| I think coming up with good ideas is like exercising its own muscle in your brain. I think with practice and constant reflection / analysis on whether or not ideas are likely to work, you will likely improve over time. I've enjoyed brainstorming new ideas for the web since around 2000. Many of my ideas early on I thought were good, but it turned out (on further reflection) I was probably wrong. In the past few years, however, I've accumulated a pretty substantial stockpile of what I think are truly legit ideas that I am not in a position (without funding) to do justice to. To make things worse I'm not really seeking funding so I may never find out. Eventually I'll probably revisit the list and start putting them out there if the time that has passed hasn't made them irrelevant, or someone else hasn't already done it. I think choosing the ideas you will pursue really needs to be tied closely to your goals / objectives. [EDIT: After reading through some other comments it appears one in this thread is quite similar to the content that follows, but in my estimation different enough that it may be worth posting anyway] Just interested in learning? Do a project that will allow you to learn about what interests you. Just interested in making money? For starters my suggestion would be take an existing product / service (not patented) and make it better, or maybe tweak it slightly. The tougher / far riskier objective would be to take an untested idea to market and try to make money with it. Extrapolating that a solution to a pain point I experience is likely a viable business, or that just because a few people I know have an interest in an idea it must mean that many other people in the industry would likely pay for a packaged solution IMO is risky. Want to do something to help make the world a better place? This, IMO, is probably the hardest type of idea to really turn into something worthwhile. Perhaps one of the easiest ways to chip away at this type of objective is take something you know well and share it with the world. Make an open source project out of it and license it with a nonrestrictive license such as MIT, BSD, etc. |