Am I being too picky with the problems I'm trying to solve?
I'm a full stack dev, plenty of experience and working at a big bank now. I get this itch every couple of months to build something but I always hit the same issue: I find a problem but the solution space is crowded or I find something too niche and it isn't worth building.
I've heard the argument "build it better", "who cares about competition?" but I'd rather not do the small incremental thing (as per Peter Thiel's Zero to One). Am I expecting to cure cancer or solve some huge world wide problem? Not at first, but it seems I have some difficulty working backwards from a vision and finding a suitable starting point.
I come to this site often for inspiration and I don't mean any offence to any creators here but I'm consistently shocked. Apps that I believe to be the most useless, redundant, and in competitive markets actually generate revenue. Am I being too picky with the problems I'm trying to solve?
I've definitely suffered from this problem. First app our company built was a full facebook clone for a client, we did it, but they were idiots and wouldn't listen to us for product stratergy when we said build less.
I've built some pretty intense stuff, not least my own react native equivilent to solve way too big an idea that took over my life. I'm lucky to have not had all my eggs in that basket, but it definitely took a toll. I learnt a heap, but it probably wasn't worth the 3 years. Then again, I am now an expert in super complex JS stacks, so that's pretty useful today.
Now, my goal is to be perfectly happy with being an also ran. Pick a business that will require little to no input from you to run, do it in a sector that is marginally intersting, doesn't have to be perfect, and then be better than other people. Market it, get and retain customers. You can cure cancer / invent general purpose AI once you have a passive income :)
Peter Thiel's Zero to One vision of startups that have a grand plan upfront are not a suitable blueprint for bootstrapped indie devs imho.
Recommendation: title your post with the last question: "Am I being ... to solve?" Otherwise it sounds like you're asking someone else to tell you what to build, which isn't what you're doing.
I can relate to your question and perspective. When we view our time as extremely valuable (and it is) we don't want to waste it on the wrong thing, just like we don't want to put a large amount of money on the wrong stock.
If you're feeling like you're in analysis paralysis, you might try writing about problems in the world that interest you. IMHO we don't write about problems enough because we tend to get rewarded only for our solutions. But failure to do so means that we're more likely to solve problems we don't care much about and don't understand.
This exercise will help you gather data and formally think. Even better, you can also use what you write to gather feedback. You might find that other people really relate to what you're saying ... or that they don't. Both are great to know before you start writing code.
Thanks for the feedback, I've modified the title to reflect your suggestion. I'll try your approach, I guess part of the issue there is I can only write about the problems I know about. There's for sure a big super set of problems I don't know about that are also interesting but I suppose that involves talking to people from more industries.
Thanks again
Yep, don't be afraid to do some research. That's a big reason why writing about problem is productive --- it forces you to do the research.
I feel the EXACT same way. Somehow, someway, what seem like the most useless ideas somehow generate revenue. Not even just the idea found on this website, but so many things you come across online :/ I honestly do not get it
Interested in this question as well. When I look at my list of ideas, I have a similar issue:
Regarding competition - my thinking is that just because there are existing competitors, doesn't mean there can't be a new competitor. Even if your product is the same, you would at least get a bunch of users if you market it differently. You can focus on different segments (age, geographical location, etc) or features. I try to think about why there is coke vs pepsi, toyota vs honda, adidas vs nike etc.