Let me tell you a quick story about a developer named Sam.
Sam is incredibly smart. For a whole year, he stayed up late building a super complex A...
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This is such an important message for developers everywhere! Back when I was still inexperienced and didn't know much about how the industry worked, I thought I should ONLY build things that didn't exist yet. I quickly realized that mindset would keep me stuck forever, because if you look around, there isn't much left to invent. The real point is to build something that already exists, but make it your own version. At its core it might be the same, but the devil is in the details.
As for ideas, there are no good or bad ones. It all depends on your purpose. Are you building it for commercial reasons, for your portfolio, for personal use, or just to show off your skills? All of those are perfectly valid. As long as you've defined your goal, you can't go wrong.
Absolutely love this. Thanks for writing it.
Well said Giorgi! Everything has already been built just find the loopholes and make a better one 💯
And by the way, this article should already have been "gem-ed" 😄
Curators, if you're reading this, no pressure... but 💎 👀
😅
The Bob example makes the point perfectly. An existing product doesn’t mean the problem is solved.
If people are still stuck with broken spreadsheets because the alternatives are too expensive or complicated, there’s already a business opportunity sitting there.
Exactly 💯
What I like about the Bob story is that it answers the objection better than the phone-brand comparison does: the tools Bob needed already existed, and he still wasn't using any of them. Sam's real competitor was a crashing spreadsheet, not Salesforce, and that's a much easier thing to beat. The step I'd call hardest is the barbecue, not the two weeks of building. Most of us never end up in a conversation with someone who runs a box company. How would you get those conversations on purpose, without waiting for a lucky one?
I strongly believe in making opportunities for myself. For example, if I have built something related to Proptech, I would put it upon myself to reach out to people in that space....hence developers, realtors, etc...by attending events regarding that field and socializing and creating connections... just as an example. Even though not all of them would get back to me, eventually you would meet someone who would genuinely need your software. IDK, this is the way I think about these kinds of situations... opportunities don't just appear; you need to bring them to your doorstep, I guess.
Going to the field's own events is the answer I was hoping for, because that's where the Bobs are and where developers mostly aren't. It also changes what you're doing there: you're not pitching, you're collecting crashing-spreadsheet stories, and the one you hear three times is the thing to build. The low reply rate stops mattering once each conversation counts as research rather than a sale.
You’ve said it all :)
This article really hits the nail on the head. Opportunities abound in many places if you put your mind to it.👏
So many opportunities lying around that we never tend to look at tbh
Opportunities are everywhere; the key is to have discerning eyes.
The version of this I had to get over is that "already built" is not one thing. There are a hundred apps in the category I work in and most of them fail at the same boring place, which is the second week. Picking one failure mode and being better at it than everyone else is a whole product.
Exactly what i also found out when i was researching on a project, the main issue isn't the numerous apps in a single category. When you actually use like 50% of them, they mostly have a lot of flaws. I think these days people mostly build for the prettiness or popularity of the software, but there is so much to fix in the boring aspects. Well put Eusebiu!
The boring aspects is the right way to put it. The changes of mine that people actually noticed were things getting faster or less confusing, rarely new features.
Nobody screenshots that, which is probably why it stays unfixed in so many of them.
yeah many I know, get cash from just wordpress and plugin then deliver app fast. I had job not a programer, very stable, and now just try deliver something that anybody like Sam can deliver app small bundle js in size but still reactive. Its not shiny among industry but maybe can deliver reactivity just from html design, make OOP, logic and controller on php/go/ruby using affordable server but reactive like famous framework. And I think its spesific market for anyone not buying hype on frontend worlds.
I think i do get what you mean with the frontend aspect as well. Especially with ai, but i think human creativity with frontend is still in demand to some extent, that would be a conversation worth having
This is an awesome mindset you are championing for! I love it! Especially with AI, I find many ideas have been built to some degree. I use AI to research what’s built, what’s hot, what I could extend and what I can build new - I usually explore new ideas often but I set time to do this every 2 weeks. Many of the ideas have borrowed some seed from open source, I give them credit and I attempt to explore what additional features that were not built. It helps me give a launching pad and it helps me see what problems they faced. AI has made this effort lot easier to research which was super hard earlier
That's what makes ai amazing, because it has made research much more interesting and fun than it is. Being able to research on the flaws and problems in a certain sector makes solving those problems with tech much easier
Great post, thank you for writing this!
Glad you liked it Lakshya!
You are right!! It's just an excuse to be lazy, not easy to fight but once you get through it you learn a skill for sure and you get better.
@akhourianmolkumar @koda2026
Two young developers, I think you two should take your time to read and reflect on this article.