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Discussion on: What do you do if you're in the middle of a project and you realize it already exists in the world?

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Nihar Raote

Today, how many products can you find on the market that are unique? A product may have a novel idea but may be implemented like another product, or it is based on the ideas of another product but is implemented in a completely different way.

Whenever we make a product or app that already exists, it has probably already been replicated a thousand times and a few replications (or inspirations) are even well-known and being used by people. So it's not really bad to make something that already exists.

The point is to not copy everything, from idea to execution. As long as you do one thing differently, it's a separate product/app.

Even articles written on the same exact topics are different; because the person who wrote them is different. Simply because you recreate an already existing product doesn't make it a rip-off of the original. Since in this world where one innovative idea or implementation begets a ton of inspirational ideas, very few ideas truly remain one-of-a-kind.

If the project I'm building turns out to already exist, I'd keep going, making sure to take ideas from the existing one. If it's popular, it's a good idea to take some of its features. I can then decide how to improve upon it or do things differently.