https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39361661&utm_source=tldrnewsletter

It’s harder if you think about building for the masses. It’s easy if you think about building for yourself.

And in computers, it’s not like math where it’s proven to end here with this proof or whatever.

Even simple stuff like a web based notes app where I store my own data. Or the RSS reader I made for myself.

I’m creating https://vokabeln.io, it’s like Anki, but “AI” enhanced. Sentences, word explanations and audios are generated, so adding new words is super easy.

Care less about the idea, and more about the effort. When your goal is to work on something that makes you personally happy, it is something you return to everyday organically. The effort you put in doesn’t feel like work. Even if you don’t reach your goal, what you have learned makes the next objective/project that much easier. The more you learn, the faster you can iterate, whatever the task may be.

I help people immigrate to Germany. I constantly need little “duct tape” utilities to nake immigration easier at a very low level. For example, merging your residence permit application documents into 5 PDFs under 12 MB so that the immigration office will accept them. I also made tools to fill needlessly confusing forms, to find appointments at the citizens’ office, and to generate resignation letters. I also built tax and health insurance calculators.

To give a broader answer, become a domain expert in something that isn’t tech. You will quickly see a million small things that could be improved with a bit of programming.