Ask HN: Looking for side project ideas

MAL - Make a Lisp [0]. This one has been discussed on HN before - its where I found it. I completed it last year (from Jan to May 2019) and ended up with Lisp-a-like interpreter written in C# that is sophisticated enough to self-host (i.e. it can interpret and run itself). I picked it up again when the lockdown started and I am now using it to re-implement some of the classic AI systems described in Paradigms of AI Programming [1]. I almost have Eliza (the first chatbot, from 1966!) running, which has necessitated some thinking because MAL is closer to Clojure than the Common Lisp used in PAIP. I'm also implementing what is in effect a standard library of useful MAL functions.

What I got from MAL was much better knowledge of C#, better insights into the power of lisp-like languages, some intense satisfaction when I managed some of the more complex stages, etc. MAL is progressive, supported by 100s of tests, and an amazing array of reference implementations in a huge number of different programming languages.

[Edit] My side-project before MAL involved downloading the Unity game engine and using it to explore the different aspects of game development. I discovered that I really enjoyed asset creation and in particular lighting and shader design, and (long story short - totally bizarre trajectory) ended up creating a tutorial for the Octane render engine that has had actual sales! If I was going to look at games again I'd probably start with a simpler engine such as Godot [2]

[0] https://github.com/kanaka/mal/blob/master/process/guide.md ↗

[1] https://github.com/norvig/paip-lisp ↗

[2] https://godotengine.org/ ↗

Build a teleconferencing app tailored for parties rather than meetings. The needs of parties are very different than meetings. I'd suggest there be a central channel where everyone can participate and talk, with the video on that channel being something that sets the theme of the party (a bonfire, a movie, a performance). Then it should be extremely easy to click on participants and engage one or a few in conversation. Perhaps those side video conversations could bleed into the main channel (maybe audio only) so that people in the main channel can overhear and potentially decide to join in. Think about how people interact at parties and try to tailor video conferencing to work better for social gatherings. Security should be built in to reduce worries about privacy so people feel free to talk; no routing of everything through a central server, peer to peer only; recording should be only by consent (though there would be no way to stop analog recordings). There are a variety of video streaming libraries that might make building such an app easy. It should be trivially easy to understand and use. I think it might almost be possible to use existing teleconferencing apps if everyone could join two channels, the main channel and a side channel, using two devices, e.g., a laptop for the main channel shared by several people, and individual phones for the side channel for smaller conversations. Coordinating all that and explaining to people how it works might be difficult though, so putting it all into one app with an intuitive UI would be useful. There may be issues such as how to deal with audio feedback noise and easily joining and leaving side conversations though. You don't want people to have to send invites and accept them to set up a side conversation, you want it to be instant and easy.

Even if the coronavirus ended tomorrow, I think this would be a popular and widely used application.

I'm currently working on a progressive web application for support workers in care homes.

I've seen through first hand experience how much paperwork there is in this setting (daily outcome charts, medicine administration records, abnormal behaviour records, dietary and fluid intake, etc) and how many clerical errors there are. I've also seen first hand the key-document-dependency there can be around service user files, communication notification booklets for staff, etc, where changes often happen synchronously and are forgotten because the document isn't available in the moment.

I've spent the last 4 months or so taking a sabbatical from working as a software engineer to work for £9.00/hour at a support home for people with mental and physical disabilities (think Down's syndrome or people who are unable to live in an independent setting). As a result I now know an awful lot about this setting, the people who work in this industry, the minimum feature set I would need and the legislative landscape these companies operate in.

The best way to find a profitable side project is to become familiar with a none-technical discipline which is direly in need of modernisation. If you don't want to take time out of work, then choose an industry (it could be tree felling, red-brick manufacturing, shale oil extraction or solar panel installation) and figure out what the problems are plaguing the companies, staff or end customers.

There are so many $1,000,000,000 companies out there just waiting to be founded in areas which are considered unsexy and don't involve yet-another-to-do-list application. Find one company, with one problem, fix the problem, there's your profitable side gig.

This was written in part to prompt people on HN to think about gig work platform ideas that actually enhance the lives of the workers:

http://writepay.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-textbroker-solution.html ↗

I've also previously talked about the fact that I live without a car in the US and when I was researching what small town to move to and using Google maps to try to figure out how to get there, if it can't give you a full solution from point A to point B, it will not tell you "There's a train that goes to X city, but that's only halfway" and it doesn't cover commuter bus routes between local cities.

I routinely went on Amtrak's site to find out how close I could get by train and then began searching for local transit options of some sort. I eventually found a solution and a city to move to and all this, but I was homeless at the time and spending all day at the library trying to figure out solutions to my problems.

As far as I know, there aren't any good apps for "How do you get there from here without a car?" for the US. Google maps does not have this problem space sorted and they seem to be the overall best solution (that I'm aware of) for finding out how you can get there from here.

Please steal any of my ideas! :)

https://www.dailyidea.com/ideas/eric ↗

Some software ones that I like:

1. A nicer web viewer for Google Spreadsheets - https://www.dailyidea.com/ideas/d239cea3-7d1b-429f-afd4-ab9da1e91278/c578a367-0fd0-4185-ab73-136ccfc07601 ↗

2. Airbnb guest guidebook creator - https://www.dailyidea.com/ideas/d239cea3-7d1b-429f-afd4-ab9da1e91278/dfff0e4a-be6d-4520-8fc9-c13a98b335de ↗

3. Thai writing trainer - https://www.dailyidea.com/ideas/d239cea3-7d1b-429f-afd4-ab9da1e91278/836a1274-ab0b-4c00-a564-9b8f3c84572c ↗

4. Instagram account tracker - https://www.dailyidea.com/ideas/d239cea3-7d1b-429f-afd4-ab9da1e91278/9ce392fa-dacf-4bbd-9094-40e85bd358e6 ↗