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Ask HN: Is solo indie dev mostly about avoiding difficult programming problems?
Don't difficult programming problems just get in the way of a someone wanting to create a novel app/game?
And so avoiding difficult programming problems allows
you to more easily experiment with novel ideas and achieve your creative vision more quickly?
- groffee 4y agoBeing a 'solo indie dev' means you don't need to deal with people. Code is easy, even 'difficult' problems, people are what get in the way.
- throwaway0asd 4y agoThat sounds highly autistic. Managing people is no different than writing architecture of an impressive application. It all comes down to a very primitive appreciation of organization, scale, and using the right tools for the job. That, organization, is a thought exercise that most people cannot perform well because it requires high intelligence and a hyper level of conscientiousness.
- skydhash 4y agoDoes your application have several sentient modules that probably have different conflicting wishes and will be obeying directives as they see fit, including not at all? If not, it’s not remotely similar.
- throwaway0asd 4y agoI have two employers. In one of those I work in an industry far outside of software where I am a director, a manager of managers. At the other employer I write corporate software. I also write original personal applications as a side hobby. Yes, they are highly similar if you know how to make stuff that works well.
- marssaxman 4y agoI don't know, dude, that sounds kind of machiavellian; I think I prefer the supposedly "autistic" idea that humans are more complicated than computers.
- throwaway0asd 4y agoThen think about it from the inverse. People who cannot organize other aspects of life with elegance and simplicity, such as business administration or personnel engagement, are likely equally (un)skilled in their organization of the software they write. The only difference is in the criticality of the feedback and/or the audience.
- soulchild37 4y agoCustomers are also people, I now spend more time on support than coding feature these days.
- skydhash 4y agoThe main constraints of being a solo developer at scale and time. You cannot scale because that means doing a lot of stuff (coding, support, business planning) at the same time. And you can only work on one or two features, meaning development speed is quite slow. But coding is very easy. And once you solve something, it stays that way. Unlike conflict with others.
- muzani 4y agoThe original DOS was practically indie. Doom and Quake were indie. Roller Coaster Tycoon was indie and built on Assembly. Minecraft was indie. Dwarf Fortress, Ultima Ratio Regum, and Rimworld are indie. If anything, evidence suggests that indie is capable of tackling the hardest problems. How? I would argue that once something is done as a group, there's deadlines. Deadlines create cruft (aka tech debt). Cruft slows down development. You end up with product teams who are incentivized to constantly push out something as opposed to dealing with tech debt. Things that would normally take a month solo end up taking five man months. Instead of running something through your head, there are UX/product/event storming workshops. You also have to adopt industrial architecture approaches like "clean architecture". You can't pick up obscure codebases like Lisp, or experimental features. Non indie rewards consistency. You can only be consistent by avoiding risks, and doing a lot of CYA. Basically, the difference between indie and non-indie is like your obscure cafe and Starbucks.