Ask HN: My project idea is built by someone else – what should I do now?

10 points by swcoders 10 years ago | 12 comments

Hi I was near to burn out and trying to find some good idea to implement. After so much research I got one Idea and I know it will be great open source project.

I was so much exited about that. Now someone else open sourced my Idea and It is one of trending repositories on github.Though I learned from that project but I loose interest in my project as it is already implemented. I am feeling so much depressed from two days.

Please give some advice.

atmosx 10 years ago |

Let me share with you a Joe and Mike tale.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... There was a planet. Among other things, there were two companies selling shoes on that planet. Both of them had a top-notch consultant, Company1 had 'Joe' and Company2 had 'Mike'. Joe and Mike were awesome the best on the market: They could forecast sales like no one else.

So, one day, the companies decided to send the consultants on a new planet to evaluate the shoe market. Joe called back and said: " Kill it, these creatures don't wear shoes. There's nothing to sell. I'm coming back ". Mike arrive two days later, called back and said: " This is awesome! No one here wears shoes, we must build a production unit here and take over the planet! Call the board immediately! ". About 50 years later, Company2 was had 80% of the shoe market on the new planet. Company1 joined 30 years later but never gained a substantial market share on this planet.

About five years after the events discussed above, the companies send the consultants on a very well known planet. The companies had no market share on this planet. Joe was there first and after evaluating the market called back and said: "Hey, there are is huge competition here, but I've found flaws on nearly every major player and the market is HUGE! We can make rounds around these guys!! Call the board ASAP". Mike arrived two days later, after evaluating the market he called and said: "It's a very competitive, advanced market. I don't think there's room for just another shoe-maker here. I'm coming back". About 50 years later, Company1 had conquered 15% the (apparently very large) planet's shoe market, multiplying the company's profits almost 5x times. Company1 never set foot on this planet.

christopherDam 10 years ago | |

Can you please explain what does this mean?

atmosx 10 years ago | | |

The tale is about different perceptions of reality and self-fulfilling prophecies. Both consultants were skilled and helped their companies grow, but none saw the possibilities in both planets because they were subject to framing[1].

The OP wrote:

> Now someone else open sourced my Idea and It is one of trending repositories on github.

The OP sees this is a failure because this is his perception of reality. However, there are other signals at play that the OP did not capture. The fact that someone else brought forward the same idea at around the same time automatically tells me the following things:

1. There is a growing interest about this idea

2. It’s not irrelevant, crazy or stupid. Might be a solid idea.

3. There might even be an emerging market

4. The timing for this idea must be right (That’s why different people are coming up with this idea)

5. The OP is smart.

So whatever the OP’s idea is, must be good and worth pursuing. The OP thinks like ‘Mike’, but ‘Joe’ made it rain too. There are countless example for products that came ‘after’ and took over the market (e.g. Apple and Microsoft, iOs and Android, etc).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_(social_sciences)

alashley 10 years ago | | |

I guess OP will explain it better, but my take from it is that its better to have a small share of a huge market (which is still a large potential payout) than to be a big fish in a small market or a market dominated by one major player (small/non-existent returns).

lovelearning 10 years ago |

Ignore that other project, and build what you wanted to. At a high level, your ideas may appear the same. But once you get into the low granularity details, your mind will always start thinking up features and improvements that are completely unique.

paulmatthijs 10 years ago |

Why don't you join that open source project as a dev? Contributing something meaningful to another one's project might bring you more than going through the hardship of wanting to do a project on your own.

lfx 10 years ago |

Now is even better, you can see some mistakes those guys made and avod them.

We have Grunt, Gulp and what not. Nobody seems to care, they just make things better and had fun doing it.

tech_crawl_ 10 years ago |

You don't have to be first to market... You just have to be better!

romanovcode 10 years ago | |

Nonsense. It's not about who is better, it's about who markets themselves as "better".

octatoan 10 years ago |

See if you can bring a new approach to the problem. You could solve it in a completely different way by focusing on some other part of the process.

brudgers 10 years ago |

Perhaps you could contribute to the other open source project and make it better while waiting for another idea to spark your passion.

Good luck.

avitzurel 10 years ago |

Remember Hipchat and Campfire? Slack came way after both of these (and many others)