Tarpit Ideas: The Sequel

TL;DR

Tar pit ideas are startup concepts that appear extremely attractive (get positive feedback, seem obvious) but have been tried many times by many founders and consistently fail because nothing fundamental has changed. Two common flavors are utopian behavior‑change ideas (e.g., social coordination apps) and get‑rich‑quick arbitrage ideas (e.g., investment advisory after Wall Street bets).

Key insights

• Tar pit ideas are not simply “bad” ideas; they are a small set of ideas that are insanely attractive to founders, praised by friends, and have been attempted repeatedly with no success and no change i
• Founders often misinterpret the term to mean any idea the speaker dislikes, but the definition requires that many other founders independently come up with the same idea over and over.
• Two dominant flavors: (1) utopian schemes that require everyone to change their behavior simultaneously (e.g., an app to coordinate hangouts with friends), and (2) mercenary arbitrage ideas that promi