Crypto is the only option at the moment. Along with Payoneer, nothing else works for Iraqis.

Coming up with an idea for a product/service has always been the reason that stopped me from starting my own business!

You don’t have to come up with something original. If you see something and think you could do it better consider it.

It also doesn't have to be very complicated. patio11 on here famously got his start selling a program that made bingo cards for teachers. And then doing automated appointment reminders for doctors. Neither of these ideas was complicated or original -- you just need to solve a problem that enough people have, and (critically) be able to market it.

The marketing part is potentially quite challenging. As well as finding a niche market that is underserved.

patio11 is famous because what he did was really non-trivial even though he is such a humble person he discusses his work in very homely terms.

Right, didn't intend to understate the achievement. Mostly emphasizing that the product idea does not have to be complicated or original. Success is overwhelmingly about it filling a need for the target market, execution, and professionalism.

Changing locations is not an option for me, because I take care of my elderly mother. However, I am actually planning on taking a job that's unrelated to tech; let's see how it goes.

Do you qualify for a public job? That's how it goes in Iraq.

I thought about that, and still do!

Unfortunately, I can't find a problem to solve, and believe me, I tried! Everything I come up with has been solved already with a better set of features.

It's a bit of a cliché, but remains true -- the existence of competition just means someone else proved the market exists already. They've done good research for you. You only need a truly novel idea (with a market) if you want to be a unicorn. If you just want to be successful, then jump in. Find ways to differentiate, even if it's just on price.

There are problems to solve all over the place. But you will need to dedicate deep focused thought toward finding them.

I recommend using the concept of a “talent stack” to find areas you are uniquely suited for and uniquely interested in.

Make an ordered list of things you enjoy, things you are motivated toward, things you are talented at. Then brainstorm ways to combine as many of them as you can.

Your particular combination will be rare, this is where you are most likely to be able to find and solve problems.

Since you’re a programmer you are very well suited for that type of analysis.

Once you’ve identified those areas, dedicate deep focused thought toward identifying problems and solving them. Go for long walks or hikes or bike rides while thinking about it.

Mohnish Pabrai said in an interview:

“What we are taught is that if you want to start a business, you need to come up with something new, something that hasn't been done before. But the reality is that the world will very easily accept three of the same thing, or five of the same thing. And usually it is an advantage to look at something that already exists and say, can another one of those exist? Or can I take what's there and tweak it a little bit? If you are a great cloner, you will be 90% ahead of the rest of humanity.”

Pick something that's getting popular elsewhere in the world but not yet in your country, and copy it?

And even better: tailor it for your country’s users.

There’s a whole host of US-centric products that work well in American-ish places, but fail to serve local users in non-Americanized markets.

(See: Baidu vs. Google in China)

As an Iraqi going to a developed country is very difficult without a job offer and a company willing to sponsor you. It's basically a hit or miss.

Wow! That page has the best styling ever! No fuff, no SPA, no colors, nothing! Just text and straight to the point!

Still rough around the edges on mobile. Too much margin on the right, and code blocks appear tiny.

I'm really happy and productive with Django, DRF, React, React Router, and React Query.

Mostly I just use Django alone with nothing on top, not even a frontend framework.

Django rest framework is really great, there’s a bit of a learning curve learning about the viewsets and how permission classes work and things like that, but once you get over that hurdle its so easy to make REST APIs that just hook up so cleanly to models.

I implemented a few custom authentication classes for things like group permissions on read / write for shared projects internally and just hooking this all up means I can write huge new modules that “just” slot in, in just a few hours. IMO they have the abstraction layers just right, it makes me really productive.

Where do you deploy for compute/storage? What about needing additional workers? How do you replicate your prod env in dev?

Location: Kirkuk, Iraq Remote: Preferred Willing to Relocate: No Technologies: JavaScript, NodeJS, React, ExpressJS, Django, Python Résumé/CV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1epyMsf_XHuoqDc6ap_mpO9nkVAM... Email: saadsawash{dot}mh{at}gmail{dot}com

I was actually thinking of trying React Native, but for some reason local people prefer Flutter for some reason, any noticable differences between the two? Or should I just go with RN & Expo?

i think flutter is newer and less popular. the real benefit is expo which makes deploying the apps to google/apple stores very simple.

That sounds hopeful, thanks!