The definitive essay on finding real problems worth building for.
Paul Graham's essay is the single best starting point for anyone still deciding what to build.
Key ideas worth internalizing before you start writing PH copy:
• The best ideas look like bad ideas at first. If everyone agrees your idea is great, it probably already exists or is being built by ten teams.
• Live in the future, then build what's missing. Notice what feels broken to you and your peers now — that's a tell for a real problem.
• Do not "think up" ideas at a whiteboard. Notice them. The best founders find ideas that already annoy them personally.
• Target a small group who desperately wants the product over a large group who mildly likes it. PH rewards specificity — a niche launch beats a generic one every time.
How this maps to a Product Hunt launch: the tagline and first-comment writes itself when you can name a specific person who suffered a specific pain that your product removes. If you can't, you're not ready to launch — you're ready to keep talking to users.Read more →