In the "Techstars book" (Do More Faster), they write:
> We often talk about the Number One startup killer at TechStars—making a product for which there is no interesting market. TechStars accepts just 10 of more than 600 startups that apply and presumably they are among the best. But still, we find that at least one-third of those startups are attempting to build a product that they want, or that no one wants, instead of what the market wants
So it seems the ability to select a good idea is by no means something to discount. Lots of people can code "pretty well", but it appears that it's more difficult to come up with even a "pretty good" idea.
However, the point was regarding people pursuing bad ideas, and at that, people who had already been selected out of many to participate in Techstars, so not just random guys on the street. If bad ideas are so prevalent even among such a crowd, it leads one to think that perhaps good ideas are not that common and that finding one is not so easy.
> We often talk about the Number One startup killer at TechStars—making a product for which there is no interesting market. TechStars accepts just 10 of more than 600 startups that apply and presumably they are among the best. But still, we find that at least one-third of those startups are attempting to build a product that they want, or that no one wants, instead of what the market wants
So it seems the ability to select a good idea is by no means something to discount. Lots of people can code "pretty well", but it appears that it's more difficult to come up with even a "pretty good" idea.