Finally thought I had a good project idea.

It's already been done and is a large site. 200k users.

WHY CAN'T I JUST COME UP WITH SOMETHING UNIQUE FOR ONCE?

Outta curiosity, would you mind telling what your idea is and linking to the one already made?

@Stuxnet
The idea was a website/app that lets you send virtual letters to other members. Because they are virtual, you could easily embed images, videos and more.

However, instead of instant arrival, the letters "travel" for a time depending on the distance of the users.

The established app is called "SLOWLY".

@rutee07 I probably will.
It's just that I really want to actually create something unique one day. ^^
So far, I didn't have any ideas.

@PrivateGER yeah, I understand, I'm sorry that this idea was already taken. It's so damn hard to come up with unique ideas that I've given up at this point... maybe the way to a good project is to improve upon an existing one rather than creating something completely new. Just a thought.

@PrivateGER There’s 8 billion people in the world, man. I never have high hopes about originality... ☹️

We're living in dark times. Everything that a poor, sole developer can make, has already been made before. Unless you're rich or have some money source to create something huge like an amazing hardware or a video game, making something unique is close to impossible. But again, not completely impossible.

Ideas are cheap most of times. Ability to execute and put in practice ideas is much more important

@deviloper Hmm. I would like to aquire those cheap ideas. I am a dooer, If you give me task I will most likely compleat it, but I am not the creative type. Have no super original ideas.

Just do it and it would evolve to unique idea later

Don't come up with unique ideas. They all suck.

Seriously, if it's never been done before, you have to invest a lot in time, money and effort to persuade people why your unique idea is a great one. When you've done that, others come in and profit of your hard work, making a better product and learning from your limitations.

Instead, pick something that's been done before (but not excessively) and do it *better*. Faster, cheaper, better features, more privacy, etc. Then get detailed user feedback, change things around, rinse, repeat until you have a kick-ass product that beats the competition hands down.

@AlmondSauce great way to explain it. really. Actually, it's also a great idea :-))))

@PrivateGER I've been there too.
I realized about a year ago that another approach may be more efficient.

Take a moment to realize that ALL big companies haven't started with a unique idea.

Google? Altavista existed before
Facebook? MySpace
DevRant? Well, honestly it's a pimped forum. But yet here we are.

Instead of trying to create something new, try making something better. Or mix two existing concepts. Eventually, you might end up with something unique. But you need something bankable first.

Since I have this state of mind, I've put more things out than all I had made before. They mostly suck, but it's better than nothing because "it already existed"

You don’t have to be the best to be successful. Just better than about the worst 25%

Boi.

You ever see those gas stations in bumfuck nowhere, one across from the other at the same intersection?

If someone already built it and made it successful, chances are good theirs some MF'er that wants to replicate it.

The obstacle is the way. If someones 'already done it' it just means someone has already done the hard work of proving the idea is viable. So now, instead of 1. proving the idea is viable, 2. building the project, 3. making it a success...now you only have two things to do.

Build it and sell it to someone (VC, etc) who wants to bandwagon the trend.

If you want to accomplish something bad enough, theres no misfortune that you can't turn to your advantage if you think about it long enough.

Also you get the benefit of hindsight.

You get to see where they fucked up, the edge cases, the features that users don't like. The original doesn't get the benefit of seeing mistakes until they've sunk the cost of making the missteps in question.

The market innovator is rarely the one to cash in. IBM->Microsoft, Blackberry->Apple, Blue Origin->SpaceX, etc, etc.