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

iamcharliegraham.substack.com

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

#41

Post by trcf22 »

sfn42 wrote: post #31
Aurornis wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 d…

I'm in that boat, everything is just a crud app. I've worked on some fairly complex apps but at their core they were crud apps and most of their complexity were caused by bad developers overcomplicating and fumbling things. That's not to say something like Figma isn't on an entirely different level, but most apps aren't Figma and don't need to be. Most apps are simple crud apps and if they aren't it's usually because…

Why wouldn't figma be considered a crud app? It’s still basically adding and updating things in a DB no? With some highly complex things like rendering, collab and stuff. (Fair question btw)

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

#42

Post by jayd16 »

spamizbad wrote: post #14

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…

Isn't this agreeing with the article? You can't just build something and hope for a market, you need to invest heavily to have a chance. You both are saying that, no?

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

#43

Post by throwaway7783 »

sfn42 wrote: post #31
Aurornis wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 d…

I'm in that boat, everything is just a crud app. I've worked on some fairly complex apps but at their core they were crud apps and most of their complexity were caused by bad developers overcomplicating and fumbling things. That's not to say something like Figma isn't on an entirely different level, but most apps aren't Figma and don't need to be. Most apps are simple crud apps and if they aren't it's usually because…

What makes Figma more complex?

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

#45

Post by calmbonsai »

I completely disagree. "Be Different" was never an actual selling point. Being "simple and effective" for the user was and still is.

While one can vibe-code simple CRUD at scale, one can not vibe-code the complex infrastructural coordination, security guardrails, and reliability externalities that maintain an effective business model at scale.

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

#46

Post by j45 »

spamizbad wrote: post #14

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 a lot of ways to define different.

It's a poor choice of word to use as a clearly and universally understood axiom.

Doing only what AI can generate will only generate the average of the corpus.

Maybe it's part of the reason folks with some amount of meaningful problem solving experience, when added to AI are having completely different results, there is someone behind the steering wheel actually pushing and learning with it and also directing it.

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

#47

Post by sfn42 »

pixl97 wrote: post #34
sfn42 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in that boat, everything is just a crud app. I've worked on some fairly complex apps but at their core they were crud apps and most of their complexity were caused by bad developers overcomplicating and fumbling things. That's not to say something like Figma isn't on an entirely different level, but most apps aren't Figma and don't need to be. Most apps are simple crud apps and if they aren't it's usually because…

Sometimes complexity exists because what you're doing is complex and their is a minimum to how simply it can be abstracted.

Yeah, but based on my own experience, most of the time complexity exists because devs suck. I know because I've simplified lots of code written by others, because rewriting it is simpler than maintaining their huge mess.

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

#48

Post by erans »

spamizbad wrote: post #14

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…

true that there is a some kind of a ceiling of what can or can't be done. But that ceiling is way up there. Also, there are enough examples and articles and code that allows enough combination to be made so that its good enough - and that is a very important bar.

There are A LOT of businesses (even big ones managing money and what not) that rely on spreadsheets to do so much. Could this have been an app/service/SaaS/whatever ? probably.

What if these orgs can (mostly) internally solidify some of these processes? what if they don't need an insanely expensive salesforce implementor that can add "custom logic" ?

A lot of times companies will replace "complex software" with half complex process!

What if they don't need Salesforce at all because they need a reasonable simple CRM and don't want to (or shouldn't) pay $10k/seat/year ?

There are still going to be very differentiating apps and services here and there, but as time move on these "technological" advantages will erode and with AI they erode way faster.

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

#50

Post by karmakaze »

Buying a vibe coded app is like buying something that looks like what you want from AliExpress. There's a small chance it might be good enough for your needs and you get a good deal. I might buy some small thing there that I don't care much about, or take a chance if I can't find anything close anywhere else. But for things I do care about I'll go through curated channels to filter out the fluff.
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