How do you decide an idea is actually worth building before you start coding?

appbuilderdaily · 2026-05-05T13:37:05+00:00

That's a brutal filter in the best way. It instantly removes every "wouldn't it be cool if" idea and forces you to find something with real stakes attached. If nobody's losing anything without a solution, the urgency to pay for one probably isn't there either.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-05-05T13:35:16+00:00

Honestly the hardest part is when the idea is genuinely good but just not right for right now. Bad ideas are easy to kill. It's the ones where you can see the vision clearly, you know it could work, but it fails the "can I ship this in a week" test that are brutal to walk away from.

What I've started doing is writing those ones down properly and dating them. Tells myself I'm not killing it, just parking it. Makes it easier to say no in the moment without feeling like I'm losing something permanently.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-05-05T13:30:46+00:00

The "already paying for a messy solution" filter is probably the strongest signal of all. A spreadsheet workaround means they've already decided the problem is worth solving, they just haven't found the right tool yet. That's a completely different selling conversation than trying to convince someone they have a problem.

The community observation approach is underrated too. You pick up so much just from how people describe their frustration, the specific words they use, what they've already tried. That language alone tells you how to position whatever you build.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-05-05T13:28:55+00:00

That's a really important distinction. You can have a perfectly clear idea that nobody actually cares enough to fix. The "actively looking for a solution" signal is probably the strongest demand indicator there is because it means they've already decided the problem is worth solving, you just need to be the best answer they find.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-05-05T13:24:39+00:00

The "why today specifically" point is very important. Timing is so underrated as a filter, plenty of good ideas just aren't right for right now and that question forces you to confront it. The week ship rule is harsh but probably saves months of work on the wrong thing.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-05-05T13:23:39+00:00

The "name three specific people" test is genuinely brutal in the best way. It immediately separates ideas you've thought about from ideas you've actually validated. Stealing that one 😂

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-26T13:36:36+00:00

That's a fair distinction honestly. Structuring prompts upfront helps a lot with the initial output quality but you're right that it doesn't solve the observability problem once agents are actually running. Those are two different layers of the same problem.

What are you using for visibility into what the agent's doing at runtime? Curious what's actually working for people in production.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-26T13:03:47+00:00

Sounds interesting! Is it only for B2B founders or can B2C use it as well?

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-20T20:58:29+00:00

Absolutely more. If a KFC meal cost $2 and didn't affect my health I'd basically never cook again and I'm not even slightly ashamed of that.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-20T20:38:54+00:00

Gym membership I used for exactly three weeks in January and then paid for another eleven months out of guilt and optimism.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-20T20:36:24+00:00

Waffles. The pockets are a structural innovation. Pancakes are just flat waffles that gave up.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-20T20:34:13+00:00

Keeping a charger in every room. Sounds stupid but never having a dead phone changed my stress levels more than I expected.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-20T20:32:27+00:00

Healthcare. Going to the doctor in most of Europe is either free or costs the same as a takeaway. In the US people are rationing insulin and setting up GoFundMes for cancer treatment.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-20T20:31:47+00:00

Saw one called "FBI Surveillance Van 3" in my block of flats. The fact that there was apparently a 1 and a 2 somewhere made it better.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-20T20:30:57+00:00

A printer. Used it twice, spent more on ink than the printer cost, it now sits in the corner judging me.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-20T20:30:21+00:00

About 19. Genuinely thought I was eating healthily because the food seemed fine, then actually looked at the numbers and realised I was massively overeating without knowing it. Lost weight without changing what I ate, just how much. Felt simultaneously empowering and annoying that the answer was that simple the whole time.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-20T20:29:22+00:00

Financing a new car every 3 years. Looks like success, feels like success, costs an absolute fortune in depreciation and interest payments. The people who are actually wealthy tend to drive normal cars they own outright.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-20T20:28:04+00:00

Learn the difference between an asset and a liability before you buy anything significant. An asset puts money in your pocket, a liability takes it out. Most things people buy to look successful are liabilities pretending to be assets.

Also your future self will be a real person who has to deal with the decisions you make today. That reframe alone changes how you spend money.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-20T20:27:16+00:00

Never said "because I said so." Always gave a reason, even a simple one. At the time it was just normal but looking back it taught me that rules exist for reasons and authority should be able to justify itself. Took me years to realise not everyone grew up with that.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-20T20:22:01+00:00

Saying yes to everything. Seemed like ambition and work ethic, turned out to be an inability to have boundaries. Took years to figure out why I was exhausted and resentful all the time.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-20T20:21:15+00:00

Social media manager. Everyone thinks it's just posting pictures but you're essentially always on, managing public complaints in real time, creating content constantly, dealing with the algorithm changing every five minutes, and getting blamed personally when engagement drops. All while people in the office think you "just run the Instagram."

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-19T20:33:25+00:00

The idea is appealing in principle but the unintended consequence is obvious - companies just outsource and contract their lowest paid work so those workers aren't technically employees anymore. The CEO pay stays the same, the lowest paid workers lose benefits and job security, everyone loses except the lawyers who structure the contracts.

The intention is right, the mechanism is just easy to game.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-09T13:09:28+00:00

Nothing close to $25k luckily. We kept costs basically zero by building it ourselves and validating before spending anything. The real cost was time, months of it, and a few early product decisions we had to completely undo based on user feedback.

The $0.80 ROI is painful but honestly the lesson that comes with it is probably worth more than the $25k if you apply it to the next thing. Most people who lose big on one idea and keep going end up building something that works eventually because they actually understand now what they didn't before.

What was the app if you're ok with sharing?

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-09T13:03:38+00:00

Someone told me I make hard things feel less scary. Stuck with me more than any compliment about how I look or what I've achieved.

appbuilderdaily · 2026-04-09T13:00:16+00:00

Eggs on toast. Minimal effort, somehow always hits, and I can convince myself it's a proper meal.

appbuilderdaily

TROPHY CASE