I worry about all of you. I worry about myself.
I have been working on a project for 4 years. Very little pivoting. Sorry, I’m not ready to let people know about it just yet, especially talented entrepreneurial people who might easily take my idea and run with it. But THAT’s not what I meant by “I worry about all of you”. I hope that IH is open to having users that have varying degrees of willingness to divulge secret sauce.
I worry some people who desperately need a reality check (maybe they need a Simon Cowell to help them get more realistic about things), will postpone that and sink more time and effort into something that is destined not to work. I worry if I don’t share my thoughts on this that some people will abandon an absolutely fabulous and fantastic idea if they are met with indifference when they try to get the idea validated. Because customers are not always smart about what they wish for.
Here is Steve Jobs on the matter:
“Some people say, ‘Give the customers what they want.’ But that's not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they're going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, ‘If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, “A faster horse!”’ People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.”
I love my product. I use it daily. This gives me confidence that I’ve hit on something, but choosing to fly under the radar is very, very risky I think. Something inside me says there really HAS to be a way we can independently know what should work and what will not work, if we reflect on it carefully enough, and learn about what is currently relevant and in demand, and what is not. And btw, yes I said 4 years. What I’m doing is not trivial. I’ve been actually dreaming of doing it for a couple years before that.
I worry about myself because, I'm sort of an outlier, not like other people. The fact that I love the product doesn't mean large numbers of people who are different from me will like it as well.
So what do you think… is it a bad thing or a good thing to have confidence in an unproven project?
It's better to gather evidence of value. You don't have to have a working product, much less a fully featured one, to talk to prospects about their problems or needs. You don't indicate if you have talked to any prospects or are just building based on your personal beliefs and confidence that customers will pay for what you are building.
By the way, Apple does a tremendous amount of user research.
Ohh, and also, I should've made clear that I've shown close friends and family. They are slowly starting to appreciate the idea. Before I had an online version people just didn't want to download and install the thing. When I created a SAAS version I was told that this would be something people could really use. So I did get some confirmation already. Just not "large n". I promised myself I would not give up on the idea until I've promoted it to at least 10k people. It just hasn't gotten to the point where I would spend money just yet to advertise it. Getting close though.
This comment was deleted 3 years ago
Makes sense. Thanks. I know that to be true. I'm less concerned with feedback from anyone until I see "large n" responses.... I promised myself around 10k people weighing in or at least seeing an ad before I throw in the towel
I appreciate the practicality of what you are saying. Let's say I go out there and people say its a terrible idea. If they give me the reasons why, I am definitely ahead of the game. If they don't say why, I think then I've collected a data point. So what you've been working on, you don't worry about people taking your idea?
In the beginning--which is where I think you still are--it's more about confirming you understand the parameters and boundaries of the problem you are trying to solve for your customer. I have a couple of irons in the fire:
In general discussing problems and needs with prospects does very little to expose the "secret sauce" in your solution. You just have to stay focused on the customer's perspective on the problem and constraints on a solution. It's rare that you need to disclose your competitive advantage to determine if you are focused on a problem people will pay you to solve.
Judging from what you have done and how you talk about your areas of involvement, you are a voice to listen to. I've always envisioned having customers give feedback as soon as I was at an MVP. My problem is 1) my MVP doesn't have a "Wow factor" so I've been pushing for MVP+, which is not a pivot, just a phase of what always was part of the plan 2) I am looking at MVPs from an ethical standpoint of putting out so much "minimal" stuff into the marketplace and the impact that has on people's time, their ability to find stuff that is more than just MVP that might also be game-changing stuff, but they can't find it because of marketplace noise. I know, I'm not in the majority on this last point.
This is very real consideration: MVP should provide value to a customer worth paying for. The "Wow" factor I would be less concerned and see if you can find people who are in a lot of pain and would benefit from your product. People who are pain will accept partial solutions provided that they deliver some benefit or relief. But you can have conversations about the problem without showing your product. You don't have any contact info in your profile but you are welcome to reach out to me directly at skmurphy@skmurphy.com if you have to have a more private conversation.
One way you can test whether a product idea has viability is to build smaller proof of concept features and show them to people. I've blogged about a number of different ideas and built very basic tutorials.
You can gather quite a bit of data just from these kind of articles to determine where the majority of your traffic will end up (this is about network effects + SEO). I try to use a funneling technique where writing is one way to funnel potential users to your website. Writing about various things drives traffic there in one way or another. If you determine that people visit your website more often for content A over content B then you might be able to find a better way to capture that and funnel them over to a product they might be interested in (based on the fact that they landed on your website).
It's a nudge technique, but to get there you have to actually provide value. This is one such technique I've tried out.
Yes, I believe these are helpful ideas for me. I somehow got wind of the funnelling idea somewhere, but can't remember where.
The "smaller proof of concept features" is totally doable for me. In fact, I have a breakdown of market areas that each proof of concept would belong to so really, yeah, I'm definitely headed there.
FYI, so I don't sound like more of a goof-ball than... than people might think already, the app is a platform that lends itself to large numbers of features, so I'm not just fantasizing about what my range of options are for "proof of concept features"
Nice post. Imo, I don't think you need a large amount of people to believe in your product. My most successful projects are the one where I serve a niche that had mediocre options, and I made a better version of it. You won't make millions, but they will be recurring users.
I like your approach with small niches, currently trying it too (slightly worried the niche is too small).
Do you have a strategy of finding these niches? I mean, we probably are aware of 99.9999% of them, any tips for how to start seeing more niches? Not sure the ones I do see I can build a great products for. 🤔
Thanks! And I appreciate your insight about this. I have only recently come to the conclusion that what I'm working on may only be valuable to a certain kind of user. I'm good with that.
Hi Bradley,
First of all: congratulations on following through. Four years is a very long time for developing a sophisticated product in the dark, and you seem to be determined to build something that has a real impact on the way people work or think. That's remarkable, and I appreciate that a lot.
The question is: who are you doing a service by hiding it from the people you want to serve? You are already experiencing how it feels like using your product. And it seems to feel great. Why do you think your product must get even better when it serves you this way? And who do you think would copy your unique approach to solving the problem, and why would they do so? You don't need to answer these questions here but answer them for yourself.
To answer your final question: It's good to have confidence in an unproven project. That's a good part of entrepreneurship. But it's also good to know early on if you are on the right path.
Thanks @darkswoop for helping me see the positive side of what I have been working so passionately on. So many projects that I have started in my life were eventually abandoned, and this is where I tried to draw the line and say, No more just dropping things willy nilly. There has to be a very good reason to pivot or walk away from something that I have poured time and energy into.
That does make getting feedback all the more essential to have.
I can promise you, each and every question that you and other IHers have asked me here will be given very serious thought and consideration. Your questions are very much on target. Thanks!
Dude... I've spent 10 years in mine: "a robot that solves all problems with software development"
5 years ago it was already being able to connect to salesforce and create middleware in less than 3 minutes. Still didn't think it was worth it (https://vimeo.com/126085160)
"Launched" 15 days ago. People is in love with it. Already got my first paying customer, I'm having 3 demos/day, next week I'll speak with the blue giant IBM. And now I know it is going to be a unicorn, not because "the idea was good", but because I had the guts to show it to the world and learn from it. To build an entire company around the product.
So, basically, as an investor told me 20 days ago: either launch it or forget about it, leave the comfort zone.
Wow, your thing is the real deal! Congratulations on this achievement! And good luck with your engagement with IBM.
As I was watching the video, I was trying to imagine you doing all of this work on your own (or did you have some help?) and wondering how sure you were that this was worth your time, or how much you wavered, or spend time thinking it wasn't "worth it"?
And did you worry that the technology stack you were dealing with would suddenly up and be replaced by Salesforce.com or by other forces of churn?
This happened to me when I had an early desktop version of my app, and Microsoft forced me to change a lot of my code when they abandoned backward support for something (don't remember what).
Thanks Bradley!
On my own: yup. every freaking line of that code is mine :-)
Updates: yup, that's one of the reasons I made Aptugo. Tired of updating old code whenever something changed.
But the point here is: I didn't launch before because of all the excuses I put in my head. Truth is: I was scared that all the time invested was worthless. That nobody would use it, etc, etc. So I added excuses on why it wasn't ready.
So, whatever you're building: go ahead and launch it my friend!
I'm with you Bradley. If you use it daily and love it, you should build it, and build it well. Excellence is almost always rewarded in the marketplace.
I've grappled with conflicting advice in this area as well over these years, and I think I see it fairly clearly now: there are two conflicting approaches:
The majority are not visionaries. They are not exceptional in life experience, in struggling with persistent and intensely burning problems, nor in vision, nor in UX/UI. People coming from this place - like this fellow, who cannot identify any burning problems to solve: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/why-you-shouldnt-solve-your-own-problems-1367bc7a40 will never be able to understand what it's like to be a visionary.
I intensely dislike exceptionalism, but the fact remains, we are not all the same, and some of our differences diverge by magnitudes, not just degrees. Being a "visionary person" can be abused for egoic sense of superiority, but we cannot erase the fact that some people actually see things differently, in a way that translates to the ability to develop excellent products and solutions.
Are you driven to make things better, in general? Are you a critical analyst who has made the hard transition from complaining to engineering solutions? If so, then yes, you have my vote of confidence, you can do this. Success is not guaranteed of course, regardless! But is it a real chance? Yes.
Yes, you can be a careful observer over years and evaluate the marketplace, the needs of people on a universal and specific level, the limitations of existing solutions and their market share, and you can identify a need without customer validation. And yes, of course customer validation matters at some point, but it's not so simple as folks make it out to be, nor does it need to drive nor define your process or your decision to move ahead.
My passion and idea for my product was born 17 years ago. I began learning to code 7 years ago, off and on. I've been developing the concept (NOT the product itself) very intently for 5 years. And it's very ambitious, and certainly valuable - if I can pull if off. And I've slowly come to the conclusion and belief that I can - that I can even, with enough diligence, build the core product on my own.
This presents me with a range of options. I'm considering bring on others, from a single technical partner to a small team to help build it. I'm considering boiling the idea down and putting together the materials to pitch it properly for investment. And I'm considering and still learning towards what a broke, self-taught developer without industry experience can envision best: bootstrapping it with a production-grade Proof Of Concept, and then hiring the help and/or soliciting the investment to take it all the way, beyond my own humble technical skills.
You're right. As long as you can stay humble and keep a realistic perspective on risks and biases, you should believe in yourself and your vision.
@mountaindad
It's always nice to run into like-minded people! It's a validation that I take as meaningful, not because it means we are both more likely to succeed. It's more of a confirmation that game-changing things are worth pursuing.
I recently came across this blog post from venture capitalist Paul Graham. He has obviously wrestled with the importance of being original:
He's all about pivoting away from an idea that you think has merit and going with whatever seems to grow. But he also acknowledges that truly revolutionary things usually come about through people who are not normal and who also happen to get lucky. I find that unsettling... leaving the most important progress vectors up to "luck" and channeling most of our effort and capital into ramping up enterprises without regard for macro-progress.
Then again Paul strikes a balance, sort of:
Hey, read this today and immediately thought to share with you (looks like the product you're working on has a chance to be one of those):
from https://markmanson.net/how-to-be-insanely-successful
I have to admit, I do find myself challenging the status quo quite a bit. That is who I am!
This quote from the article says pretty much what I was thinking to say in response:
Historians collect success stories and neglect to give an account of the large number of failures. People want to hear about the successes because that makes them happy!
@DmitryBorody thanks for appreciating the general idea of how outsiders can sometimes push things beyond current plateaus and various kinds of "local maxima"
I have a project that I had been delaying, but in its current form I have been using it in my own projects, just not polished for public use yet. I have the same thoughts too, so I'm giving myself a deadline to finally get it over and done with, especially now with the covid and other projects have slowed down.
Yes, that's a reasonable thing to include in your plan. My "deadline" has been more of a threshold of market response... find out the number of people per 10 - 20 thousand eyeballs:
Haven't advertised just yet... and that is probably a mistake, since part of it functions in a useful way.
yea you should start to advertise it before it's "complete" complete - in your version of threshold - N. I learnt that while trying to launch my current side project. It takes a while before it even begins to pick up in visitor count, and even longer to have the first dollar (i'm not anywhere near that). So if you are now in Y=4, you could be looking at Y=6 before you gain the first cent.
Sounds right. Points well taken @Luc09
I know, I am not Steve Jobs, Henry Ford etc..
They have a lot of business experience.
Yes, they can inspire me.
But inspiration can not guarantee any results.
When did Steve Jobs say that?
I do not know the result but let guess,
probably he said that max 10 years ago before he died.
Apple founded 1976 and he died 2011
2011 - 1976 = 35 years of official business experience.
Do you have 25 years of business experience?
If you have a project that you could use it daily.
You should consider putting time on finding a few potential customers You can allow them to use it free with an NDA for a while.
Or maybe an investor can help you grow faster than any competitors. You could put more effort to find a business partner to grow quickly. But do not forget, end of the day, they are investing to get more. They will invest in your numbers, not your love.
There will be always a competitor. The only thing you need to do is keep being a better option for targetted customers.
I agree with your points right down the line! Thanks. I don't have that kind of business experience. I think that definitely factors in to the credibility of their guesses, (when they were still alive making bets).
Hi Bradley. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, it's always interesting to read people's thought process and motivations, especially when it's a contrarian pov.
This thought caught my eye:
If this project has taken you 4 years (and several prior to think through, as you mentioned), why on earth are you concerned anyone could just take the concept and "roll with it"?
You're afraid smart people will take 6 years of work and somehow capture 100% of the market and leave 0% for you?
To be clear, you're rowing against now-established founder's wisdom which states:
Don't build a system that can serve 10M users if you don't even know empirically that 1,000 would purchase.
Take note, you're building a factory, warehouse, distribution system, salesforce, and customer support to manufacture millions of beer cans without first validating that you could even sell 100 units a week with a shoe-string infrastructure.
Build it and they will come is not a strategy, it's a prayer.
The terrible story of Webvan, the $1B example of building in the dark:
https://ignitionframework.com/if-we-build-they-will-come-the-story-of-webvan/
In the real-world, nothing says "I want what you're building" like paying for it.
What evidence from strangers and real potential, skeptical buyers do you actually have? And I mean real, raw data from strangers, not opinions and projections in your head or spreadsheets and especially not from friends and family.
You're betting the farm on two things: your idea and your particular execution of it. What you need to remember though is that the giant companies, Apple included, take these bets with an R&D fund. They're not betting the whole farm.
Don't be the guy who built something he finds cool and innovative but that, it turns out, solves no one's real problem in a manner those people find valuable. No matter your brilliance, you cannot account for your customer's opinions and values while acting a hermit in your office for half a decade.
You may find your project valuable. That's cool. That doesn't bring in revenues, though.
The only question that matters is: do my potential customers find my execution valuable? What "stands-up-in-court" evidence do you have of this?
You simply cannot get this kind of evidence alone in the darkness of your basement office.
At some point, you'll have to talk to your customers, right? Well, you'll be the guy who's done it after 6 years of labor in a dark lab.
Do you really see this as an advantage?
Be careful, you're clearly infringing on one of the cardinal rules of successful startups.
So much appreciate the amount of thoughtful and informed input here in your comments!!!
Not to split hairs, but you said,
More power too them if they actually succeed in transforming and improving the world. Will they try to change the pay structure in the software industry for the better? Will they try to demolish barriers to entry and allow more people be able to challenge existing power structures? Will they make it easier for everyone else, or just themselves to participate in the non-W-2 wealth that only stock-holders currently enjoy? Will they be providing opportunities for smaller independent developers to get a quicker leg up in the world of startups?
Yes those were my lofty plans. And yes, those ideas kept me plotting and scheming in my dark hole, because out there, those things get forgotten.
But the whole end-game of mounting a challenge to FAAMG, really depends on speed once they've been alerted to something of significance to them.
Those smart people may or may not beat me out, but they could make announcements and start to put out attention grabbing ads for this concept. (BTW, there are many well known startups moving in this general direction, so I'm secretive about the way I am planning to do it). This would make it impossible to fly under the radar of the large cloning behemoths.
Up until now that had been a big concern for me.
Why do I say "Up until now"? Because you have said many thing here that do make complete sense and I feel it might be causing in me an awakening of the urgency for me to get this solid kind of feedback. I will have to think about it a bit more.
Let me ask you, are your customers also the FAANG companies you're afraid of?
If they are, I can understand your hesitation. If they aren't, you're playing far too safely, imo.
Say your idea is to change the way Dentists operate their businesses (just an example), is it really a real-world risk to call 100 dentists to see if they would purchase your [insert game-changer app here] today?
What are the odds the dentists you call will end up reaching out to FAANG and yell out "omg omg! I have a Billion dollar idea!".
Now consider this, also:
Is your idea bigger than Dropbox? ($8.1B on the NASDAQ)
Because Drew Houston (the CEO of Dropbox) requested feedback for his company at the idea stage from Hacker News, a notorious pool of uber-smart technologists on the web, back in 2007.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863
Not requesting feedback is a catastrophic mistake.
Imagine hiring an architect to design and build your dream home.
Now imagine never talking to the architect and trusting their judgment alone to design, budget, plan, and execute the construction of your home.
Don't you think the architect would need your (and your family's) input at some point?
When do you think would be the most appropriate time for those conversations?
-- Before pen is put to paper?
-- As pen is put to paper?
-- As budgets are being planned?
-- As contractors are being called?
-- As contractors are performing work?
-- As the landscapers are performing work?
-- Once the house is built?
-- The day you move in?
... or... all of the above?
Building in the dark makes for a cool surprise that might take the world by storm.
But just like that architect hitting a home-run on her own, the odds are slim, at best.
Wouldn't you agree? :)
I suspect FAAMG companies would be enthusiastic users, and would benefit. So I'm glad you get my concern.
As far as dentists, it is no real risk at all, a minimal risk, to contact dentists. If the dentists were to adopt this approach to dentistry I guess I'd be flattered and I'd call it a win. It couldn't be a complete win, though if they did a shoddy job of it, and people's lives were made worse. I don't know if that metaphor is quite appropriate, but I think it has some value.
The other metaphor is putting me in a very horrible light. I honestly don't think it's quite fair. I suppose that makes me sound very defensive. I'm more or less just trying to hold these comparisons up to the light of scrutiny. If they were true, I'd be seeing my handcuffs fall to the ground, and you would be the one liberating me and I would be grateful for ever for it. But I'm just not able to see these as conclusive for me.
Let's ignore the fact that spec houses are built all the time, because I think your analogy is actually a great one, albeit limited in its applicability. In the area of high-end custom built homes & remodels, it would be stupid to not have that involvement of the customer from day one. With custom homes, though, the plans and design work of the architect is actually protected. In this world of free software and the current patent/legal system it's not that attainable for most of us to protect our IP. We would need not only the patents and copyrights, we also would need the wherewithal to litigate. The only protection most of us have seems to be stealth.
I dunno. The more I interact here the more I start to feel like I need to lower my expectations about what is even possible in this world where the winner takes all and nothing, or very little belongs to the rest of us.
Bradley, if you'd like, you and I can hop on a video call and we can chat. I promise, you can keep your ideas to yourself, I won't pry. I've worked for - and worked on - quite a few startups. I also currently run a design and engineering firm and we work with startups and small business owners.
Not a sales pitch nor anything of the kind, just a friendly exchange if you'd enjoy swapping perspectives in genuine conversation. You can reach me by email, it's in my profile.
Thanks @daveandreu I would be open to that. Thanks. I'll get in touch.
I am building something non-trivial, in fact, software-wise it is very very non-trivial. And I am building in the open. I am a very experienced engineer and am confident of my thesis. But I do not like thinking of what Steve Jobs said. That is a path down the rabbit hole. I am smart enough to understand people have different levels of insight and luck and effort and 1000 other things.
I better go the way where the probability of success increases each step - that is what smart people, rooted in science would do - that is what I tell myself - Build, Measure, Iterate. So I build out in the open. I have a ton of past failures and all of them revolve around not sharing early enough. 14 years in this now, I am tired of failing, and am happy to let people know what I am making early on.
Hope that helps.
I get what you are saying about those words I quoted from Steven Jobs. There is a lot of luck that factors into his successes. He's had failures like the rest of us, and we don't have the kind of war chest to keep us moving at an accelerated speed after a failure.
Very neat idea for no-code sql generation!
How sure are you that the "past failures" as you call them were not actually good ideas that met with a lack of enthusiasm because of fixable problems? Did you test the concept or demo on large numbers? What told you that it was time to walk away from a project you had invested your time in?
I used to build a lot more in isolation. If I think about it now, it's a sign of ego. "I know what I'm building" does work for products, not for most products.
It doesn't matter how much investment goes into a product in isolation. It isn't solving deep and directly applicable problems. Sharing is a much better way to tackle that. There are still no guarantees.
Here's how I see it. I think to be successful you need some (considerable amount of) luck. Keeping your project (idea + execution) to yourself and you'll definitely need more luck than if you speak about it before and iterate on feedback.
About what you're saying about customers, it's true, I don't think you should give them what they want, because they don't know it. Sometimes they have problems, and they don't know about them either. Yet, I think you should thrive to:
Steve Jobs can say everything and anything, he had at the beginning revolutionary products (from Xerox Park) and then he had a very good notoriety. We are not Apple.
Last thing: speaking about your idea has often no effect; even if the idea is important, you have a very personal way to see it people won't necessarily understand. I think it could be dangerous if your idea is really innovative, simple to understand, to build, and solve a very wide and well known need.
Thanks for that. This is very solid advice.
The best protection is speed.
The more you know about your users, the better it is to improve your product and gain speed.
You already have an unfair advantage by working 4y on your product: you already studied all tech paths, strategies, ... related to your product/domain.
It’s time to show what you worked on for so much years to plant seeds on this environment you have built.
Launching something is also taking a risk of failure and if you are not ready to deal with that (nobody is at the beginning), it will not only destroy your vision, but yourself too : until you realise you are not dead and can rebuild something with your experience gained.
By quoting Job or Fords, it’s trying to turn a poor reality onto something great.
Sorry for my rudeness, but, to take your own words « I am worry about you ». Really.
Not rude, friend. Or at least I don't find it as rudeness. Realistic. Direct. I appreciate all of the encouragement I'm getting here.
IMHO it's 100% up to you to decide. There's no answer anyone could give you to this question. Indeed, how could they? It's your life and your goals (which don't always need to be "generate $X MRR"), it's up to you to come up with your own answer.
Perhaps you're interested in what reaction your story generates?
I personally get your perspective (not necessarily sharing it!). And you sound like you've had a lot of fun working on that thing (whatever that is), which means you've had 4 happy years of your life doing what you like. It's already not a bad outcome! 😃
By the way, please do a follow-up no matter which way it turns out! I'd be very curious to see how it goes.
Thank you @DmitryBorody! You are mentioning something that often seems to get left out. Sometimes we love the process, and the idea ... and are happy in that space!!!
This comment was deleted 6 years ago
Haha... Thanks!! For some people, they have enough evidence about me to say I'm completely out of my mind, LOL!! You are too kind. I feel bad about all the mystery & stuff, hope the day comes very soon I can just come clean and own up to what I've been obsessing over for this long :-)
This comment was deleted 6 years ago
This comment was deleted 4 years ago
Ya this echoes what I was going to write. 4 years with no feedback from users is a disaster. If someone has a good idea, it will be copied. You get an advantage from being first, but if you prove it's viable dozens of other groups of people will try and make it better.
There is a tradeoff between needing user feedback and getting copied. What informed people seem to think is you should basically ignore getting copied. That user feedback is so valuable you should aggressively seek it as early in your project as possible.
What OP has done here is terrifying. 4 years and I would assume thousands of hours of work and not a single other person has used it.
I take issue with the word "disaster" though... I think time will tell on that
Yes, you speak truth. In self-defense, what I have is not just an idea, its a codebase. And I am definitely getting back to the business of actively seeking beta testers and customers. I get that no one is really out there with zero competition.
Those "informed people" are often those who work for companies like Google. Google a couple years ago quit worrying about blocking people from using their code. Here's the catch though, while Google can out-run everyone else and not worry about challenges from the bottom, the startups and small shops are much more vulnerable to this kind of cloning competition. And of course Google protects it's "jewel code" like other large companies.
Thanks for spelling that out. I see the prevailing view you are talking about, and I have to say it makes sense. That's why I have Simon's picture at the top, there is a real need for people to get there bubbles popped.
I'm giving this some real thought. Your invitation to share my codebase and solution, and the rest is very much appreciated.
So ideas by themselves are not worth much, I would agree with that. But I have a codebase. This lives on a thick client, so, it's there for the taking even, if it's munged.
I'm going to think more, but I've felt that there is a real important thing going on here at IH, there is sharing of experience and encouragement and people can form teams here too. I've also felt that federation of independent efforts is sorely needed, and my project lends itself to that very nicely.
This comment was deleted 4 years ago
lol
This comment was deleted 4 years ago
This comment was deleted 5 years ago
You are right, and I may never be able to ignore the subjective aspect of what I've worked on. I should waste no time in approaching potential users with my app/platform and then "objectively" measure the success of the advertising approach, landing pages, wording, and user feedback and retention.
All that' can't happen until I first find self-determination and decide what I feel my relationship to the world is. Not just me, but everyone at IH has chosen a path, to some extent that is non-traditional. We are all independent thinkers.
Am I a follower, happy to continue with the trends I see? Am I a reformer who wants to find some realistic way to change the trajectory and behaviors of people for the better. This is a question that is subjective. I went with the approach of making a departure from current trends, and it would seem to be alien to people. That's an uphill battle. You are unknown, and your idea is unknown, but you are hoping for a trusted relationship or just an interaction that requires trust.
When a venture is operating in a way that it wants to change things for the better, it will be in a position to be truly creative, but it will always be lacking in metrics about what has worked in the past. Because its a different thing and can only be approximated. All the more reason to get metrics as soon as you can, of course. You are right, because why make something more of an uphill battle that is already going to be an uphill battle.
I think this is a great answer, from start to finish.
Even if it was that unicorn idea, selling it (so good that people go work on it immediately) with a simple pitch on IH? Come on, then those skills would be far more valuable than the idea itself! :)
Yep, I've considered this up-side to putting it out there. It's likely I would not retain much control. The munged code would probably have to be made available as readable source before people would jump on board, (even though there is an API to write modules on top of the munged code without having to tweak it)