Working on real problems is definitely my intent. I have background in developing shrinkwrap enterprise applications, which I believe is a dead industry going forward. I need to get experience in the way business is done these days, which is web-scale backends dropped right on the internet, and iphone/web front ends. My current job won't get me that experience, so I figured that now is the best time to strike it on my own, and build the entire infrastructure on my own and/or with my other programming friends. I'm treating this as a real project, not just a hobby, and my milestones involve releasing working, quality products, so I agree that solving a real world problem will get me the best experience.
Thanks again for your reply!