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"Be Different" doesn't work for building products anymore

iamcharliegraham.substack.com

21–30 of 140 posts

Re: "Be Different" doesn't work for building products anymore

#21
This article is based on vibes just like the trends it hypothesizes.

To pick just one claim:

“Big companies used to move slowly, but now a ragtag team of two developers at a large firm can whip up something that looks top-of-market to the untrained eye in a matter of weeks.”

This is just pure speculation with no consideration of success or longevity. Big companies are going faster now? Where? Which ones?

AI coding allows you to build prototypes quickly. All the reasons big companies are slow haven’t budged.

Re: "Be Different" doesn't work for building products anymore

#22

Can't say I agree with this article at all. This has not been my experience. I don't quite know how to articulate this well, but there's something that I'd call a "complexity cliff" in the software business: if you want to compete in certain spaces, you need to build very complex software (even if the software, to the user, is easy to use). And while AI tools can assist you in the construction of this software, it ca…

> there's something that I'd call a "complexity cliff" in the software business: if you want to compete in certain spaces, you need to build very complex software (even if the software, to the user, is easy to use)

I recognized something similar when I first started interviewing candidates.

I try to interview promising resumes even if they don't have the perfect experience match. Something that becomes obvious when doing this is that many developers have only operated on relatively simple projects. They would repeat things like "Everything is just a CRUD app" or not understand that going from Python or JavaScript to C++ for embedded systems was more complicated than learning different syntax for your if blocks and for loops.

The new variant of this is the software developer who has only worked on projects where getting to production is a matter of prompting an LLM continuously for a few months. Do this once and it feels like any problem can be solved the same way. These people are in for a shock when they stray from the common path and enter territory that isn't represented in the training data.

Re: "Be Different" doesn't work for building products anymore

#23

Can't say I agree with this article at all. This has not been my experience. I don't quite know how to articulate this well, but there's something that I'd call a "complexity cliff" in the software business: if you want to compete in certain spaces, you need to build very complex software (even if the software, to the user, is easy to use). And while AI tools can assist you in the construction of this software, it ca…

>You eventually reach a point where there are no blog posts or stackoverflow questions that walk you through step-by-step how to make this stuff happen.

I wonder if we can use this as a”novelty” test. If AI can explain or corect your ideas, it’s not a novel idea.

Re: "Be Different" doesn't work for building products anymore

#24

> Where a great idea in a space once had 5-10 competitors, hundreds now appear - all competing for attention. Big companies used to move slowly, but now a ragtag team of two developers at a large firm can whip up something that looks top-of-market to the untrained eye in a matter of weeks. Perhaps I'm out of touch, but I haven't seen this explosion of software competition. I'd LOVE to see some new competitors for MS…

You're right. The iOS app store would currently be flooded with newcomers in niche spaces — workout apps, notes, reminders, etc. And games, my god, there would be vibed clones of every game imaginable. It's simply not happening.

Because writing code hasnt been the bottleneck for success on the app store in probably a decade, its all how to game algorithms / find someone with the power to boost your app

Re: "Be Different" doesn't work for building products anymore

#25
I see this as a great thing. Venture Capital has been way too focused on software for a long time. It’s time for the money in tech to start flowing to other things like hardware, biotech, etc. we’ve seen this start happening for a little while already with companies like Anduril, but hopefully it will continue accelerating because of this.

Re: "Be Different" doesn't work for building products anymore

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right. The iOS app store would currently be flooded with newcomers in niche spaces — workout apps, notes, reminders, etc. And games, my god, there would be vibed clones of every game imaginable. It's simply not happening.

Because writing code hasnt been the bottleneck for success on the app store in probably a decade, its all how to game algorithms / find someone with the power to boost your app

And the same is true for almost all those names the GP posted - they are big because of network effects - most people dont have time to evaluate the "quality" of software. In the long term the "quality" of software can be extremely variable, so mostly people just hitch their wagons to existing tools because if everyone else is doing it, it must make sense.

Re: "Be Different" doesn't work for building products anymore

#28

This article is based on vibes just like the trends it hypothesizes. To pick just one claim: “Big companies used to move slowly, but now a ragtag team of two developers at a large firm can whip up something that looks top-of-market to the untrained eye in a matter of weeks.” This is just pure speculation with no consideration of success or longevity. Big companies are going faster now? Where? Which ones? AI coding al…

Even with all these tools available, big companies would still be unable to compete in speed simply because in 99% of cases they don't have the required culture set in place.

Re: "Be Different" doesn't work for building products anymore

#30

Can't say I agree with this article at all. This has not been my experience. I don't quite know how to articulate this well, but there's something that I'd call a "complexity cliff" in the software business: if you want to compete in certain spaces, you need to build very complex software (even if the software, to the user, is easy to use). And while AI tools can assist you in the construction of this software, it ca…

This is exactly right and is what one would expect from improving technology. A fractal frontier of new niches crack open as the economy keeps expanding.
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