So my question is: How do I find problems to solve (mine or others, doesn't matter)?
The most innovative and useful ideas seem to come from a mix of high level domain expertise, and high level technical ability. If you don't have both of those, find someone who has the piece you are missing.
Edit: sorry, assumed you were op.
Regarding the problem I'm experiencing, I've been experimenting with a new approach that is similar to the Idealab approach used by Bill Gross. Understanding the effectiveness of focusing on one project at a time, this experimental approach is to validate ideas, protect their IP, and then build teams to execute independently. So while I work on one Project at a time, the team(s) I've built can execute other Projects (and resulting Products/Businesses). The value that I'm providing is the validation of each idea with potential customers, as well as the protection of any associated IP (via patents). The team would, of course, own the majority of each Business and I would take a small percentage. The way I see it, an approach like this is great because of two reasons; one, it's great practice for me in terms of team-building and customer validation. two, I get to watch these crazy ideas be executed, resulting in new Products that would make life better for everyone (me included!). It will be interesting to see how this works out! If you would be interested in checking out some of these Projects, let me know!
I wasn't striving for anything.
People face problems when they have an ambition. They want to get from A to B and the process in-between is often messy so they use software or information to make it less messy.
What I'd suggest, then, is to start picking up hobbies for the sake of having hobbies. I started going to the gym, for instance, and have thought of much better ways to create a workout tracker.
I started writing novels a couple of years ago and have the insight into making a better application for novelists.
When I started traveling, that also sparked ideas.
Stop thinking about solving a problem. You should really focus on giving yourself problems. Be a beginner again. Create an imbalance in your life, then resolve it.
:)
However, despite the common wisdom of scratching our own itches, when I'm working on outside hobby projects I often find it more interesting to solve other people's problems because it is more of a learning experience. Find a lab scientist or a teacher or a rapper (Jay-Z alone has 99 problems), and engage them in figuring out what problems they have that can be solved by technology. You are likely to learn a lot about what they do, which is cool, and you'll be more motivated by having a collaborator to work with on solving that person's problems. This may even serve you well commercially, if you care, because you can more easily find underserved niches. Every programmer wants to write a code editor, not every programmer wants to write networked, collaborative curriculum planning software.
[* Or perhaps you are thinking of them too hard. Sometimes it is good to just constantly be asking yourself if there is a better way to be doing whatever it is you are currently doing as opposed to sitting down and having some fruitless "brainstorming" session where you are trying to analyze what your problems are out of context.]
What I mean is look into your own spending patterns (or those of your friends/ parents/ neighbours/ colleagues) and ask yourself why does something cost as much as it does? Can it be made more cheaper? Or if it is already cheap, can the difference consumer saves be used for some meaningful, complementary services/items?
Thinking this way can reveal many interesting and unexpected answers and the best thing is that this quest takes you out of your room, since you have to follow the money trail and understand how different businesses work. Doing that as an outsider is likely to spark many interesting thoughts.
I was the same, no real "problems" to solve, and the few ideas I did have amounted to fairly straight-forward CRUD-style solutions. I started implementing one of them, and then started reading an Algorithms book.
From there, a few very old ideas coalesced in my brain, and exploded. Now, I'm not solving a MY problem, so much as solving a challenging problem that I think will hold my attention for awhile. I'm hoping to have something to push out to github in the next few weeks.
Morale of the story: search for problems to solve, and you'll solve the problem of not having a problem to solve. :)
