Stop trying to come up with app ideas.

We should stop trying to brainstorm app ideas.

But instead, train our minds to notice gaps.

At least once a year, I read Paul Graham's essay on 'How to get startup ideas'.

Here are some of the standout quotes from it that I think would benefit us all to keep in mind, and remind ourselves of periodically.

“The verb you want to be using with respect to startup ideas is not "think up" but "notice."

“A crowded market is actually a good sign, because it means both that there's demand and that none of the existing solutions are good enough.”

“One way to ensure you do a good job solving other people's problems is to make them your own.”

“When a startup launches, there have to be at least some users who really need what they're making — not just people who could see themselves using it one day, but who want it urgently. Usually this initial group of users is small, for the simple reason that if there were something that large numbers of people urgently needed and that could be built with the amount of effort a startup usually puts into a version one, it would probably already exist. Which means you have to compromise on one dimension: you can either build something a large number of people want a small amount, or something a small number of people want a large amount. Choose the latter. Not all ideas of that type are good startup ideas, but nearly all good startup ideas are of that type.”

“Live in the future, then build what's missing.”

"Because a good idea should seem obvious, when you have one you'll tend to feel that you're late. Don't let that deter you. Worrying that you're late is one of the signs of a good idea. Ten minutes of searching the web will usually settle the question. Even if you find someone else working on the same thing, you're probably not too late. It's exceptionally rare for startups to be killed by competitors — so rare that you can almost discount the possibility. So unless you discover a competitor with the sort of lock-in that would prevent users from choosing you, don't discard the idea.”

I literally spent ten years building SaaS apps and products based on an idea, not a problem. I literally built dozens of them, none of which grossed more than $1000.

It wasn't until I went out and had a ton of conversations with people (here's how I did it), where the conversations were focused on them, their process, and pains, did I hit on an idea that ended up being life-changing for me.

Reading Paul's post, it's clear that going out and seeking other people's problems isn't his top choice of ways to generate startup ideas, but it's certainly a viable approach, especially if you can make their problem your own, as he says in one of the quotes above.

Regardless of the approach you choose to take, it seems we often make ideation harder than it needs to be.

The big takeaways for me from Paul's essay and the above quotes are:

• Don't be afraid of competition. In fact, be afraid of NO competition
• Stop trying to hard to come up with ideas. No need to brainstorm. Instead...
• Train yourself to notice gaps, when a process is harder than it needs to be, or the available solutions don't work well for your needs, or you see room for improvement. Once we get used to alerting ourselves in such situations, we find opportunities abound.

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I write more at the SaaS bootstrapper a behind-the-scenes look at how I gre to $61k MRR and what I'm doing now.