[HN Gopher] Tell HN: I Need Project Ideas
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       Tell HN: I Need Project Ideas
        
       Hello everyone, I am Computer Science student which enthusiast
       about programming, software development techniques, project
       management and system design. I always read a lot of blog posts,
       cool stuff or techniques. Though, i can not find the way how to
       practise them. Sometimes i find an idea that i may accomplish.
       Afterwards next i'm thinking about the idea and i realize the idea
       is not fullfilled or not useful for humanity, community, at least
       for me. And i am here to discuss my issue. Every comment is
       welcome.  Note: This is my first post on HN so if i violated some
       rules by (or the way) posting this i am so sorry. And also sorry
       for that i am not fluent in english.
        
       Author : eballci
       Score  : 33 points
       Date   : 2022-03-16 18:43 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
       | glouwbug wrote:
       | Write your own programming language and then go solve a bunch of
       | leetcode with it
        
       | roschdal wrote:
       | Make an AI which can automate accounting.
        
       | bmcahren wrote:
       | https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/
        
       | willcipriano wrote:
       | Why does the thing you build need to be useful? All of my side
       | projects are essentially useless. Its more fun that way.
        
         | newlisp wrote:
         | Usefulness makes it more interesting and motivating.
        
           | willcipriano wrote:
           | I work on useful stuff all day, my side projects are way more
           | interesting.
           | 
           | To say useless doesn't mean it doesn't work for it's intended
           | purpose. Just that the purpose isn't trying to change the
           | world.
           | 
           | Origami is pointless but would you really get more
           | fulfillment making paper plates?
        
       | rodolphoarruda wrote:
       | I have an idea log on my website. The content is in Portuguese,
       | but I think you can use a web translator to get readable text. In
       | case you find something of your interest and want to discuss it
       | on detail, let me know.
       | 
       | https://rodolphoarruda.pro.br/ideias/
        
       | E-Reverance wrote:
       | Have you considered making camera path mods?
       | 
       | A lot of games don't natively support campaths so modders make
       | their own to make videos like this https://youtu.be/ptPtpr6g1n8
        
       | leobg wrote:
       | I think you should add some form of contact info in your profile.
       | In case somebody wants to connect with you directly.
        
       | chaps wrote:
       | Submit FOIA requests for data of your local government. You'll
       | find it way more interesting than it sounds, I promise.
        
       | danudey wrote:
       | > the idea is not fullfilled or not useful for humanity,
       | community, at least for me
       | 
       | Facebook, for all its faults, didn't start out as a social
       | network to connect people and collaborate; it started out as some
       | sexist objectifying bullshit to rank women based on their
       | appearances.
       | 
       | If you ranked every project from most beneficial to humanity to
       | least, Zuckerberg's original project was near the bottom, but the
       | potential that Facebook had before it started destroying
       | democracy for engagement metrics was near the top.
       | 
       | If a site that started out as just sexist trash could somehow
       | morph into a giant, world-spanning social network connecting
       | people with each other across the globe, then please don't think
       | that your projects need to be fantastic right out of the gate.
        
       | cinntaile wrote:
       | It's more fun to read about idea's instead of actually turning
       | them into reality, it sounds like a discipline issue. Then again
       | it's not like you need to spend time doing something you don't
       | really want to do anyway, you'll learn plenty in school. If you
       | really want to learn more you can always do the bonus assignments
       | that some classes have.
        
       | emerged wrote:
       | Write down all of your strongest interests and skills in rank
       | order. Think up project ideas which combine the most of those
       | interests and skills. This is your sweet spot where you have
       | something special to offer the world just as a matter of sheer
       | statistics.
        
       | abathur wrote:
       | I'd recommend easing yourself into an existing technical
       | community organized around something you use or find interesting.
       | (This will probably be software/hardware, but it could honestly
       | be any field of knowledge you find interesting--there are
       | inevitably anthropologists, biologists, painters, photographers,
       | etc. out in the world who wish they had some tool they don't know
       | how to build.)
       | 
       | To start, just explore, learn, and help others. (If you find this
       | boring, it's a good sign to pick another community.) Sooner or
       | later, you'll bump into real bugs and missing features/tools, and
       | you'll have an excuse to start learning how to implement them. If
       | you feel like you are understanding very well (perhaps you're
       | able to regularly help people from memory) and no good
       | opportunities have presented themselves, you could also start
       | asking around. I would focus on people who are visibly working on
       | their own projects; ask for any standalone projects on their todo
       | lists that they don't have time/energy for.
       | 
       | ---
       | 
       | As an aside, the right project probably depends on what motivates
       | you. Not what motivated you to post this--but what motivates you
       | to keep waking up on this side of the dirt each day. I.e.:
       | 
       | - If you are motivated by learning more than building, you may be
       | able to get away with picking something at random.
       | 
       | - If you are more motivated by building things (a good test--does
       | leaving things unfinished weigh heavily on you?), you'll probably
       | do best if you can find something that will scratch an itch of
       | your own. When you're scratching your own itch, it's easier to
       | avoid analysis-paralysis over the needs of users that you don't
       | have yet. Unfortunately, there's a chicken/egg problem here. It's
       | easier to find itches when you're already working on some kind of
       | project (of your own, or with others). I regularly bump into
       | little things that could make a good project.
       | 
       | - If you are indeed more motivated by helping other people, it's
       | good to start preparing now for the possibility that you are in
       | for a rough ride. There are a lot of missing little tools out in
       | the world that would be useful for other developers or the
       | general public--but there's also a vast sea of interesting little
       | tools that've already been built that have somewhere between 0
       | and 100 users. You will not only have to solve the problem, but
       | to help others you'll probably have to promote your own work.
       | (Pay attention to whether this sounds boring, exciting, or
       | horrifying. You can overcome boring/horrifying if you are really
       | committed, but it may be a grind if you aren't...)
        
       | danudey wrote:
       | A few random ideas:
       | 
       | The world could use an open-source project to manage restaurants;
       | content management backend, let people add in all of their menu
       | items with photos, descriptions, etc. and then surface that to
       | the website (or not). Mobile app support, iPad- or web-based
       | ordering (for servers or customers), Skip/DoorDash/UberEats
       | integration, or self-managed delivery could all be potential for-
       | profit addons, as well as hosting and consulting. This is
       | something that I could potentially see people liking and using,
       | and could also turn into a potentially profitable business.
       | 
       | I play D&D a lot; it would be nice if there were an e.g.
       | AndroidTV or AppleTV app that could display maps, including with
       | fog-of-war, etc. I tried to do stuff like this with existing
       | tools and had a really hard time lining up the existing grids on
       | battlemaps with what the software understood to be the grids in
       | the software (used for calculations). This one would require a GM
       | interface to show/hide areas, active stuff, whatever. No idea if
       | it would be fun to build (maybe use computer vision to detect
       | battlemap grids?) but it's a thought.
        
       | Barrera wrote:
       | > I always read a lot of blog posts, cool stuff or techniques.
       | 
       | You might try _writing_ a blog post. If you 're not used to
       | thinking through writing, the results may surprise you.
       | 
       | Pick a topic you know well, or at least think you know well. Then
       | write about it. You'll soon realize cracks in your understanding
       | you never knew existed. Those cracks contain project ideas.
       | 
       | > Afterwards next i'm thinking about the idea and i realize the
       | idea is not fullfilled or not useful for humanity, community, at
       | least for me.
       | 
       | You can talk yourself out of any project idea. One way to deal
       | with this problem is README-driven development.[1] You don't want
       | to commit to a project because you don't know if it's worthwhile.
       | You won't know if it's worthwhile until you spend _some_ time on
       | it. How to spend just the right amount of time? Write the README
       | first.
       | 
       | [1] https://tom.preston-werner.com/2010/08/23/readme-driven-
       | deve...
        
       | TheHideout wrote:
       | I personally like to make small video games, and I use the game
       | as an excuse to learn some other technology by incorporating it.
       | I've been doing this to learn Rust [0].
       | 
       | If you want to do something similar, I have a huge list of video
       | game ideas you can pull from [1].
       | 
       | [0] https://github.com/Syn-Nine/rust-mini-
       | games/tree/main/2d-gam...
       | 
       | [1] https://github.com/Syn-Nine/four-emoji-concepts
        
       | sagarjs wrote:
       | Look for problems. There's a lot out there.
       | 
       | Then see if you can solve the problem or part of it with your
       | skills and knowledge.
       | 
       | This is the approach I've followed.
       | 
       | I'm currently working on an app that helps visually impaired
       | people be more independent. Reach out if tou want to join this
       | project.
        
       | colpabar wrote:
       | > Sometimes i find an idea that i may accomplish. Afterwards next
       | i'm thinking about the idea and i realize the idea is not
       | fullfilled or not useful for humanity, community, at least for me
       | 
       | So what? There are plenty of really cool projects that aren't
       | actually "useful" to anyone. The important part is actually
       | accomplishing something that you can show to others. Just build
       | things that you're interested in - you'll gain skills that way
       | and build up a portfolio of work that you can show employers down
       | the road. If you want to contribute to something that actually
       | provides value to people, consider contributing to open source
       | projects.
        
       | livinglist wrote:
       | depends on what kinda specialization you are interested in, at
       | least for me it's mobile app development. I have been making apps
       | since college, I was interested in Japanese language so I made a
       | kanji learning app [0], then because I'm a bodybuilder, I made a
       | workout log app [1], recently because I started reading hacker
       | news, I made a Hacker News reader [2]. I learnt a lot from the
       | process, from architecture, design pattern to code quality
       | control. I would say learning is the key, usefulness is
       | secondary.
       | 
       | [0] https://github.com/Livinglist/Manji [1]
       | https://github.com/Livinglist/Dumbbell [2]
       | https://github.com/Livinglist/Hacki
        
       | mamcx wrote:
       | "I always read a lot of blog posts, cool stuff or techniques."
       | 
       | There, your problem.
       | 
       | Jump around everything shinny and Wonderfull, and jump again when
       | something else steal the focus.
       | 
       | ---
       | 
       | I have not cure for this, I'm the same. But after years I
       | _regret_ badly how much jumping around shinny delay the joy of
       | actually do something.
       | 
       | So, read. Is fun.
       | 
       | But pick one major thing you wanna do, and the thing that,
       | hopefully, you wanna do FOR LIFE (or a big chunk of it).
       | 
       | And focus on that.
       | 
       | P.D: I always tough on build a FoxPro/Access hybrid but never
       | start it, then start it and get distracted or busy. Only lately
       | putting actual focus.
       | 
       | This was 20 years ago!
        
       | malux85 wrote:
       | While you're a student your job is to learn and practice,
       | humanity will do just fine without your immediate efforts, so
       | sharpen up your skills first.
       | 
       | Start by making a store and get payment processing working, this
       | will teach you heaps about abstraction, interfaces, integrating
       | third party APIs, error handling, logging, debugging and
       | deployments.
       | 
       | You don't have to finish it (but you should try, discipline is
       | important) and you'll likely find other areas of interest as you
       | go along. Make notes, just Text files organised in folders is
       | fine to start
       | 
       | It's really important that you just start something, it doesn't
       | matter what, but you need practice and stuff to talk about and
       | SHOW employers, don't get analysis paralysis.
        
       | danielmarkbruce wrote:
       | Tom Brady is probably practicing throwing a ball right now. Is it
       | useful to society?
        
       | musicale wrote:
       | I need a way to sort through the many dozens of project ideas I
       | have and commit to one or two that are actually worth doing. ;-/
        
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       (page generated 2022-03-16 23:02 UTC)