"Make it something you'd actually use" is of great value to a budding (aimless, excited) programmer, but staying too long in this mindset leads to a glut of products and services serving the same purpose for the same market. The highly-upvoted "Hello Ladies" video with patio11[1] really drove home the point that products for people who aren't programmers have tremendous value. This post is good advice to get started, but once new programmers begin to feel comfortable with their abilities, it would behoove them to empathize with people who aren't like them and try to make something others would appreciate.
The problem is it's hard to solve problems in an arena that you're not personally passionate about. I've been facing this problem with app development lately and found that the apps I'm passionate about sell better then the ones where I feel like I'm just trying to serve a niche. The reason why isn't for lack of motivation, but rather for lack of comprehension.
+1. I never really liked the "build it for yourself" mantra. If this were true, we'd have tons of programming IDEs and project management software. What programmers and entrepreneurs really need to serve are markets where programmers are under represented. I'm talking about agriculture, natural resources, transport, finance, manufacturing, etc.
> If this were true, we'd have tons of programming IDEs and project management software.
Your assuming programmers' only interests are programming related. I'm currently building a site that sells trail mix and another to organize gear lists for backpacking. This is because I am involved in those spaces and I would like to improve the experience for the people I share it with.
I'm sure there are many programmers who are interested in agriculture, natural resources, transport, finance, and manufacturing.
I'm not saying programmers don't have other interests, just that programming is usually their main interest which leads them to build products targeted at programmers (there's quite a lot of empirical evidence to back this observation: just look at all the "Show HN" we're getting here). I think it takes at least a conscious effort to get interested by say agriculture, unless you were raised on a farm :). More people need to make that conscious effort. Interdisciplinarity is where the real money is at.
Yeah, solving a personal problem is not the be all and end all. If you want success, you could always spend some time in an industry like farming. It'd take time, and probably would mean a year or 2 working in the industry to truly understand the problems that exist, but once you find a solution to a common problem that'd sure be one business where there is serious income potential. Of course not many hackers (if any) would take such a route...
A $99/month service is milk money to a farmer (not sure if pun is intended).
I do software development by day and have a cash crop farming operation on the side, so I have familiarity with both industries. I think an agricultural-based software startup would be mighty interesting.
However, the bulk of my problems on the farm are related to interfacing with third-party businesses. They have no incentive to improve their processes because the average farmer is 55 years old and would rather bang a hammer than bang a keyboard, and I cannot improve my processes without direct access to their data.
Your advice is sound, but personally I have found it to be not a very inspiring place for a startup yet. The low hanging fruit, at least as far as my operation is concerned, I find is already solved well enough. As some of the older farmers who fear computers move into retirement, however, I think the landscape will quickly change and some big opportunities will rapidly appear. I am looking forward to it.
[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2371965 -- this comment does not reflect the opinions of patio11