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That has also kind of removed my interest in side projects too, because there is probably no more chance of making any money from them, unless you are good at marketing.
What is the opinion here?
I've made things with Claude I wouldn't begin to do on my own.
Okay I've not made any money out of it, surely you always needed to be good at marketing. Or did you mean advertising?
You can (possibly) do more now or do new things now.
(And AI is also disrupting marketing if that makes you feel any better.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983
Everyone is talking about how many things they are building. Non-devs suddenly building... But nobody seems to call out the basic law of supply and demand.
You can be the greatest marketer but you will fail when all channels are flooded. Thinking your "taste" will save you is a false fallacy, most mainstream products suck and people still buy them. There's not an infinite demand for software.
It will eventually settle in some new market configuration. However devs shouldn't have broken their market by letting everyone in, was a stupid professional move.
Marketing has always been what makes or brakes a project. You can (possibly) do more now or do new things now. (And AI is also disrupting marketing if that makes you feel any better.)
It was already the case that the hardest part of a project was getting people interested enough that they invest time into trying it.
But now, the fight to get people's attention on new projects is going to get an awful lot harder, as the barrier to entry dropped,and that people who are actually good at marketing can make apps themselves.
Otherwise, as a solo dev, you can leverage AI for both coding faster, and getting better at marketing.
Instead of programmers having to look for people with real world experiences to apply their skills to.
As much as people like to say, I don't think ideas are cheap. The best e.g., indie games didn't succeed just because of great execution but also great ideas and a good vision. I still think that holds true today. Happy building!
Imagine saying this about a great record album in music. Or any masterwork of art.
From growing up with my young brain being programmed by surrealist MTV videos, in a society driven by tiktok brains, creativity will be at an absolute premium.
Just the idea that this is a bad time for the solo developer is so uncreative that it boggles my mind but it is hardly surprising.