Ask HN: Anyone else feel the idea is more difficult than execution?
Ok so this isn’t an entirely serious stance. A poorly (or not at all) executed idea will amount to nothing. But I can’t help wondering if others feel like I do and find it incredibly difficult to find ideas worthy of spending a lot of time on.
I’m an engineer and love building things. It feels like I can build anything or at the very least learn what I need to in order to have a serious shot at building something. How do you get from here to the point where there’s a spark that, with enough pivots, can lead to something that adds value? I’ve built and shipped things in the past. Procrastination isn’t my problem (I think).
I’ve digested pg’s essays on the topic and anything else I could find. This is a bit of privileged whining from my end, but would love to hear others thoughts.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
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Slack started as a gaming company. The idea didn't matter. Many examples like these
Don't overthink this. It is not the idea. It is the execution. I say this as someone who has been running a business for 8 years and we are not at all close to the original idea. In fact I don't even know how to define the original idea anymore.
It's all marketing and execution.
I shake my head every time I see the "ideas are a dime a dozen" meme parroted on here. Good ideas are actually much rarer, harder to come by.
I'll prove it.
Go to any of the Ask HN "whats your side business" threads and observe the many interesting responses. Here's a good one: [2]. Next, observe the follow-up questions, "What's your niche? How'd you get started? Wow, very interesting, curious about the details."
Crickets.
Why? Because the only reason these people are harvesting so many coconuts is because they're the only ones who know about the island - the idea is their only competitive advantage. If they shared that, the party would be over, and they know it.
Ideas are extremely valuable.
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[1] here's a couple:
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29667095
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24947167
[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29668604
These guys know about coconut island because they were out on their boat looking for it. Thats the hard part and how you derisk ideas. Understanding your users and market, figuring out how to execute well through trial and error and graft. (And some luck)
Theres crickets are on the insights to their users, what they know about their market, true. This is why its hard to copycat innovative companies. They know their users and the practicalities of running their particular type of business better than others. The ideas in the linked threads are easy to understand, you could interview their users, read a FAQ to see how it works.
I know the "insights" & "ideas" may seem like the same thing, but they are not. Ideas are second order, once you have the insight, you try various ideas to hone in on something that works. Ideas are lovely - easy, simple to understand. Thats why people flock to them. Insights are usually hard earned. Thats why the meme is incredibly helpful - ie forget your divine inspiration get out there and pick up a shovel.
Have you researched 20 different potential customer niches, who might have jobs that need doing or frustrating issues they need help with? How many potential customers have you talked to, to learn more about their perspective, their challenges, the existing tools or services they have tried, and how they fall short?
Ideas are trivial. Follow a person around for 24 hours looking at them doing their job and you will have a dozen. Read a bunch of business books and analyse an old vertical you'll have a dozen. Hell ask chatGPT and you'll have a million.
As others have pointed out, whats seemingly missing from your mix is talking to people. If you talk to be people, they will give you problems, then you go about trying to solve them. Along the way you will have ideas on how to do this, most will not work, some will. The way you mitigate the failure risk is by understanding your users, the market better.
Some ideas I was helping to build were not ideas I would personally call as worth to be built, and yet they ended up to be profitable due to good marketing and sales. I guess my corridor is too short so I have no idea what really good idea looks like...