

Ask HN: What if I don't have an idea? - bretthoerner

Ask HN: What if I don't have an idea?<p>I have,<p><pre><code>    Time: I recently left my job. (in this economy?! yup)
    Skill: I'm proficient in Django, system administration, a bit of scaling, but not so much front-end / design.
    Money: I'm not talking retirement fund here, but my expenses are "tiny" and savings (for my age) are "high".
</code></pre>
(I really don't want to imply I have a _lot_ of the above.  I don't think I'm a "Rockstar" [I hate that as much as you do]. I'm not trying to say I have all the time and cash in the world.  I just want to explain my situation.)<p>I don't have,<p><pre><code>    An idea I'm passionate about
    Someone else to work with
    A better physical location (I'm in Dallas right now, but that also helps the money part above)
</code></pre>
I've been out of school and doing Django development for ~3 years, the development was fun but the app/idea itself was never my passion (I was just an employee, by the way).  My plan when I left my job ~3 weeks ago was to do self-study and decide what I wanted to do (by which I probably mean: who I wanted to work for).  I've given myself until March, where I figured I could find some leads at PyCon.  I've been catching up on books, blogs, projects I wanted to look into - but I haven't found anything to work on that really takes my time.  Nothing that keeps me up at night.<p>I can certainly fill my time until March just doing the self-study thing with no specific goal in mind, but I feel like I'm missing an opportunity.  Especially reading about the other guys here who saved to a specific goal so they could quit and do their thing.  I'm there already, and time is ticking down.<p>I guess one easy-mode answer is: "Find another startup you could be passionate about".  I agree, I'm in a perfect situation to take a dive with other people, except for my location.  Anything is possible, I guess, but lets just say that I'd like to stay in Dallas for the next few months.  How are my options affected in that case?<p>Is this too vague?  Whiney?  Should I be sad/ashamed that I don't have a list of ideas I want to work on?<p>I'm just sort of confused, and seeking your advice.
======
shimon
I've been in a pretty similar situation recently. I quit my day job in May,
wanting to pursue my own projects. For two months, I worked on my own
projects, releasing something new every week or two.

That was fun and I learned a bunch of new things, but in retrospect it wasn't
the best way to spend those two months. I had planned to start looking for
consulting work in month three, so I started emailing and calling people,
arranging meetings, and putting the word out at geek gatherings.

A funny thing happened. I started hearing a lot of great project ideas, some
of which were potentially paid jobs and others which were just cool hacks or
proto-startups. And these came not just as spark of inspiration but with a
person, or sometimes a small company, that actually cared about getting it
built. It took longer than I expected to actually get paid -- almost a month;
it turns out consulting contracts aren't that dramatically easier to sell and
execute than getting hired to a regular job, so plan on lots of slow
interpersonal cycles -- but in the meantime I was amply supplied with great
projects and some good partnerships. Many of these are on my back burner now,
behind the work that pays well but dominates, and I mean DOMINATES, my
schedule. On the bright side, timing my every minute has dramatically
increased my stamina -- I can do a lot more work in a day than I ever have
before. This will come in handy with whatever I do.

Anyway, here's my advice: start looking for consulting work immediately, and
try to get quickly to a point where you can pay your living expenses on 15
billable hours a week. By the way, you might think this is "not even two full
time work days", but let me assure you that when you can't count lunch,
news.yc, stupefying meetings, etc. against the clock, this will feel like a
huge work load. Do not promise anyone 20 or more hours a week until you have
tested your capacity; there's a lot you can optimize, and you will.

The regular consulting work will help you develop discipline, improve your
stamina, and keep you in touch with people. In your spare time, which again
you should try to preserve, do whatever projects draw your fancy. Get in the
habit of soliciting ideas at parties, from family friends, etc. and see where
you can take them in your spare time. Then when you find one that works for
you, and some people who might make good partners, deploy the rest of your
cushion (the one you didn't spend because you were paying your living expenses
off of consulting) and take the plunge.

Good luck!

------
ashishk
Sounds like a great position to be in. Seriously though, I think you have the
right idea of taking time off to LEARN. It is so critical.

To echo some of the other commenters, I would recommend two things.

1\. Learn what you're passionate about. What kind of applications do you want
to build? In what capacity do you want to be involved in your next company
(employee, CTO, CEO, etc.)?

2\. Learn from smart people. Email 20 people you look up to. Ask to have a 20
min conversation over the phone. Be bold! You might be surprised how helpful
people are.

Best of luck!

------
ojbyrne
In my opinion, one good business strategy is "fast follow."

* Find a business that's getting good traction.

* Copy it mercilessly.

* Think of how you would improve it and implement the improvements.

* Profit!

Even if the final step might not be a monetary profit, you've accomplished
something, and learned from the experience.

~~~
paraschopra
Can you give an example of a business that is presently getting good traction?

I somehow find it hard to recognize trends. I guess I am a hard core skeptical
when it comes to noise v/s signal.

~~~
eru
Not presently, but a good example: Facebook was copied by the German Studivz
quite succesful some time ago.

Setting up a Mechanical Turk for non-US markets might work. (As of today you
can work on mturk as a foreigner, but you can not commision tasks.)

~~~
streety
I hadn't realised that mturk requests could only be made in the US. I was
planning on using it to save myself a little time in a side project I'm
working on. A quick google search turns up ways around this though.

<http://www.hit-builder.com/> offers a way around this problem for a $25 setup
fee and 5% of use. I'm not familiar with mturk or this service but I suspect
operating costs aren't that high. A barebones / follow on competitor could be
a nice side project if you aren't concerned about amazon destroying your
business model at some point in the future.

~~~
eru
I was in the same position as you: I wanted to try mturk myself. That way I
noticed that you have to be in the US. I did not investigate the matter
further. Thanks for finding hit-builder!

------
unalone
While you're waiting for inspiration:

* Find somebody to work with. Do freelancing. See what makes freelancing difficult for you or your clients. Figure out a way to do it better.

* If freelancing is a no-go, use web sites. This is what I did when I first wanted to launch a site. Visit every one you can. Sign up for all of them. Make notes of what works well, what really doesn't work at all. When you find a particular TYPE of web site that doesn't have any good models going for it, make your own alternative.

That kind of idea is no alternative to having a Great Big Plan, but it lets
you mess with things, stay active, and it means when you DO have your Big Idea
you have both a little more expertise for launching and you have users who
might be willing to spread the word.

~~~
daveambrose
On that note, try to find locals who are interested in code/technology. See
what interests them and see how it may relate to what can interest you. Share
ideas and see where they go!

------
pxlpshr
One of the best things you can do is get connected and get involved. Check out
<http://www.texasstartupblog.com>, it's ran by Alex Muse and he's in Dallas...
they're doing their own mobile startup: <http://www.biggu.com>. Reach out to
him and see how you can get involved, and monitor the blog...

In Austin, checkout StartupDistrict.com, AustinStartup.com, Austin Tech Happy
Hour, Conjunctured(.com) Co-working, and a lot more.

~~~
jlees
Totally second this. Find your local hubs for entrepreneurs, tech people,
inquiring minds etc, and get involved. You don't need to be hung up on the
concept of having your own Big Idea, and it's great that you aren't. There are
plenty of startups out there who would welcome someone like you - I know I
would, if I was in the right country. Not sure of the situation in Dallas but
here in the UK hanging around universities is a good way to meet people with
ideas but little practical experience.

Learning is great too. As others have said, if you find an itch to scratch,
you might end up working on an idea without even realising you've had one.

~~~
tsuraan
At the risk of sounding totally clueless, how do you find local hubs like
that? I live in the twin cities in MN, and all that I know of is the ruby.mn
ruby group, which is pretty talkative on the ruby list. Is there some online
startup community that's arranged by region, or do you just have to know the
right people?

~~~
qwph
<http://meetup.com> ?

------
danielhodgins
I understand where you are coming from, and I would like to share what worked
for me. I just finished university, and have been in 3 startup situations so
far, none of which have gone anywhere. That's not to say I didn't learn some
very valuable lessons. In fact, I learned things in these failed startups that
I might not have learned any other way. In addition, I am still alive, and
stronger for having walked through the fire a few times.

I think the most important thing for someone like you is to start generating
momentum. Let me explain how you might go about this.

1\. There is no mistake, only make.

Build stuff. Fail. Just make sure you fail quickly and cheaply. If you
actually bring an idea to life you have succeeded no matter what happens. You
will have seperated yourself from everyone else who has ideas but never acts.
Ideas are just ideas if no one does the tough, painful work required to
actually execute them. Like a young piano prodigy the more you can practice
actually building stuff the better you will get.

2\. Go to events.

Talk to other entrepreneurs/programmers/designers about what they are doing.
Ask lots of questions and learn. It's tough to learn anything if you never
keep your mouth shut.

3\. Learn about business.

I realize some people on this site are code-centric, but in reality it's only
one piece of the pie. You will be better off if you read and understand what
makes good businesses tick. Everything from branding, copy, and positioning to
pricing, business models, and marketing. It helps to learn all of it. I would
be happy to recommend some great books if you contact me.

4\. Start learning about what people want.

Try and understand what makes people use particular web sites. Is it speed?
ease of use? unique design? Copywriting? Branding? Or did the site take an old
idea and put a unique spin on it? Perhaps you can take elements of certain
ideas and combine, bundle, or package them in new ways.

This is getting way too long, but I hope anyone who reads this gets some value
from this post. Feel free to contact me anytime. I would be glad to share any
of the information or resources I have gained from years spent learning from
advisors, mentors, books, blogs, and anyone at anytime.

Best wishes.

Dan H.

------
aneesh
No one is born with brilliant ideas. A professor of mine once said, "If you
don't think you have any good ideas, lower your threshold for what you
consider good."

Take any idea (even a bad one), and plan out how you'd implement it. Rinse and
repeat over time. Eventually you'll start getting better ideas, and seeing
opportunities where you see problems.

~~~
jdunck
Seconded. Obviously you don't want to work on crap, but keep in mind that
Google was supposed by many to fail based on the existing maturity of the
search market: <http://www.bvp.com/Portfolio/AntiPortfolio.aspx>

Some of the ideas you've tossed aside were wins.

For that matter, just start writing down every idea you have, whether you
think it's good or not. Keep track of your batting average. Keep track of the
kinds of things you were right on. Obviously a long-term trending thing, but
probably useful at some point in your future.

~~~
gommm
From my experience writing every single new ideas down really helped have more
ideas and better ones too... I feel that just the act of writing them down
forces you to think more about finding great ideas...

------
brm
What are you interested in? When you're doing the things you love to do, what
parts of them are the least fun/biggest pain in the butt? what do you wish you
could do?

Answer any one of those questions with technology and you have the start of an
idea and I bet you'll be surprised where it branches from there.

------
sireat
As it has been said elsewhere, you'll know when you have the right idea (it
will start burning inside you).

However, there is absolutely no guarantee that you'll find the idea in the
next 6 months.

If you don't want to start working again for somone, my advice would be to go
on a trip, preferably abroad.

~~~
bretthoerner
I don't mind working for someone, I just don't want to go work for X-Large-
Corp, which is most of what Dallas has to offer. Hence the self-study and
bettering myself so I can apply somewhere more interesting AND/OR do my own
thing.

"go on a trip, preferably abroad"

Yeah, I really need to do this.

~~~
timr
Do it now! You're young, you're flush with cash, and you have no
responsibilities. This is the _perfect_ time to travel. If you don't go now,
you will _never_ go.

Ignore all other advice in this thread. Technology is boring. You probably
aren't going to want to tell your grandchildren about the web2.0 sheep-thrower
that you built when you were 25, but you'll _definitely_ want to tell them
about the time that you hiked through the Andes, rode a camel in India, and
slept with a beautiful girl in Greece.

Travel! Travel now!! Go go go go go!

------
sfphotoarts
Put down the Django manual and go read Finnegans Wake....

~~~
tricky
I agree with the parent. It sounds to me like you might be in a rut. Check out
Time Magazine's 100 Best Novels Since 1923 and borrow a few from your local
library. Giving your brain a break from tech grind might help you see things
from new perspectives and give your neurons room to fire up some interesting
ideas.

~~~
__FILE__
And take those books with you on a journey

~~~
IsaacSchlueter
Absolutely! Take a week or two to drive someplace you've never been, alone.
The time spent staring at scenery with your hands on a steering wheel may stir
up some creative juices.

~~~
portfolioexec
Yeah, sit and watch the world go by. Let something - anything - spark an
interest and just follow the vibe. You'll soon discover something you hadn't
known before and find yourself in a preferred position to that in which you
are now.

------
aditya
Start a side project -- just get it out the door, projects have a way of
morphing into glorious things that become what you want them to be and provide
happiness. :)

Read this for more inspiration: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=282158>

~~~
mh77
+1 for this. Just start building something. It could be a forum, a blogging
application or a project management tool. Just start to build it and the idea
will come to you. In the meantime you will improve your Django skills even
more.

~~~
krschultz
Speaking of ideas, am I the only one that thinks phpBB sucks? And it powers so
many of the forums out there.

~~~
cabalamat
_am I the only one that thinks phpBB sucks?_

No, you're not! That can be his idea: build a better BB

~~~
nostrademons
phpBB sucks because it's free. There's much better forum software out there:
most sites that don't want to be sucky use something like vBulletin, and they
do a pretty good business off it.

If you're getting into the forum business, you shouldn't compare yourself to
free software like Phorum or phpBB, because they don't make any money.
Instead, compare yourself to for-profit forums like vBulletin, Invision Power
Board, or UBB. That space is pretty crowded, and the bar is pretty high.

~~~
cabalamat
_phpBB sucks because it's free_

There's plenty of free software that doesn't suck, e.g. Linux, Apache,
Wordpress, etc. Therefore freeness doesn't cause suckiness.

------
sfamiliar
walk through your next week and carry a notebook, making a note of all the
things you think of that you wish existed, but don't. when i do this, it's
generally through little irritations, conveniences that save me 3-4 minutes,
realizations about people's work process -- that kind of thing. go fishing in
the real world. do this until an idea for a product hits you. it will, and
likely soon: something you want or need that no one provides.

in the meantime, get into a startup, on an equity basis. look for contribution
to the work, not a paycheck. learn the atmosphere, see what works and what
doesn't. get involved with your local user groups and search for a partner,
someone like-minded.

put down the tech for a bit and read. spin down the head for a bit. my best
ideas happen when i'm not thinking about them.

it's really a question of the want-to. if you have that, you'll be okay.

~~~
johns
I really like the first part of this. Don't look for ideas, look for problems
that need to be solved.

------
bretthoerner
I imagine this will be lost in the fray, but thanks everyone for the great
replies.

More ideas about how to uh, have ideas than I had ever imagined. Thanks a lot,
seriously.

------
jfornear
Hey, I'm in Dallas... currently a senior at SMU. Dallas has plenty of
resources depending on what you want to do. Of course it's nothing compared to
the valley, but just off the top of my head, <http://viewzi.com>,
<http://www.texasstartupblog.com/>, <http://www.biggu.com/>,
<http://woot.com>, <http://match.com>, <http://theplanet.com>,
<http://Godtube.com>, and other randoms are all based here. I would argue that
there are definitely worse places to be.

I'm pretty good at front-end design with CSS, XHTML, JavaScript
(mootools/jQuery). Our skills might compliment each other?

I'd be down to grab a beer with you sometime to plot the dethroning of Google
for YC summer '09 or something. jfornear[at]smu[dot]edu or
jessefornear[at]gmail[dot]com

------
nostrademons
I'm in the same position (good skills, adequate cash, no job - but no idea or
cofounder) and am thinking of resolving it by either:

1.) Getting a job at a big Silicon Valley tech company or

2.) Getting a job at a YCombinator startup.

One thing I learned from my past failed startup is that ideas come from
interacting with the world around you, they don't spring fully formed from
your head. Either one of the above options puts me in contact with more
potential ideas - I'd meet more people at a big tech company, but I'd do more
things at the YC startup. They'd also get me out of the house and into an
environment with lots of people interested in startups.

I've also found that it's really hard to build a network or feel out a
cofounder once you already have an idea that you're passionate about. That
relationship has to be forged under a low-stress situation, and _then_ you
jump into the fire with them. ;-) So now may be a good time to work on that,
if the environment allows (I've heard it's a really terrible place to start a
tech company).

------
petercooper
Work on building up your personal brand equity. In less buzzwordy terms, build
up your social network, become known for your opinions, and develop an
audience of some sort. Gary Vaynerchuk's videos are worth watching on this
topic - <http://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/>

I follow a lot of people on Twitter who aren't working on a specific idea
right now, but when they do, you can bet I'll be checking it out and
cheerleading for them! The same applies for those following me. Become known,
get us to follow you and enjoy what you have to say, and then when you DO get
"that big idea" you'll actually have some users and publicity out of the gate
:)

With that said, if you /do/ have a Twitter account or whatever, link us up!
But your blog only seems to have one post..

~~~
bretthoerner
Yeah, this is something I'm working on. You've reminded me to fix my blog
index - I meant to hint at previous posts without just doing a huge dump of
entries.

That said, I just set it up after I left my job, and I haven't really started.
I just have three mostly pointless posts (mostly for myself) to get the ball
rolling. I'm definitely more tech side than entrepreneur (so far?).

<http://friendfeed.com/bretthoerner>

------
mde
Another good idea resource from PG: <http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html>

That serves as a helpful litmus test. Not falling somewhere onto that map
doesn't invalidate your idea, but the 30 items cover a lot of ground.

------
mde
Enjoy this phase! Idea generation can be a lot of fun. Get some books to
stimulate. I've gotten a lot of mileage from "A Whack On The Side Of The Head"
and "Creativity" (Csikszentmihalyi). Watch some TED talks. Go to your local
unconferences and meet people and see what they're working on. Team up on
those connections.

Share your ideas as they come. Record everything that comes to mind. Get
feedback. Iterate.

Meanwhile, you can be educating yourself on the business side of things:
starting a business, people/listening skills, presenting, marketing, etc.
You're already here; that's a pretty good start. But books like "The Art Of
The Start", "Founders At Work", and the Seth Godin variety are worth their
weight in gold.

------
tocomment
Or make games. The world always needs more games.

------
Brennan
As I look at trying to start something myself, it's not the lack of "good"
ideas that ever worries me (although if you tell someone you're interested in
starting a company the first question they always ask is "what's your idea?"),
it's finding the right partner or "someone else to work with" that seems to be
the biggest obstacle. I'd rather have no ideas and a determined partner to
work with, than 100 greate ideas and no way to execute.

To that point, I have one burning idea right now but have not landed on the
right partner. Any interest in talking about it?

------
dineshshah
Lots of good comments suggesting you focus on what you love and are passionate
about.

But also ask what you hate; what makes you mad? It could be a little thing
(e.g. why can't I browse the library of the DVD rental places in my
neighborhood?) Is there a computing solution to that maddening thing?

------
mrtron
a) Go work for another startup with a great team.

b) Do some contracting. This will help you meet people and get your first
taste of the business world. Learn to sell yourself, it should be much easier
than selling any product. You also learn how to manage expectations, people
and products.

c) Start making products. They don't have to be big, be groundbreaking, but
start making things and learn to make things well. Probably the first few
things you will make won't turn out how you would like and you will learn some
valuable lessons.

d) Hopefully along the way, meet some other people who you can talk to and
possibly work with. Sometimes you get lucky here, but you have to get that
ball rolling.

e) Along the way you will find something you are passionate about building.
Build it.

------
alex_c
Don't fret about finding The Big Idea (or even not having a List of Possible
Big Ideas to choose from).

I'm sure you get small ideas now and then. When you do, don't think about them
too much, just jump on them, especially if they're small enough to finish in a
couple of days. Something Bigger might grow out of one of them. If not, hey,
it still beats spending that time watching TV or reading Reddit.

You must have at least one friend who thinks sort of the same way you do.
Bounce silly ideas off them. Create a mindset - for both yourself and for them
- where you look at everyday activities and events through the perspective of
"what can I do with this?", and chat with them about ideas regularly.

------
asdflkj
The way to have ideas is to understand the field really well. That sounds kind
of banal, but I haven't seen anyone approach startups this way explicitly.

So, I would study history of technology and of money, and especially recent
history of computing and the Internet. Then I'd try to simulate it all in my
mind, and try to see patterns. and think of all the alternative ways in which
it might have happened. What were the good ideas of any given time? Which of
them were inevitable? Which of them relied on timing? By what chain of
reasoning could they have been foreseen?

I don't really know if this would help. It's a big undertaking, and I have
other stuff to do now, so I haven't tried it.

------
KLAW
If you have downtime then use it to learn new, practical skills. And where
better to start than in goldrushland:
<http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/overview.html>

------
radu_floricica
Ok, a strange ideea: if you want to do a startup but don't have an ideea you
like, you can try something ourside IT. I did it for about a year (a local
courier company). It failed, of course, but I learned _a lot_, about startups,
about people, some about myself. And more importantly, one year later I have
my passion about programming back. Important stuff: don't sink too much money
into it, and try to use it to make connections, not brake them.

------
markessien
How about doing something pointless but interesting. For example, a self aware
web app.

Anyways, I have a list of about 100 ideas, so here are two:

* A generic API to access bank data from banks all over the world * A site where one can list all the people that one hates, and what one will do to them when one finally gets rich enough/powerful enough etc.

Just make something silly and small.

------
auston
Maybe trying working in a field that uses computers but doesnt program them?
Sales person? Manager?

I would try to put myself in other peoples shoes and find the pain they have.
That's how I come up with most of my ideas, think about what I'd like to be
able to do, but cannot, due to technological constraints.

------
steveplace
Wrote a post about this a month back:

[http://www.graduatedtaste.com/2008/09/12/lists-of-
successful...](http://www.graduatedtaste.com/2008/09/12/lists-of-successful-
companies-to-get-your-startup-juices-flowing/)

------
YuriNiyazov
I am in a surprisingly similar situation, except I, in addition, have the
experience of a failed startup (was working on a friend's idea, not mine). I
have a contract job that's ending in December, and then...

------
jdavid
ok, step one skip the great idea thing. the reality is that the internet is a
large enough for competitors in any market.

step 2 is build something you know well, it will make it easier to copy and
you might find a few things to innovate on later. i have tried the big bold
approach and i end up having to scale back my plans, its so depressing.
Looking back i would rather be dealing with problems as i grow.

step 3 repeat

eventually you will find a team of people that are doing things that are
interesting.

step 4 end loop, profit, retire

------
jenhsun
You don't have idea cause you already burn out of your passion, I guess. If I
were you, I won't stay in one location and think my next step. I might tend to
join some conferences and traveling.

------
siong1987
At least, you know that you are passionate about Django. So, try to do
something with Django. Whatever web application that is based on Django. Or,
you can try to contribute to Django.

------
akkartik
[http://scrapbook.akkartik.name/post/2353544/all-you-see-
is-t...](http://scrapbook.akkartik.name/post/2353544/all-you-see-is-the-
choice-between-working-hard)

------
hendler
There are many many great people in industries/services that just haven't led
them to be technologists. They might have everything you don't - which is key
to building a great team.

------
jsmcgd
Make tech friends. There's bound to a bunch of people in Dallas that would
like to team up with you. Go find them. They'll give you the ideas you need.

------
louisadekoya
Check out <http://www.ideatagging.com> and see if one of the ideas there grabs
you.

------
tocomment
Do consulting, and you'll probably come across a lot of client problems that
are amenable to general solutions.

------
symptic
Move to Austin.

------
portfolioexec
all of my ideas have been bourne out of experience. is there an industry that
you like outside of web? my passion has been in real estate and it's led me to
create a web app for real estate investors that solves many of their needs.

------
markm
If you want to talk about some ideas just send over an e-mail and we can
discuss.

------
edw519
Find a customer.

The current changes in economic conditions may swing the pendulum back in
favor of a subscription (vs. advertising) model for web apps.

There are 7 million small businesses in the United States. Every one of them
needs _something_. They are _everywhere_.

Start networking. Let everyone know what you do. Before you know it, they'll
be coming out of the woodwork saying things like, "We sure could use <xyz>. Do
you know of any way we could get it?"

If you can't find a promising idea and a way to get started on it in 30 days,
then maybe you shouldn't be an entrepreneur.

Good luck.

~~~
Zak
I think this is the right general idea, but asking customers what product they
want is not usually the best way to get product ideas. Customers often don't
know what is possible; it's better to find out what is difficult for them and
design a solution yourself. I'm not saying you shouldn't listen to customers,
but don't rely on them to tell you what to build.

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vaksel
wait till you get one

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bretthoerner
That's one way to do it. The only thing to keep in mind is that the trigger
has already been pulled. Money (and thus time) have been decreasing every day
starting 3 weeks ago.

I'm not implying you're saying this, but I hope I can nip the whole "you're an
idiot for quitting without an idea" in the bud. I'm alright with just doing
self-study and going to work in a "normal" place come next Spring, I just
wonder if I could make even better use of this time.

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vaksel
I'm mainly saying don't rush into it. This is something you MUST be passionate
about. Things WILL get tough. You WILL think about quitting no matter what you
do. You NEED to have the passion for your product to want to do it through
thick and thin.

As far as ideas to get passionate about, look into your hobbies and see if you
can come up with something you'll enjoy. Or do you have ANY frustrations when
using another site online? Do you have any features you want from other sites?

Just remember...it doesn't need to be rocket science.

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danw
Get a job

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TweedHeads
Develop for the iPhone, you'll make some money for sure while you learn some
interesting technology.

You'll never regret it, if Japan and Korea are indicators of mobile
consumption.

The future is mobile!

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ram1024
Off the top of my head, you could make a nationwide collaborative blog for
teachers/professors to voice their opinions and/or publish short educational
pages. get some sponsors for it and funnel the money back into some kinda
foundation/fund for the education community.

like a techcrunch for teachers, TeachCrunch? O_o

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qqq
Good ideas aren't worth anything, remember? Just buy one on the cheap.

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LPTS
Ask Psychedelic Mushrooms for an idea.

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mstefff
idealess = the worst

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mstefff
why'd i get negated for that..being out of ideas sucks

