Build something people Need, not Want

“Only a life lived for others is a life worth while.” – Albert Einstein

Personally, I’d remove the ‘only’ at the beginning because no one really has the right to judge life worth, but other than that the quote is spot on.

PG mentioned that to create wealth: you must build something people want. I’d make a slight modification to that: build something people need.

We already have enough people building things that people want. And let’s clarify whom we are referring to when we say people. We’re talking about first world people building things that other first world people want.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with that. And I’d be a hypocrite to claim otherwise. I also partake in the building of what people want. But please don’t say a platform that lets you rent out your apartment is putting a “ding in the universe.” I’m sorry, it’s not. (Not hating on AirBnB, just the first example that popped in my head).

So what do people need? People need clean water. People need shelter. People need medicine. People need better public health measures. Sure, many of these problems can’t exactly be solved by building out applications on an internet that many people still don’t have access too, but some of them certainly can. And perhaps that’s a better usage of our time than solving more first world problems.

Don’t quit your job or anything. Just know that there are people out there who still don’t have the things they need. Maybe we should address them first. A community of entrepreneurial, driven, badass devs can do a lot.