Most great ideas are either forgotten or die in our notes app. So made this simple website in a day.
1. Save your ideas
2. Set an expiry
3. After expiry, the ideas goes public. So if you don't work on them, someone else probably will
> A bidding market and app where beggars can bid for the most prime corners and intersections.
> A non-cancerous company review board (f glassdoor)
> Augmented-reality underwear
Good to know the internet is functioning as usual.
For the bidding market, they will have to displace the existing cartels first. No kidding, these are often controlled by a superhobo, (in my hometown he now owns a house and a nice Tahoe) who “owns” all of the good corners in town. Idk what his take is, but by providing “protection” to corner operators, he seems to do quite well.
Still, Uber Hobo is still a great idea, you could overwhelm those small operators with flash mobs of hobos during the rollout phase and also accept in app payments so that UH could be assured its 35 percent. Also, as a value add, a BLE beacon that shows you already gave today and to not excessively harass you.
> For the bidding market, they will have to displace the existing cartels first. No kidding, these are often controlled by a superhobo, (in my hometown he now owns a house and a nice Tahoe) who “owns” all of the good corners in town. Idk what his take is, but by providing “protection” to corner operators, he seems to do quite well.
Good to know that some things remain the same regardless of whether it is a developed, developing or a poor country.
> Also, as a value add, a BLE beacon that shows you already gave today and to not excessively harass you.
That sounds more like it would quickly become the "sucker" beacon that tells them you pay out.
> No kidding, these are often controlled by a superhobo
Counterpoint: This is made up. It is like a crossover episode between HN and AO3
Well, it’s not made upon my hometown, and in the few other places I have talked to Hobos and panhandlers, there seems to be something similar in many places. Btw, some panhandlers do quite well. I met a guy back in the 00s that did web design in the early morning at the coffee shop I used to frequent, and in the afternoon he panhandled. He paid $50(us) a day for “his” corner, sat down there in torn up army surplus gear and a rusty propane tank, and his scruffy looking dog, with a sign that said “need money for gas and beer”. He told me that his nightly rake was between 100 and 300 after his “rent”.
I still don’t know which was his side hustle.
There is literally no such thing as a superhobo, that is a complete fabrication.
The ocean of difference between “I’ve heard of some folks getting shook down” and “If you see someone panhandling they are likely part of an organized network” is incredibly vast. It is to take one small observation and extrapolate it into a pure fantasy. It is quite literally made up. It kind of sounds like you were told and then credulously believed an urban legend.
Source: Have been homeless, panhandled, and decades of work in homeless outreach. I have worked with folks in day shelters, night shelters, street corners, large encampments, etc. for many, many years and what you have written is patently untrue.
Ok, well, maybe it’s different from where you have been. But I’m pretty sure there is no global conspiracy to make me believe this, and it has been directly explained to me by people that were in the life, so to speak.
Of course, the term “superhobo” is a farcical literary confabulation, I’m sure nobody actually calls them “superhobos”
My exposure comes from Fairbanks in the 00s, Santo Domingo, Delhi, someplace in California near LA can’t remember. Figured it must be common?
Half of these are a16z's next 10x idea. /s
There’re going to put augmented reality underwear on the blockchain.
I am all into micropayments for peeing.
With GPS tracking if someone pees in the bushes they will get additional charges.
> Nuclear Landmines
You underestimate how stupid Cold War weapon projects got, they were putting nukes in anything.
Bat bombs (bombs full of bats with time-delayed releases of napalm) were developed in World War II.
Documented in Harvard professor Louis Fieser's autobiographical The Scientific Method: A Personal Account of Unusual Projects in War and in Peace
https://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/the_scienti...
omg> The carrying power of a 10-11 gram > bat is indeed amazing, some 15-18 grams; the incendiary bomb was in this > range (17.5 grams). Bats can carry such loads for miles. And bats with > dummy bombs released in housed areas dragged the loads into sites highly > favorable for fire-starting. W e released bats successfully at various altitudes > both from the B-2 S and from an open Attack Bomber, in which flying was > great fun.
oh yeah because being accused of doing something horrible while doing something horrible would be horrible.> Then, > suddenly, X-ray was cancelled. I never learned the reason, but can make a > guess. The bats would be vectors for bombs, but they would be vectors also > for germs. Our side might be accused of initiating biological warfare.I believe that they perceived it in the numbers. Exploding bombs will kill a limited number of people. Imagine the nightmare scenario that a bat-bomb will explode in a school and kill 10? 20? toddlers. Now imagine some virus that can wipe hundreds/thousands. This escalation would force the opponent's hand to respond appropriately, and if 'standard' war (bullets, artillery shells, missiles) is hell, chemical warfare is worse.
This only sounds like a ridiculous idea. The weapon was ridiculously effective during an unintentional test.
The Russians are working on their very own Project Pluto: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik
> Chicken-powered nuclear bomb
Now that's an interesting section (second link)
>A technical problem is that during winter, the temperature of buried devices can drop quickly, creating a possibility that the mechanisms of the mine will cease working due to low temperatures in the winter.[5] Various methods were studied to solve this problem, such as wrapping the bombs in insulating blankets.
One proposal suggested that live chickens would be sealed inside the casing, with a supply of food and water.[6] They would remain alive for approximately a week. Their body heat would apparently have been sufficient to keep the mine's components at a working temperature.
I mean, if you need to apply 10+ tons of TNT-equivalent to a target, it's a heck of a lot easier to carry. (Also literally, SADM)
SADM = Special Atomic Demolition Munition
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Atomic_Demolition_Mu...
> Batteries that can store the internet in them for when your connection goes down.
This is now my favorite way to explain caching.
A note from Jobs on why just having an idea doesn't work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kZ0zoDYOmM
Doesn't mean ideas aren't valuable, but the process is just as, if not more, important.
The full interview has more.
great idea without execution <<< idea with great execution < great idea with great execution
Often great execution = basic execution + luck
"start podcast that is only ads"
Brilliant
This would be super useful as a training set for automatically identifying ads in podcasts that contain non-ad content.
If you produced the podcast this would be trivial since you’d know the time stamps for the ad holes.
Yes, though I don't think you know how long the ad block will be. I've seen some podcast MP3 files that have the ad spots indicated in the ID3 tag, but that's not super useful because it only gives the original start points.
It'll penalize advertiser provided scripts more.
QVC!
Pro-tip: add an embarrassing story of yourself to force you to work on the idea before it expires (you can prevent an idea from expiring, right?)
Hi are the ideas supposed to be anonymous? because you are leaking everyone's names, just by opening network tab.
Hey, i didn't decide on this yet. Initially i added the author names on the card so people can see who the idea came from and authors possibly get a little bit of credit.
But then i thought maybe some people are too shy to give their name away so it's best to remove them.
I was still in dilemma, so removed it from the UI but not from the api reponses ( will do it now )
In future, i'll just add an option in the profile, so you can choose to show your name if you want to
For future reference you definitely want to remove PII from the API as soon as it's not needed on the frontend—people, even engineers, naturally expect to be able to visually confirm what information is and isn't public, and you don't want to be that site that exposed data through a side channel.
Pretty sure it's not the real pg who suggested "Venmo for dogs".
An earlier effort along similar lines can be seen at https://www.halfbakery.com
The frontend here only shows the 20 most recently published ideas which is arguably tragic as the other ones are still quite fun to read:
> Instead of just fries, let customers split their side order between different options (half fries, half onion rings) for the same price
> lawn sprinklers, but targeted with Ring
> Venmo for dogs
> website where you can pay people you know to shut up
I made an scrollable view here if anyone wants that
> 3. After expiry, the ideas goes public. So if you don't work on them, someone else probably will
Heh, “someone else probably will” is such a strange way to say “no-one ever will” :D
Right, trying to throw off all the competition you’re sure to see with your new “Ad service that shaves company logos into stray cats” service
This is the HN equivalent of Boaty McBoatface. I love it.
lol
> gay porn
I think someone already came up with this
> uber for blowjob
Limited only to certain geos where prostitution is legal; already exists in certain countries in some shape or form
> uber for blowjob
Pretty sure that's just Snapchat.
>Batteries that can store the internet in them for when your connection goes down.
This idea is kind of great though. Remember that mcmaster car website? One reason it was so fast is it would silently download the next pages before you visited them. Creating the impression of instant loading. Could we do something similar where a program constantly downloaded websites you were most likely to visit in the background? Eventually having both a mass archive of useful content over time and creating the impression that the web were instant? With how cheap storage space now is and how fast connections are maybe the bottleneck now is efficiency of user input.
> Put hawk tuah in fortnite
some ideas deserve to die
It’s hard to see that idea making less than a million dollars if implemented to be fair.
It can be an entire franchise, hawk tuah children's books, baby clothes, etc.
its a w idea
This site is basically the Target to 4chan's Walmart.
lol
just a lot less (overt) slurs and slightly more intelligible formatting
Anyone else working on a mat with conclusions that you can jump to? Mine is going to integrate with AI. Somehow.
I made a prototype, but then I got hit by a truck. So maybe once the settlement comes in.
This is like highdeas without the charm.
> An AI-enabled juicer that squeezes single-serve bags of pre-juiced juices
This is why juicero failed! No AI!
> Breakfast tapas
I wish you could comment on some of these or vote them "already implemented," because whoever wrote that needs to try Turkish breakfast.
Or Dunkin
> "Release a gorilla wearing a human costume at the gorilla costume contest"
Absolutely brilliant, 2 billion $ idea at least :)
I love how this has both "An antacid pill that you take once every six weeks." and "An antacid that you only take once a week."
It would be nice to be able to "like" the best ideas. Maybe show "hot" ideas in one column and a random sample on another column? This way readers get what's most relevant while preserving discoverability.
> It would be nice to be able to "like" the best ideas. That’s basically r/ideas
Not at all. Upvotes/likes would essentially be the only common feature between the two.
This is excellent. Some features to add (maybe):
- voting
- tagging / filtering / sorting
- commenting? some way to let people meet around an idea?
Is there some sort of moderation currently?
hey thanks !
just added voting feature, will add the rest as well
currently there is no moderation, i just made this as a fun project and didn't expect it to go this wild lol. will add it now
Can you add markdown support? I already submitted one with markdown (username 'runvnc') .. also maybe deal with longer entries like only show the first 250 characters in the box and the rest in a tooltip/hover or when you click up to 1000 characters or something. And then when you click you see the full idea and their contact info.
sure, will add it today.
thanks for the tooltip idea ! I added the basic "Read more" truncation but it was looking ugly so removed it. Tooltip sounds better
Ideas are a dime a dozen, execution is key.
This, and not only the development of the product, but marketing, distribution, payments, accounting, legal, etc.
I can't count the number of times someone came to me with an idea, suggesting I would do all the work, and we would split it 50/50. "What are you going to do?" "I had the idea." No thanks.
The funniest is when they want me to sign some sort of NDA. Nah.
I 100% agree and believe the same.
Execution is 99%, and the idea is just 1%. But you still need that 1% to start in the first place.
The site is just there to help you achieve that 1%.
In the end, the execution is on to you :)
Similar premise to my blog post: Take my app ideas (https://austinhenley.com/blog/takemyappideas.html)
since you put this out in the world... i might try one
People are messing with it, but I really like the idea. I put my real idea there. It's one I really like but I just don't have the time or expertise to execute it. I really hope someone "steals" it.
thanks and glad you liked it :)
that's actually one of the main "idea" behind the website
I started a `#shitty-server-suggestions` channel in one of the Discords I'm in and it's my favorite type of channel. Now we have the same thing online! I'm genuinely happy
0. an app where public ideas don’t require a login so I could have posted idea #1
1. an app where you can point to a body and it will show on the TV so the person behind you knows where to massage
> A battery powered and an LLM-powered sexdoll that talks like a real person and performs inference on-device without making requests to the server for privacy preservation
I’d invest in this
GREAT example of a Minimum Viable Product. Can't wait to see how this evolves. The devs definitely know what they're doing.
Neat idea - there's so many ideas for anyone to be able to get to that this is a great way to share with people who want to try to build a product instead of a project.
One thing to learn about is the timing of ideas and when the market is ready for it.
Also important is learning to build the small ideas that become big ideas.
Thank you and that was indeed the idea behind this !
Also agree that sometimes solving a small, specific problem is what grows into something bigger.
Agree - many big solutions are often a lot of smaller bottlenecks and problems being solved together.
I really love this so much, and can see myself coming back to this page for years. would love to see a replies feature, and top/trending/controversial ideas section etc.
THANK YOU SO MUCH OP! GREAT IDEA!!
heyy, thanks, it means a lot !
will add each and every feature you requested by this week.
Update -
Added these features -
Voting, Infinite Scroll & Sorting ( Trending, Top Voted & Most Recent )
Right now working on Comments, will probably ship it by tomorrow
Also can you ban people who post actual trash like binary files.
sure!
also just added a voting feature, will add content moderation as well.
In spite of all AI hype it should give task to Davin to build it
> uber for blowjobs
If prostitution were ever legalized and regulated (which is not entirely implausible), this could be a viable idea.
I woudn't work on it though.
Its more than plausible, It is legal and regulated in Australia.. Check out https://www.armstronglegal.com.au/commercial-law/qld/employm....
> I woudn't work on it though.
That's fair enough, but would you at least contribute to the development?
1. Rewrite Rust in Git
2. Airbnb for public benches
3. Podcast that is only ads
These are the ideas I want to see
Cal Newport beat you to #3
Tried signing in with Twitter but when I clock "Authorize App" I get:
> Something went wrong. Please make sure the data you entered is correct.
hey, sorry for the trouble, will fix it today
thanks for letting me know !
Interesting and useless, it's really great!
Thanks everyone for all the suggestions and ideas so far.
Just added a voting system based on your feedback.
Will soon add:
- Content moderation
- Truncating large ideas on the UI
- Support for markdown
need comments. but try to make it cultural that comments should be optimistic/helpful.
You could easily turn these ideas into a poster. Get the funniest ideas and sell them as merch.
this app is amazing
thanks!
> “A communist cosmetic surgery that takes good looking parts of faces and gives them to those in need.”
Great idea, Hollywood first!
I LOVE IT!!!!!
Thanks a lot !!
So the game is to add something controversial but not stupid enough to be obvious satire right?
I went with "a captcha where you match surveillance footage to mugshots to help solve crime"
the dating app idea seems pretty fire. hit me up if you want to work on it
maybe framing them as ideas at all is self defeating.
What's your $0.02 insight?
what would you recommend ?
insights, literally. :)
comments are live !
Fart 2025
People are flooding this with deliberately horrible ideas for some reason. I assume the reason is that people are trash. Not really what I expected from HN.
Curious, did you actually expect only to see billion dollar ideas?
one person can post several ideas with no limits....
yeah can you make this better?
1) show first 100 words of the idea (click into it) 2) votes! so we can see which ones are the best 3) ...thanks :))
glad you liked it !
and thanks for the suggestions, just added the voting feature, will add character limits as well
Thank you for the reminder of how awesome the internet is lollll
Most ideas are about sex HN should release a new update for rfs to include sexo /s
Mine are dead. They're all dead. My ideas are useless.
Imagine if there were an app where you ideas could not die...
That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die...
^^ Metallica!
...Then it'd be full of garbage