Maybe this is crazy shit but what do yo think of idea to quit programmer job to get any non-programmer one in order to find out problems of "normal" people from theirs perspective. This could be method to find good idea for startup. What do you think?
My first post on HN, but I wanted to share my experience. While in college for my CS degree I worked part time in the automotive industry (first as an intern, later as "student employee"), most of the time implementing lean manufacturing methods/processes. It is amazing how many problems are laying around in big manufacturing companies, you just have to walk around with open eyes. And most of them are easily solvable if you think in a structured manner (a thing mathematician, programmers, physic's, etc. tend to do). After college (2008) financial crisis struck and I was happy to get a job in a software company, since that was what I studied for and I wanted to see something else. But two years later I got an offer back in the automotive industry and I took it.
The big difference was that in the software company I was working to meet the specs of the client/boss. Not much creativity asked for, since it only had to be as good as necessary. Today I work in logistics and at least in my case it is so much easier to excel here, since they have huge amounts of data flowing around but hardly anybody making sense of it.
I'm not a full time programmer anymore, back to the lean production thing now, but I do get to program still. The thing is that now I can "choose" the problems I want to work on and more important nobody tells me how I have to solve them. Also the feedback you get is much more immediate (production may depend on the data) and honest/direct (since they look you into the eyes while telling you their critic). And it is easy to amaze people when all they are used to is SAP and MS Excel/PowerPoint.
Finally I have to admit that I got lucky with my bosses, they let me do and support me.
Excellent idea but a bit unpractical because you can't stop being a programmer just like that - its the way you think. Also, I think that you would have to reach medium to expert levels in terms of skill/immersion by the time you know enough about the field to discover a problem worth your time.
As everyone else said, I would use existing skills to figure out what people think is wrong. Use that as a starting step to figure out what really is wrong. Then fix that.
I think it is a decent idea or, if you have other skills outside of programming you could do consulting and get ideas from there.
I am a developer but ran my own computer repair shop for a while and seen a problem that I could solve which lead to my idea for a web app/software as a service.
I like what idoh said. Talking to your neighbors (by that, I mean where you live, not where you work) may give you some suggestions of what's important for non-programmers (which makes up the majority of the population).
A bit drastic. Why not try to meet people in areas that you are interested in? Go to a meetup, I think people would talk to you because you are interested in listening to their problems.
But what meet-ups do you actually mean? I think to really find out what matters to them in their jobs ("normal" people) is to work with them (of course talking can give you some clues but not real understanding of subject). Besides you are just outsider and they will not tell you everything.
I suppose that it's how you go about meeting anybody. Pick a field you think has potential, look up a meeting (say on meetup), go enough to be a regular, drink some beer, talk about it.
The big difference was that in the software company I was working to meet the specs of the client/boss. Not much creativity asked for, since it only had to be as good as necessary. Today I work in logistics and at least in my case it is so much easier to excel here, since they have huge amounts of data flowing around but hardly anybody making sense of it.
I'm not a full time programmer anymore, back to the lean production thing now, but I do get to program still. The thing is that now I can "choose" the problems I want to work on and more important nobody tells me how I have to solve them. Also the feedback you get is much more immediate (production may depend on the data) and honest/direct (since they look you into the eyes while telling you their critic). And it is easy to amaze people when all they are used to is SAP and MS Excel/PowerPoint.
Finally I have to admit that I got lucky with my bosses, they let me do and support me.