I got this question in a DM and I thought it made for a good community discussion (of course anyone is welcome to make a post like this, but I'm happy to take the mantle for reach).
How do you react in the situation? Is it appropriate to keep going, if so what should you be mindful of?
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But how to find it, that our project already exists?
For example: Like I have a project idea in my mind " (List of students placed on-campus company & batch wise)-So that junior students can connect easily with those students who are placed in different companies."
Now how would I know that someone already think about it?
I usually don't care because I drop most of my projects before finishing them anyway. But objectively I'd say the best course of action is to continue nonetheless and try and make it better (or different enough) than the existing alternatives, this is how software solutions improves.
Like many have mentioned before me, I would at first be a little discouraged but then I would analyse their products to see how I can make mine a better product. I would keep in mind why I wanted to do it in the first place and market it for that audience. Try and fill the gap in the market. There are thousands of alarm clock apps out there yet somehow people keep making more and more of them and are still making money. True it won't be as easy now that you've realised there is someone else doing it however it's never lost cause! Likely, once you've published yours knock-offs and copycats would jump on the idea straight away anyway so you have to have a unique selling point always :) Keep it up!
If it already exists then one part is easier because it's already been validated. So learn from the competency and put a little salt and pepper.
Pivot!
If you didn't know this existed, there are a lot of people who do not know either. Make a marketing campaign better than your competitor.
Try to make whatever I am building better or incorporate some of my optimisations in the exisiting one if there are any.
But I would never abandon it reason being there is always a way to do things better we just have to figure it out along the way.
Mail existed before email
I once described in great detail an idea for a video game I wanted to create. The person I was speaking to told me about Sid Meier's Civilization. I had never played it before, and it was almost identical to the idea I described.
All that to say, researching prior art before investing a lot of time into a project is a critical skill to develop. Trying to find holes and limitations in existing solutions can be a fun exercise, and it can help to convince yourself and others why what you're building is novel.
If I was deep into a project and someone pointed out something similar, I'd evaluate whether what I'm building adds something new and is viable, and worst case scenario, I probably learned a lot from what I had built up to that point.
I heard a great quote awhile ago that I again heard again recently and it really motivates me to keep going. "There are no unique messages, only unique messengers". As others have already stated you're probably not going to be creating content that doesn't exist. If you're writing a blog post, recording a video, creating a course or giving a presentation it is up to you to deliver that message in only a way that you can. You might have a way of resinating with others or have a lot of experience in something that gives your project a fresh perspective. Stay positive, focused and get your work out there for others to see. Good luck!
I answered this same question for a friend in a DM the other day. You carry on and do it. Your idea isn't really going to be the same as someone else. Your thinking will be different so maybe both can co exist.
But the bottom line you learn far more from trying and launching something than from stopping. Once you put it out there you might be able to find a new market for the product that the other products don't do. Or some feature you have that others don't.
The skills you learn building / making something and putting it out there are worth way more for doing it. So go for it.
If it's an open-source project I usually just try to see if I can somehow integrate it in my project, or use the standard it's using. If it's closed source then no reason for me not to make my own version I can tweak.
I started a web app only to find 3 weeks in that a company was working on a native iPhone app to do same thing and was about to release. I continued anyway and a few weeks later released it. The iPhone app is still months away from beta release and we got the lead on acquiring new users and market attention in the meantime. Glad I didnt get discouraged.
What do you do when you are in a middle of coding a library and you realize it already exists ... and you wrote it years ago too 😂
But seriously, there’s no cookie cutter solution. It depends. I admire Richard Branson for the simple fact that all his business ventures were an improvement of something that already existed (mobile, airlines, newspaper, music) and he managed to come out on top by simply doing a better job than the competition. If you choose to stick to the project, then make sure it is delivering a better value than the best competitor.
I've read the answers here and came to conclusion that if the products you found is exactly what you are doing and is exactly what you would have used yourself then it's time to stop and do some other product instead.
If, however, you feel that you have something to offer, or you have your own take on it then continue.
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