Comment by thyrox

Around these parts "ideas are cheap" is often repeated, but I've failed to come up with a marketable idea for the past ten or so years.

My hobbies & interests are too niche and the problems I have in life can't be solved by tech, so I have yet to run across an idea I'd be intrinsically-motivated enough to pursue.

With that being said, I'm hoping I'll run into someone else's idea which will help me see through the kind of blindness which prevented rsync users from seeing Dropbox as something worth building, so I find exposure to these "little" ideas useful since reading through threads like these is somewhat like speed-dating for startup ideas.

This is the kind of content I come to HN for. If it makes you feel better, this kind of thread also serves as a lightning rod that contains the self-promoting of projects so you won’t see as many posts of this type.

I love these threads fwiw and will come back to them from time to time to read about what others are doing

Yes, I get something out of these threads.

I'm relatively technically inclined so the "tech stack" used is not really all that interesting. I don't really care about what React widget was used to create a customizable overlay text on an animated gif meme, I care about how the person found an audience and managed to monetize it.

GitHub, Reddit, "Show HN" or other areas of the internet are much better at highlighting interesting projects. This thread is specifically about monetizing small to mid range projects, so the focus is on how to acquire a meager income stream both in targeting audience and monetization strategies.

The best responses in this thread, in my opinion, are the ones that talk about how they managed to get to $500/month by identifying what problem people would pay money for, how they found customers and the specific type of transaction (purchasing something physical, subscription, one-time removal of watermark, etc.).

Getting traffic, and getting to know the project, is the value produced by this threads.

You may either be a potential client, or an entrepreneur looking towards tips or inspiration on things to do/how to do them.

Yes, I love that thread. It helps me with brainstorming on new ideas.

Also, it's pretty nice to share with the small team I'm part of. We're currently working on custom client projects and we'd like to build our product. Seeing how people do it is a nice morale boost, especially for a team that lacks experience in building.

I do. I don't care about the tech stack, but I'm always curious about what got people started building something. What opportunity did they see and what led them to that point.

One thing I wish I had when I was in school was learning about all the different things people do to make a living.

Threads like this give us a window into a world of ideas and possibilities.

These threads work.

Both as a seller and a buyer, I've found customers and products I wouldn't have found organically.

Yes. These are the posts on HN that I enjoy most. Tech stack etc are also somewhat interesting, but not that relevant since for most people is best tech stack is the one they are familiar with.

Absolutely. I love seeing people find success with their creations.

I do. It is always interesting for me to see what people come with.

Yes, these are some of my favorite threads on HN.