
Ask HN: My project idea is built by someone else – what should I do now? - swcoders
Hi 
I was near to burn out and trying to find some good idea to implement. After so much research I got one Idea and I know it will be great open source project.<p>I was so much exited about that. Now someone else open sourced my Idea and It is one of trending repositories on github.Though I learned from that project but I loose interest in my project as it is already implemented. I am feeling so much depressed from two days.<p>Please give some advice.
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atmosx
Let me share with you a _Joe and Mike_ tale.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... There was a planet. Among other
things, there were two companies selling shoes on that planet. Both of them
had a top-notch consultant, Company1 had 'Joe' and Company2 had 'Mike'. Joe
and Mike were awesome the best on the market: They could forecast sales like
no one else.

So, one day, the companies decided to send the consultants on a new planet to
evaluate the shoe market. Joe called back and said: " _Kill it, these
creatures don 't wear shoes. There's nothing to sell. I'm coming back_ ". Mike
arrive two days later, called back and said: " _This is awesome! No one here
wears shoes, we must build a production unit here and take over the planet!
Call the board immediately!_ ". About 50 years later, Company2 was had 80% of
the shoe market on the new planet. Company1 joined 30 years later but never
gained a substantial market share on this planet.

About five years after the events discussed above, the companies send the
consultants on a very well known planet. The companies had no market share on
this planet. Joe was there first and after evaluating the market called back
and said: "Hey, there are is huge competition here, but I've found flaws on
nearly every major player and the market is HUGE! We can make rounds around
these guys!! Call the board ASAP". Mike arrived two days later, after
evaluating the market he called and said: "It's a very competitive, advanced
market. I don't think there's room for just another shoe-maker here. I'm
coming back". About 50 years later, Company1 had conquered 15% the (apparently
very large) planet's shoe market, multiplying the company's profits almost 5x
times. Company1 never set foot on this planet.

~~~
christopherDam
Can you please explain what does this mean?

~~~
atmosx
The tale is about different perceptions of reality and self-fulfilling
prophecies. Both consultants were skilled and helped their companies grow, but
none saw the possibilities in both planets because they were subject to
framing[1].

The OP wrote:

> Now someone else open sourced my Idea and It is one of trending repositories
> on github.

The OP sees this is a _failure_ because this is his perception of reality.
However, there are other signals at play that the OP did not capture. The fact
that someone else brought forward the same idea at around the same time
automatically tells me the following things:

1\. There is a growing _interest_ about this idea

2\. It’s not irrelevant, crazy or stupid. Might be a solid idea.

3\. There might even be an emerging market

4\. The timing for this idea must be right (That’s why different people are
coming up with this idea)

5\. The OP is smart.

So whatever the OP’s idea is, must be _good_ and worth pursuing. The OP thinks
like ‘Mike’, but ‘Joe’ made it rain too. There are countless example for
products that came ‘after’ and took over the market (e.g. Apple and Microsoft,
iOs and Android, etc).

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_(social_sciences)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_\(social_sciences\))

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lovelearning
Ignore that other project, and build what you wanted to. At a high level, your
ideas may appear the same. But once you get into the low granularity details,
your mind will always start thinking up features and improvements that are
completely unique.

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paulmatthijs
Why don't you join that open source project as a dev? Contributing something
meaningful to another one's project might bring you more than going through
the hardship of wanting to do a project on your own.

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lfx
Now is even better, you can see some mistakes those guys made and avod them.

We have Grunt, Gulp and what not. Nobody seems to care, they just make things
better and had fun doing it.

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tech_crawl_
You don't have to be first to market... You just have to be better!

~~~
romanovcode
Nonsense. It's not about who is better, it's about who markets themselves as
"better".

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octatoan
See if you can bring a new approach to the problem. You could solve it in a
completely different way by focusing on some other part of the process.

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brudgers
Perhaps you could contribute to the other open source project and make it
better while waiting for another idea to spark your passion.

Good luck.

------
avitzurel
Remember Hipchat and Campfire? Slack came way after both of these (and many
others)

