HACKER Q&A
📣 throw-obviously

I'm surrounded by passive people, I'm getting depressed


Hi HN,

It has been a few years since I'm trying to involve people around me (primarily software engineer friends) in brainstorming ideas to solve problems I and others encounter on regular basis.

Sadly, they are passive, they usually complain about stuffs, they say "it would be a good idea to do that or this". However, whenever I move forward and start suggesting solutions to solve the issue, I make diagrams on how a solution could work; it always finishes in them lacking any motivation moving forward in either finding issues with the solution itself or even thinking of how to get it done.

Do you know where I can find people with the right mindset? Are there any communities where we're safe sharing ideas and designs with people willing to get things done?

Loneliness is kill me :)

PS: My wife is really supportive, so at least I have that


  👤 docflabby Accepted Answer ✓
You've got a motivation problem.

Basically you want someone to take the risk to take your ideas onwards and then take the credit... Most people won't do that without some financial or other motivation.

Question you need to ask is - why would I care about your solution?


👤 kleer001
If you haven't already you might want to watch a few seasons of "Shark Tank" or "Dragon's Den" and then look at the attitudes and actions of the entrepreneurs who get two or more of the sharks/dragons bidding over them.

👤 giantg2
I think context is important here.

Is this at work, or a side project? Are these fixes adding to the workload or requiring additional hours?

If this is like at a company, they may have the same mindset as me - suggesting new work will only lead to added hours with no reward. I would be more motivated to work on side projects.


👤 kleer001
Why aren't you prototyping? Or even pre-totyping?

You're coming up with ideas, but I don't hear about your actions to take those ideas to the next step.

You might be sitting on million dollar ideas. An entrepreneurs life CAN be lonely.


👤 tgflynn
What is your goal here ? Do you want to build some software solution, open source it, start a company to solve a problem or what ?

Without more information about your goals and some more specifics on the problem domain I doubt you'll get much useful advice.


👤 aristofun
It’s just how world works.

Only 2% of people (at best) are leaders/initiators.

And it’s okay.

You’ll hire your colleagues later when you prove yourself.

I don’t think that some community possible, because leaders are usually busy doing their stuff, not chatting.


👤 segmondy
go to indiehackers, it is for doers.