From the 'meaning problem' lightning talk: good open-source targets are the important-but-not-urgent quadrant of the Eisenhower matrix — often neglected, damaging when they bite, and generic enough to transcend one company. Bonus signal: if existing solutions aren't the best, that is itself a reason to build. Alternative paths: find your own real-world problems (like a friend shipping 200+ gems from daily pain points) or follow your passion (Matz built Ruby; Linus built Linux to understand the hardware).