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Ask HN: I'll build any web app

by stagas·16y ago·17 comments·view on hn ↗
Over the past few weeks I've been having this sort of burn out in motivation for work. I'm a web developer, and I like creating web apps that people will find some use for. I am overwhelmed by the ideas that pop into my head, but I can't seem to be motivated enough to actually work on something. I write some code, but when I discuss these ideas with friends and family they are all like "hmmm, yeah that's nice...", totally killing my initial enthusiasm.

So in an attempt to get my enthusiasm back and kill my burn out, I ask you, what simple yet cool webapp that doesn't yet exist (or isn't good enough) do you want me to create, that you'll find some use for? It can be anything really. Advice is welcome also.

17 comments
Share your ideas. Writing them down in a blog post in a way that tries to sell them is a very helpful way of deciding what's actually useful or not. It can also rekindle enthusiasm for old ideas.

For inspiration, see this post about ten web app ideas: http://www.puremango.co.uk/2010/10/ten-ideas/

I'm not really good at writing blog posts but I'll try it, thank you.
I don't get this "ask friends and family" approach. Unless your friends and family are on the bleeding edge of tech I fail to see how much understanding and enthusiasm they could give you. Friends will often be supportive no matter the idea. Family will often shrug and say "interesting" without having any idea what you're talking about. Not every idea has mass appeal. You likely got the same kind of answers when explaining any number of successful start-ups. Imagine if the Farmville folk had "tested" their idea on friends and family. Yeah! A virtual farm! Forget about FPS or puzzle games... now you can virtually plant peas! (My mum would say "why don't people go plant real peas or have a real farm?").

What it really sounds like is that you have too many ideas and not enough focus. Sounds like you need to pick one and stick to it. Even a failure is a completion and that is a success.

Instead of telling your ideas to friend and family, ask for theirs. Go to the mall or other public place and ask people. Want to go all out? Take a cooler of ice cold beer and a big sign saying you'll give out beer for great web app ideas. If you do it on a slow news day, some tv reporter might put you on the news. Someone watching might call you with the best idea ever. Embrace serendipity and seek out new sources of ideas.
I ask for theirs and it's mainly Facebook-for-that with 'that' being a random value, or it's impossible / huge for me. No, my problem isn't ideas, I have plenty of them myself. My problem is motivation. I usually give up after building a working prototype because I lose interest and enthusiasm, because I was the only one who cared. I was hoping that by posting this issue here, I see it as a commitment. When someone expects something from me I would put more effort in, rather than building something that I came up with and perhaps noone really cares. +1 for original advice though :)
Might want to check this out...plenty of ideas there.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ag-R_ZlGO21NdE9HSWR...

EDIT - the original post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1190974

This is very interesting, thank you for pointing out this. But still I'm not looking for a startup, I just want to escape burn out, and build something cool in the process that people would like to use. I have no interest in making money out of it, and money is no motivator for intellectual processes. People's enthusiasm and feedback, though, are great motivators, that's why I'm asking this here.

Sure there are a lot of good ideas in that document, but they're all business ideas, there is no passion or enthusiasm around them. But thanks again, it still is helpful.

Hello stagas. What is your technical skill with javascript. I have a idea that needs more polish, but I think it would make a great open source library and I could use it in my job. It's a visualization tool that I saw a Google tech talk about a few months ago. I have not had time to sit down and code for it, but if it was available, I would sure use it.
Hello EastCoastLA. I would say I am advanced in Javascript. Please email me with the details so I can check it out.

  I am interested in use of data visualization of information that has an endpoint of simple dynamic well known picture/image.  Every item in the picture is linked to the data.  
 
  Imagine a picture of a harbor with boats, calm water, clear sky,etc..  (Still looking for the specific tech talk)
 Every distinct visual category in the picture should have a distinct data link.
I would model it in the same way as Protovis http://vis.stanford.edu/protovis/ But with pictures linked to the data.

Some links: Hans Rosling shows the best stats you've ever seen http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_y...

Digital Arts@Google: W. Bradford Paley, Martin Wattenberg, and Fernanda Viegas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRrmE7BFdJs&feature=playe...

http://www.slideshare.net/fichter/data-20-harnessing-new-dat...

Protovis pretty much covers everything, from what I can see. What you're looking for (I think) is an implementation on some specific data you have, mapped to hyperlinks from Wikipedia or similar? Please correct me if I didn't understand correctly or elaborate a bit.
Protovis is very close, but imagine one of the digital frames you put pictures in. The date dynamically creates the one image. Each element of the picture might represent a data element I feel is important. The javascript API will allow me to select the picture which could be a landscape or water-scape or mountain scape. The data can be encoded in JSON. The user could look at the image and have a visual representation of the data in a familiar format.
Don't ask your friends and family. most of them, I assume, don't understand the field. Ask people who understand. Go to an entrepreneurship meetup, such as the HN meetups in various cities, and talk to those people. They'll understand what you're saying, and challenge your business/tech assumptions and decisions.
I understand your point here, but it's really hard where I live to even reach those. I live in an island in the mediterranean, called Crete, and travelling by airplane to go to such meetups isn't something I can afford, and developers living here don't really care more than doing a website in Joomla for a hotel or so. I've tried talking to them also but in vain. So the Internet is my only real connection at the moment with these kinds of things. I feel like I have so much creativity and really want to build things, but I'm alone here and feel like nobody understands me in real life.
Have a look at Jacques' list of ideas: http://jacquesmattheij.com/My+list+of+ideas+for+when+you+are...

Many of them!

Thanks! Looks interesting.
Hey, this is one of the founders of Ready for Zero (recently featured on HN). We have a simple webapp idea that might be fun to do on the side. If you're interested, mail me at nacho _at_ readyforzero _dot_com.