Ask HN: How do your find your itch to scratch?

1 points by styeco 3 years ago | 2 comments

After being a user of open source software for many years (with a sporadic contibution here and there), I have the urge to start my own project. I have always read about "finding an itch to scratch", which I am having trouble with. For the most part, I'm pretty happy with the software I use and I don't frequently have complaints that need solving. Its very possible that I have too much tunnel vision and don't even see the things that could be better anymore.

How do I break through this, or are there any general approaches to finding a need that many users have and aren't solved a dozen times over?

simonblack 3 years ago |

The 'itch' usually starts very small and builds over time (maybe years, maybe decades).

In my case, it was a carry-over from my very first 'home computer' from the late 1970s. It started off with trying to run a BASIC program written for one older DOS under CP/M, a slightly newer (early 1980s) operating system. I eventually wrote a GUI front-end for a very comprehensive emulator on Linux of that very first computer of mine.

Along the way I learned about writing interpretive emulators, multi-threading, C programming, GUI and associated event-driven programming, text-to-pixel-display techniques, floppy-disk controllers, hard-drive controllers, text displays with curses, website-building, deep-search on the web for various bits of obsolete information, etc, etc.

Just do little programs for the little thoughts you have running around in your head. One of those, and you won't be able to predict which one, will eventually be the seed for your 'itch'.

throwawaysalome 3 years ago |

I'm happy with the software I use and I don't frequently have complaints

Said no programmer ever.