Researching what others have already done

[Dave Winer] said “If you are going to build a new company, go to the trouble of actually researching what other companies have already done.” He was referring to the fact that new companies are launching literally every day, and evolution is occuring so fast that people are largely unable to know what else is going on around them as they build their products. He gave a specific example – RSS readers – noting that there were so many and they were all re-inventing the same features over and over again.

It’s true. The pace of new apps showing up is breathtaking. Just keeping up with TechCrunch, eHub, and other lists of web apps can be a full-time job. I was also supposed to develop some software, you know?