Are you saying focus on root cause solutions rather than side effects? Often a lack of specificity kills a project, the generic solution withers while the targeted one flourishes.

I often "think big" but target a specific, ready to pivot to a new specific while retaining the same architecture and philosophy.

I agree. Thinking big means "How can I develop a product that will solve a pain for many many people". If you're thinking small, you're by definition trying to solve a small pain for a small audience. Why not try and solve a bigger pain?

This thread looks like a confusion of what "thinking big" means.

It looks like half of you define it as "think of a problem lots of people have" and the other camp defines it as "think of a big idea" (i.e. "Lets get the human race to mars" or "I'll build a social network for the whole planet to do all of this stuff on).

The people who oppose "thinking big" see it as thinking of big problems that require impossible to complete (with a small group, small budget, and reasonable amount of time) solutions. The people who are for "thinking big" seem to be defining it as thinking of problems with solutions that will impact a large amount of people, regardless of the size of the solution required.

I'll speak using my experience as a musician and a writer. "Songs about life" have a huge audience. "Hillbilly flamenco" has a relatively smaller audience. Yet it's much, much harder to be successful as "the person who sings songs about life", because there's so much competition, and many established figures who do it better than you. Even if you can do it better than them, the average listener isn't interested in you, isn't invested in you.

Sit down and try to write the Great American Novel and you're pretty much screwed. Try to write the truest thing you know, though, and there's a chance that people will pick it up and share it.

The problem when trying to solve a pain for many many people, whether you're a writer or an entrepreneur, is that it's hard to start big and good. You can start small and good, and grow big, or start big and not-so-good, and try to get good. There are many instances of the former, almost no examples of the latter.

I suppose "thinking big" really means "always be open to the idea of scaling up", or "pick markets/conditions that allow for scaling up". But you almost always have to start small to do something really, really well.