Many startup ideas receive praise from friends, but tarpit ideas often get the most enthusiasm, even when they may not be viable.

Founders often get stuck on tar pit ideas, which are common startup ideas that seem easy to solve but are actually very hard due to structural reasons, causing many founders to waste time on them.

With the rise of AI and new technologies, classic tarpit ideas may no longer be tarpit ideas if a founder can explain how the new technology makes them feasible.

Tarpit ideas are those that seem like unsolved problems and receive positive feedback, but are ultimately bad startup ideas that people get stuck in.

The concept of a tarpit idea arises when we see many founders applying the same idea repeatedly, often leading to failure, indicating a trend in certain idea spaces that attract many applicants but don't succeed.

Tarpit ideas are often misinterpreted as simply bad ideas, but they represent a specific subset of ideas that are particularly attractive yet frequently lead to failure.

Having a little bit of traction can be a trap; it can lead talented founders to stick with a failing idea for too long instead of pivoting to something more promising.

When asked if an idea is a tarpit, I often suggest talking to users to validate the concept, as many people overlook this crucial step.

A characteristic of tarpit ideas is that they have been attempted many times before without success, yet founders often overlook this history and fail to acknowledge past failures.