Six Month MBA

I've been struggling with this one for a while, and finally realized that it's just an easy way of avoiding getting my hands dirty and a form of procrastination. There's really nothing bad that can come out of designing and building an app from start to finish, even if you're the only one whoever uses it. I finally dove into my first full app and if nothing else it's a great hobby and gives me something to look forward to after work.

That being said, I'm still of the thought that an identical clone isn't something worth sinking hundreds of hours into; I think you need at least SOMETHING that is different (if only just a bit). Example: After a recent 2 week cross country road trip, I created a quick and dirty travel log to track our adventure on our web comic site. When we got back, I planned to implement this as a web app, but discovered Everlater, which does EXACTLY what I wanted to write (even down to the exact target markets and usages..). Reading their development blog felt like they were stealing the thoughts out of my head, so when it gets to that point I think finding another idea is best.

Ideas are a dime a dozen - if you need help, just use this list http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html.

I love this. Some of the ideas are, frankly, junk. But there are a few gems (and a few which I'm stealing and putting on my own todo list), but more importantly I love the openness of just sharing ideas instead of doing what I do and keeping them tight close to my chest.

And what I think is junk, someone else might see gold, or have just the right connections to create a decent product.

This is what being a hacker is all about - open sharing of ideas. And this blog post is just that, in its rawest form. Awesome.

Here's another page which I like for the same reason: http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html

I personally open a (yellow) phone book to a random page and brainstorm ways to make that particular industry more efficient. But then again I'm an efficiency consultant.

I'd peruse idea/complaint websites and see if one idea tickles your fancy:

http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html
http://www.whynot.net/
http://www.quirky.com/
http://logolalia.com/ideafactory/
http://mybiggestcomplaint.com/
http://www.ilovetocomplain.com/

Here's a few links with ideas:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/businessideas/

http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html

http://www.ahbbo.com/ideas.html

http://ycombinator.com/ideas.html

http://astartupaday.wordpress.com/

http://www.coolbusinessideas.com/

I've taken all these from a list in the 'Start Small, Stay Small' book here:
http://www.startupbook.net/

Good luck!

Nice, here are 3 great Seth Godin posts/influences on ideas:

Where they come from:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/11/where-do-ideas-come-from.html

Why spread?:
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2010/10/ideas-spread-when.html

999 ideas from his 'MBA' program:
http://www.sixmonthmba.com/2009/02/999ideas.html

Execution > Ideas - start spreading!