second guess others needs could be hard
or disastrous. Start with yourself for ideas.

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hfazel
There's no short and simple answer... but you can read this article by James
Altucher and follow his ideas on how to build your idea muscle and hopefully
in 6 months time you'll be brimming with ideas :)

[http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2012/04/how-to-have-great-
ideas...](http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2012/04/how-to-have-great-ideas/)

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sharemywin
I read somewhere to go to question and answer sites and forums and look for
problems people are complaining about. Second, elance, guru people are paying
for solutions to problems. google and bing have monthly search volumes which
tell what people are looking for. It's an expensive way to advertise but for
market research it's not bad. Find a sales/marketing guys they're always
looking for things for developers to build for them to sell.

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jmtame
I have a Google Doc full of ideas. I write down what frustrates me, what I
hate doing, or what I'd go as far as to pay someone else to fix for me. I
don't just come up with ideas, I've been maintaining this list of ideas for a
little over a year now.

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ovi256
Please share it! Just make it public :)

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nashadelic
I don't know what is your skillset so I can't really say where to look or what
to do.

Generally: Pick a problem. The world is plagued with large problems from power
to food, from access to information to clean water. Each problem is begging
for a solution.

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147
You don't even have to come up with anything new. You can just look at
existing markets with paying customers and enter it.

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modernise
Make something that YOU WANT.

