Am I the only one?

No, you certainly aren't the only one that does this. Any potential founder should do this to figure out whether there is actually a market (i.e., do competitors exist) and whether they honestly have a product-market fit. Unfortunately, many people don't do this and subsequently don't kill their darlings.

A good idea is a must, but the execution of the good idea is the proper foundation.

You're not the only one. I I've read literally all IndieHackers interviews (and plan to make a post on acquisition channel insights, if you're interested see https://zerotousers.com).

I've learned a ton from reading first-hand experiences from founders vs. growth "advice" from gurus about what works and what doesn't.

Just don't catch yourself in analysis paralysis. I think the important thing is to start noticing PATTERNS, what works across founders, what acquisition channels, what type of MVPs etc.

You should also read about failed startup founders (see Failory.com). I've learned a ton from reading, say, 50 successful founder interviews and then reading 50 failures. It allowed me to compare them and see what they did different.

You'll often see that what you think was exclusive for successful founders is often what failed founders do as well (they also find acquisition channels that work, they also get users). And most importantly, they also find users who tell them what they build is important. But when it comes to TAKING ACTION (i.e. buying), that's the real test.

If you like analyzing on ProductHunt, maybe you can do an article where you'll look at startups that launched a year, or even 2 years ago. See which ones are still alive. See which ones started getting traction (you can use SimilarWeb for that). Me, at least, I'd be interested in something like this.

I do something similar with my newsletter 🙂