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Ideas are cheap, execution is cheaper

davekiss.com

61–70 of 120 posts

Re: Ideas are cheap, execution is cheaper

#61
Execution has gotten much cheaper in a small enough problem space. Yes, we get it, it's game changing. It doesn't mean you're building products. There's more to it than just writing code.

Writing a formbuilder and saying you've replicated Typeform is like finishing a todo app and saying you've replicated Jira. Yes, in a way I guess...but there is way more to the product and that's usually where the hard parts are.

Re: Ideas are cheap, execution is cheaper

#62
I keep reading these pro LLM articles. And I keep thinking that it is abysmal. Sure, for now it works, because there are senior engineers that refine the rough edges and know what's going on.

And especially some folks keep claiming that one just needs to get better at prompting and describe a detailed spec.

Wanna know what a detailed spec is called? An unambiguous one? It's called code.

LLMs still feel like a very round-about way of re-inventing code. But instead of just a new language, it's a language that nondeterministically creates "code" or a resemblance thereof.

And I am aware that this is currently not a popular opinion on HN, so keep the downvotes coming.

If you use LLMs outside the popular Github languages, it will fail hard on you. It is glorified text-completion, that's what it is.

Re: Ideas are cheap, execution is cheaper

#63
I still don't get. The author calls these "Not MVPs. Not prototypes. Working products", but how many users do these "products" actually have?

Have they iterated on user feedback? Have they fixed obscure issues? Made any major changes after the initial version?

More importantly, can the author claim with a straight face that they no longer need to read or understand the code that has been produced?

Just another one of those “look, I built a greenfield pet project over the weekend, software engineering is dead.”

Re: Ideas are cheap, execution is cheaper

#64
Searching for what to solve becomes far more important than how to solve it. Which niche you serve, how underserved the problem is, how quickly you build a solution, and how fast you iterate based on user feedback become the real differentiators. As a problem gains popularity, competitors will enter at an increasing pace, and the product’s price will be competed down to the bare minimum. At that point, the only real advantage for a builder is to be a serial builder for deep niches, spotting them faster than others and delivering quality product to users before anyone else.

Re: Ideas are cheap, execution is cheaper

#65

Ideas are cheap for a very narrow vision of "ideas". Sure, you can build your recipe site, TODO list or whatever it is cheaply and quickly without a single thought, but LLMs are still just assembling lots of open-source libraries _mostly_ written by humans into giant piles of spaghetti. There's a hilarious thread on Twitter where someone "built a browser" using an LLM feedback loop and it just pasted together a bunch…

I agree with your vision of endgame. We wouldn't even need a screen, we will communicate verbally or with signs with our agents with some device that will have a long battery life and will always be on.

I just hope that we retain some version of autonomy and privacy because no one wants the tech giants listening in every single word you utter because your agent heard it. No-one wants it but some, not many, care.

Agents deployed locally should be the goal.

Re: Ideas are cheap, execution is cheaper

#66

When software becomes cheap to build, a lot of strange second-order effects kick in. It’s not just that products are easier to create; sales, marketing, and every other business function can iterate faster alongside them. That speed erodes moats. As this reality sinks in, I think we’re headed for a brutal shakeout in SaaS. People still argue that distribution is the real bottleneck now. But when the product itself is…

Quality may become the defining factor. Anybody can vibe code software, but only someone who is actually capable of programming themselves and has some understanding of what good UX looks like, how to fix bugs (often subtle and not caught by LLMs), and how to achieve high performance and low resource consumption can build high quality software. I think developers who have an inclination towards UI/UX and a good grip…

Right now, you can take the raw html and css of a competitors website/saas product, give it to claude code, and it will rewrite your react/nextjs app to match the quality and style of the assets you gave it. You are underestimating how quickly these supposed moats have been decimated

Re: Ideas are cheap, execution is cheaper

#67

> This isn’t incremental improvement. This is a phase change. > This isn’t about one person copying one idea. It’s about the fundamental economics of software changing. That "this isn't x, it's y" really is a strong tell

And those weren't the only tells. Right now it's cringey but I have a sinking feeling that it's in the process of becoming normal. The post is on the front page after all.

Which means people either can't tell, or don't mind.

Re: Ideas are cheap, execution is cheaper

#68
post #36

Finally, developers are realizing that it's not how you write code or who writes the code, it's figuring out WHAT to write. LLMs are finally exposing this because the feedback cycle is so short.

> Finally, craftsmen are realizing that it's not how you woodwork or who makes the furniture, it's figuring out WHAT to make. IKEA is finally exposing this because the feedback cycle is so short.

Re: Ideas are cheap, execution is cheaper

#69

> I’m not exaggerating. And neither is anyone else. > Stack Overflow, the site that defined a generation of software development, received 3,710 questions last month. That’s barely above the 3,749 it got in its first month of existence. The entire knowledge-sharing infrastructure we built our careers on is collapsing because people don’t need to ask anymore. "Because people don't need to ask anymore."?! Yeah, I would…

Dude decided to completely ignore how hostile SO became in the last years, because obviously it is AI and not "DUPLICATE", "RTFM", -100 downvotes for asking "simple" question, questions unanswered for decades, etc.

The funniest part is that from the image itself you can clearly, unambiguously see that the downfall started between 2020~2022. ChatGPT was launched in Nov 2022. So the downfall of SO couldn't be caused by AI, at least not initially. But the blog post author is so biased that they simply ignored the image they posted themselves.

Re: Ideas are cheap, execution is cheaper

#70

When software becomes cheap to build, a lot of strange second-order effects kick in. It’s not just that products are easier to create; sales, marketing, and every other business function can iterate faster alongside them. That speed erodes moats. As this reality sinks in, I think we’re headed for a brutal shakeout in SaaS. People still argue that distribution is the real bottleneck now. But when the product itself is…

No moat? In the software industry? My decades of experience suggests that the opposite will happen. People will realize that the software industry is 100% moat and 0% castle. People will build great software that nobody will use while a few companies will continue to dominate with vaporware.

> few companies will continue to dominate with vaporware.

that makes no sense. "Dominate" implies people use or buy you software. If you produce nothing ("vaporware") how can you dominate?

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