

(1) Keep it simple, (2) make it something you'd actually use, (3) iterate. - 6ren
http://prog21.dadgum.com/80.html?repost

======
Cyranix
"Make it something you'd actually use" is of great value to a budding
(aimless, excited) programmer, but staying too long in this mindset leads to a
glut of products and services serving the same purpose for the same market.
The highly-upvoted "Hello Ladies" video with patio11[1] really drove home the
point that products for people who aren't programmers have tremendous value.
This post is good advice to get started, but once new programmers begin to
feel comfortable with their abilities, it would behoove them to empathize with
people who _aren't_ like them and try to make something others would
appreciate.

[1] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2371965> \-- this comment does not
reflect the opinions of patio11

~~~
olalonde
+1. I never really liked the "build it for yourself" mantra. If this were
true, we'd have tons of programming IDEs and project management software. What
programmers and entrepreneurs really need to serve are markets where
programmers are under represented. I'm talking about agriculture, natural
resources, transport, finance, manufacturing, etc.

~~~
bradly
> If this were true, we'd have tons of programming IDEs and project management
> software.

Your assuming programmers' only interests are programming related. I'm
currently building a site that sells trail mix and another to organize gear
lists for backpacking. This is because I am involved in those spaces and I
would like to improve the experience for the people I share it with.

I'm sure there are many programmers who are interested in agriculture, natural
resources, transport, finance, and manufacturing.

~~~
olalonde
I'm not saying programmers don't have other interests, just that programming
is usually their main interest which leads them to build products targeted at
programmers (there's quite a lot of empirical evidence to back this
observation: just look at all the "Show HN" we're getting here). I think it
takes at least a conscious effort to get interested by say agriculture, unless
you were raised on a farm :). More people need to make that conscious effort.
Interdisciplinarity is where the real money is at.

~~~
wmboy
Yeah, solving a personal problem is not the be all and end all. If you want
success, you could always spend some time in an industry like farming. It'd
take time, and probably would mean a year or 2 working in the industry to
truly understand the problems that exist, but once you find a solution to a
common problem that'd sure be one business where there is serious income
potential. Of course not many hackers (if any) would take such a route...

A $99/month service is milk money to a farmer (not sure if pun is intended).

~~~
skidooer
I do software development by day and have a cash crop farming operation on the
side, so I have familiarity with both industries. I think an agricultural-
based software startup would be mighty interesting.

However, the bulk of my problems on the farm are related to interfacing with
third-party businesses. They have no incentive to improve their processes
because the average farmer is 55 years old and would rather bang a hammer than
bang a keyboard, and I cannot improve my processes without direct access to
their data.

Your advice is sound, but personally I have found it to be not a very
inspiring place for a startup yet. The low hanging fruit, at least as far as
my operation is concerned, I find is already solved well enough. As some of
the older farmers who fear computers move into retirement, however, I think
the landscape will quickly change and some big opportunities will rapidly
appear. I am looking forward to it.

------
officemonkey
I completely get what this cat is saying.

I initially learned programming to help me automate some tedious duties when
playing role-playing games (this was many moons ago).

The first non-trivial program I write in a new language is always related to
my favorite RPG.

~~~
TillE
Out of curiosity (I have no experience with RPGs aside from a bit of AD&D2 15
years ago), what kinds of tools do you make? Character generation, that sort
of thing?

Incidentally, the title of this HN post sounds like a good strategy for
developing just about any product.

~~~
officemonkey
I played Traveller, so it was a bit of everything: character generation,
planet and system generation, space craft generation, hell, they even had a
half-dozen "alien languages" that you could create programmatically.

Good times.

------
willheim
The title says it all. I've been working on a project for quite some time when
it suddenly dawned on me (as target release date after release date kept
slipping) that what I am actually building is an assembly of many functions
and that I should (1) break each of those functions down into individual
components (2) because they are something I already use and so do others, (3)
release each of those components with the first part and then add-on as the
next is complete... finally ending up with what I had in mind in the first
place.

Another good quote I saw recently was how we mix up the Minimally Viable
Product and the Desired Viable Product. Funny... we can read and study all we
want but it takes a while to sink in and be applied, doesn't it?

------
ams6110
Reminds me of the first project that was entirely my own idea, at age 14 or
so, a system to manage customer accounts for my paper route. Written in TI99
BASIC. Data file saved to a cassette tape. It worked, but I ultimately
realized that it was much easier to just use a paper ledger so I didn't really
iterate on the solution. I could update the accounts on paper in the time it
took the computer to load the program and data from the cassette.

------
jp
I was using Photoshop to pick colors from design PSD´s and PNG´s. Then I found
two nice color libraries, added my boring app framework and created this -
<http://teppefall.com/products/colorspace>.

The problem is risk.. do you spend a $1000 on good sales copy and some Adsense
when you might only get $900 back short term ? Your product is good, but is it
good enough?

------
julian37
Previous discussion at <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1724074>

