You don’t discover a problem worth solving by fantasizing with your co-founders “If there be an app that could do X, would it be cool?” You don’t discover a problem worth solving by playing the This for That game.

However, here is a way to do it:

Go out and do something ordinary!

Go perform some mundane tasks that ordinary people around you do every day. The choices are endless. Here are some things to start with:

• Sell something you own
• Help a friend move
• Organize a group holidays
• Apply for a job
• Introduce someone to another
• Service your car

This is the important thing. The point of this exercise is not to create a startup that solves the task as a whole. The point is, by performing an ordinary task, you will find inefficiencies at some point in the process. “How the fuck do I…?” moment. How the fuck do I sell what I’m selling? How the hell do I know if the company I’m applying for has seen my job application?

It might be a small part of the process, but it might just be a big enough pain that someone will pay you to solve it elegantly for them.

For startups, this is a great place to start.