Ask HN: Best Idea you never followed through on?
37 comments
I wrote a system that was basically Terracotta, (automagic distributing of java programs across a network) before Terracotta it existed.
Basically, I had a bet with a friend that it was impossible to at runtime distribute across multiple machines a program that was designed to run on a single machine.
At the time, I was living at home and not working, so I spent a ton of time reading up on the java classloader, how to instrument classes at runtime, dynamically rewriting calls to the "thread" class and mashalling them over the wire to another vm that was running, and executing it on their.
I didn't get very far, because after thinking about if it could become a product, I realized just how many performance issues there were going to be. Years later when I ran into the terracotta engineers and they were telling me the route they went, I was nodding my head realizing they were running into the same issues I did, and still struggling to overcome some of them.
They have quite a nice product now, but they didn't exactly blow up so I don't have too many regrets about not productizing it.
All in all, I learned a lot about java, virtual machines, threading, and how to teach myself new skills.
Basically, I had a bet with a friend that it was impossible to at runtime distribute across multiple machines a program that was designed to run on a single machine.
At the time, I was living at home and not working, so I spent a ton of time reading up on the java classloader, how to instrument classes at runtime, dynamically rewriting calls to the "thread" class and mashalling them over the wire to another vm that was running, and executing it on their.
I didn't get very far, because after thinking about if it could become a product, I realized just how many performance issues there were going to be. Years later when I ran into the terracotta engineers and they were telling me the route they went, I was nodding my head realizing they were running into the same issues I did, and still struggling to overcome some of them.
They have quite a nice product now, but they didn't exactly blow up so I don't have too many regrets about not productizing it.
All in all, I learned a lot about java, virtual machines, threading, and how to teach myself new skills.
London, 1993: 56k dial-up isn't cutting it any more, and ADSL is hideously expensive. It occurs to me that cable TV is getting more popular, and that this would provide more than enough bandwidth for most people. An evening of technical research seems to support the idea. I call the business development people at the cable company the following day, but am unable to persuade them that spending money on 'an inter net' might be more profitable than catering to the existing demand for sport, porn and light entertainment.
I was right from a technical standpoint...but they were also right from a content standpoint, though it took me a lot longer to appreciate that.
I was right from a technical standpoint...but they were also right from a content standpoint, though it took me a lot longer to appreciate that.
What part of London had ADSL in 1993 considering the ADSL spec was ratified in 1998 ;)
Duh! Good catch. Maybe it was just DSL, minus the A? I've gotten so used to the current acronym I didn't think about that. More like it was...I...I...godammit. (...wiki...) ISDN! DSL existed back then but I think ISDN was the only affordable consumer alternative to dialup in the UK at the time.
There can only be one 'first', and if yours isn't it than that's just too bad. The 'I thought of that first' meme is one of the most common and most easily dispatched things that almost all entrepreneurial types have experienced at least several times in their lives.
The easiest way to think of it is to realise that for every idea that 'made it' not just one but probably more likely several 10s and possibly 100s of people had that idea too and they didn't follow up on it either. Chances that you're the first are very small.
Your idea couldn't have gone anywhere, at least, not by itself. You need to get a lot more factors just right in order to create something that really takes off.
The more interesting question to me is what ideas do you have that you are not following through on right now, that you can make a similar post about 10 years from now?
And, what are you going to do about it?
The easiest way to think of it is to realise that for every idea that 'made it' not just one but probably more likely several 10s and possibly 100s of people had that idea too and they didn't follow up on it either. Chances that you're the first are very small.
Your idea couldn't have gone anywhere, at least, not by itself. You need to get a lot more factors just right in order to create something that really takes off.
The more interesting question to me is what ideas do you have that you are not following through on right now, that you can make a similar post about 10 years from now?
And, what are you going to do about it?
I think that you have to learn from the past? I will never again not follow through on an idea i think has legs. In the end you have to trust yourself.
I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. When I was around 12 years old, I had an idea of peanut butter slices, like individually wrapped cheese slices.
A couple years ago, I read about: http://www.pbslices.com/history/index.html
A couple years ago, I read about: http://www.pbslices.com/history/index.html
For me it was a Facebook style photo sharing system (2001 - before Friendster and years before Myspace or Facebook). I worked on it full time and turned the code into a CMS to make ends meet.
Though, there are lots of "waves" of technology/change in the market. When they line up you get great opportunities. Napster hit when computers were fast enough to decode mp3 files and people had broadband at home. The key is seeing them with enough lead time and fortitude to paddle and be in the right spot when they hit.
Personally, I want to know what new waves will line up in 3 years.
Though, there are lots of "waves" of technology/change in the market. When they line up you get great opportunities. Napster hit when computers were fast enough to decode mp3 files and people had broadband at home. The key is seeing them with enough lead time and fortitude to paddle and be in the right spot when they hit.
Personally, I want to know what new waves will line up in 3 years.
Actually, I think Napster hit when college students had PCs (and ethernet) in their dorms. Kazaa hit when broadband started to get popular. Good point, though.
That's great. You've changed the way I think about that.
Napster was peeking in 2001 and I was incredibly inspired by the platform. As a photo geek with broadband (for 3-4 years by then) I figured it was a perfect fit...until I realized that my target market (grandparents, parents, siblings) mostly had dial-up. It really caught me off guard.
I'll start looking for waves that hit specific groups with certain attitudes/goals. For example, the "selfish elites with ipads" rather than just "ipad owners".
Napster was peeking in 2001 and I was incredibly inspired by the platform. As a photo geek with broadband (for 3-4 years by then) I figured it was a perfect fit...until I realized that my target market (grandparents, parents, siblings) mostly had dial-up. It really caught me off guard.
I'll start looking for waves that hit specific groups with certain attitudes/goals. For example, the "selfish elites with ipads" rather than just "ipad owners".
I have an idea for neural networks that is different from everything else out there. I've been thinking about it for years.
Finally going to start on it in September. Expect the rise of robot legions next January.
Finally going to start on it in September. Expect the rise of robot legions next January.
Am in full agreement with jacquesm.
Here's my partial list:
Application virtualization, <2000. Submitted invention disclosure in 2003 or so, when prior art search revealed someone had a patent issued a year earlier (so they must have been filed several years before that).
Physics hardware acceleration, 2000, while working on a virtual reality game. Learned about PhysX in about 2006 or so.
RISC and VLIW processor architectures, 1996, junior year undergrad, while not being aware of their prior existence.
Following two were while I was working on Sinclair Spectrum+ at 12-15 years of age, and largely unaware of what already existed at that time:
3D computer graphics/animation, 1990, 13 years of age, after learning coordinate geometry two years ahead of peer students. Tried to come up with a simple mathematical function f(x, y) that that would resemble a human face, with no success. Prototype created frames offline using interpreted BASIC and cycled them on the screen using hand-written machine code.
Compilers, while using slow interpreted BASIC on Sinclair Spectrum, 1992, 15 years of age, when I first learned how to program in machine code manually. My prototype would only convert text code in reverse-polish notation (RPN) to RPN instructions available on the processor (so more like assembler really).
Envisaged zero static power logic with complementary relays (like CMOS), at high school, while not knowing anything about CMOS then.
Lesson learnt: (See jacquesm's comment).
Here's my partial list:
Application virtualization, <2000. Submitted invention disclosure in 2003 or so, when prior art search revealed someone had a patent issued a year earlier (so they must have been filed several years before that).
Physics hardware acceleration, 2000, while working on a virtual reality game. Learned about PhysX in about 2006 or so.
RISC and VLIW processor architectures, 1996, junior year undergrad, while not being aware of their prior existence.
Following two were while I was working on Sinclair Spectrum+ at 12-15 years of age, and largely unaware of what already existed at that time:
3D computer graphics/animation, 1990, 13 years of age, after learning coordinate geometry two years ahead of peer students. Tried to come up with a simple mathematical function f(x, y) that that would resemble a human face, with no success. Prototype created frames offline using interpreted BASIC and cycled them on the screen using hand-written machine code.
Compilers, while using slow interpreted BASIC on Sinclair Spectrum, 1992, 15 years of age, when I first learned how to program in machine code manually. My prototype would only convert text code in reverse-polish notation (RPN) to RPN instructions available on the processor (so more like assembler really).
Envisaged zero static power logic with complementary relays (like CMOS), at high school, while not knowing anything about CMOS then.
Lesson learnt: (See jacquesm's comment).
Many years ago I had an idea for "emergency help with computers" but didn't do anything with it. A couple years later all of Moscow metro was suddenly covered with leaflets advertising "emergency help with computers".
Once I had an idea about adding georeferencing data to regular photos of landscapes - not just top-down images - to overlay them on the 3D terrain. Later this capability appeared in Google Earth for user photos and it looks great.
Once I had an idea about adding georeferencing data to regular photos of landscapes - not just top-down images - to overlay them on the 3D terrain. Later this capability appeared in Google Earth for user photos and it looks great.
A couple years before Amazon's Mechanical Turk came out I started thinking about web services (SOAP at the time) with human beings at the end point. To do the things for our software systems that only humans could do.
I had a few long brain storming sessions with friends about it, but other than that I did nothing. Now it's my favorite story to tell people when they ask me if they should execute on their pet idea.
I had a few long brain storming sessions with friends about it, but other than that I did nothing. Now it's my favorite story to tell people when they ask me if they should execute on their pet idea.
The biggest is probably an eBay for services and rentals. Basically non-goods.
This includes renting your neighbours lawnmower or drill, through to renting a holiday apartment, or a floor for a night and was envisioned to be heavily integrated into a calendaring and scheduling solution.
I pretty much went into detail of scenarios like the floor space swapping (AirBNB now is very close to what I had described), went into detail on renting apartments around events (think along the line of apartments in London during the Olympics). I also researched and thought about how this same system could be used by small businesses, for example how you could bid for a slot with a famous hairdresser and the auction market would set the rate... so a skilled person in great demand would earn more than normal rates.
This includes renting your neighbours lawnmower or drill, through to renting a holiday apartment, or a floor for a night and was envisioned to be heavily integrated into a calendaring and scheduling solution.
I pretty much went into detail of scenarios like the floor space swapping (AirBNB now is very close to what I had described), went into detail on renting apartments around events (think along the line of apartments in London during the Olympics). I also researched and thought about how this same system could be used by small businesses, for example how you could bid for a slot with a famous hairdresser and the auction market would set the rate... so a skilled person in great demand would earn more than normal rates.
I had the exact same idea a few months before Napster became really popular. Instead of a separate client/server, my idea was to use IRC (and a specialized fileserver) for sharing mp3s.
One night while I was working on this project (I got it to a functional level), I turned on the TV and saw a special report on the old TechTV talking about Napster. I gave up on it a week later.
Even if I pursued the idea, I don't know if I would have gotten very far. I had no money for servers/bandwidth and no way to get venture capital. Not to mention that most of the filesharing clients that were around during that time were sued out of existence.
One night while I was working on this project (I got it to a functional level), I turned on the TV and saw a special report on the old TechTV talking about Napster. I gave up on it a week later.
Even if I pursued the idea, I don't know if I would have gotten very far. I had no money for servers/bandwidth and no way to get venture capital. Not to mention that most of the filesharing clients that were around during that time were sued out of existence.
In 2001, I had the idea of creating a bookmarking system for saving all my big list of researched url's and named(now called as tags) as personal and official links for my personal use. Few years later I heard of something called Delicious.
I came up with what was essentially Jaiku a number of years before it launched (which is funny cos Jyri is a friend now).
I built specs and wireframes and was beginning to plan out the backend but then lost interest after a number of investor-friends couldn't see the market for it.
To be honest, I'm not sure there is a market for it but that also proves that startups don't always need a market on their own to be successful and exit.
I built specs and wireframes and was beginning to plan out the backend but then lost interest after a number of investor-friends couldn't see the market for it.
To be honest, I'm not sure there is a market for it but that also proves that startups don't always need a market on their own to be successful and exit.
Definitely a mix between Rhapsody and last.fm - I told everybody that I was going to do this: mp3s in the cloud with sharing capabilities. Now everybody asks me "What happened to that idea, did you hear about last.fm etc.?" - kinda bitter, but it would have been a big project + you would need good connections to the music industry to pull that off without getting sued, so no regrets :)
The biggest one missed: A way to connect to friends similar to Facebook, Friendster. (there are still somethings in there that I believe can be improved which I won't mention)
What I didn't see: the "Status" which Facebook implemented. The apis which opened up games like Farmville (though I don't play it). This would probably have killed my idea off though
What I didn't see: the "Status" which Facebook implemented. The apis which opened up games like Farmville (though I don't play it). This would probably have killed my idea off though
I distinctly remember having a very similar idea for Twitter after seeing how much people used their AIM away messages as statuses a couple of years before Twitter launched. Of course, I'm sure tons of others did also - there wasn't really a lot of magic in the idea, good (enough) execution and network effects is what made Twitter successful.
It was during the mid-80's and I was 12. I loved playing computer games. Activision had 2 that I loved - Little Computer People and AlterEgo. I remember wanting so much to have these games combined that I wrote the company to suggest that they do this. I never sent the letter. 15 years later, Sims comes out.
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in 1998, at age 18, I made my high school's yearbook on CD (with Macromedia Director), along with two friends. I told them the format seemed stale, and that the future of yearbooks was on the internet, where you could keep in touch with your classmates and upload photos of your current life.
Even though we were computer geeks we had almost zero execution capabilities at the time, so I'm not kicking myself on the head.
Even though we were computer geeks we had almost zero execution capabilities at the time, so I'm not kicking myself on the head.
... even if you were to make Facebook in 1998, it might not have gotten critical mass due to it being simply 'too early' (and also not getting seeded in a college campus environment) ... iirc, Friendster and others were started in the late '90's bubble but all fizzled out
this should really be a two part question:
which ideas did you have which you saw someone else come out w/later?
and/or which ideas do you wish you had followed through on, that you still haven't seen someone do. (like i dunno, cold fusion).
I had written a business plan for a site to connect students to each other and let them share pictures. wrote this in 2000. yeah so much for that one.
and/or which ideas do you wish you had followed through on, that you still haven't seen someone do. (like i dunno, cold fusion).
I had written a business plan for a site to connect students to each other and let them share pictures. wrote this in 2000. yeah so much for that one.
To me the question is about not going for it and then later realizing that it could have been huge. Basically regret. The good news is that you can learn from the past and follow through on as many things as possible, at least until that gaping void inside you is filled is dollar bills.
Wanted to buy Google when they went public.
Did not have enough money. Argh.
didn't buy divx.com when i looked it up and it was still free.
oh, i have so domain stories. after the dot com bust i wanted to buy up domains like crazy but alas i was using all my money for food and beer.
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All of them, so far.
What is the best idea you had that you never followed through on that is now hugely successful?
For me, the year was 1999 and i had an lighting bolt of an idea. I should put all my music on my computer and share it with all my friends. Remember Napster, that's where my idea could have gone. I cant say i'm bitter, because idea's come an go.