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I want to believe. But is this really still possible in todays world? Isn't there competition from the thousands of software devs laid off in last couple year

I want to believe. But is this really still possible in todays world? Isn't there competition from the thousands of software devs laid off in last couple years. They can all make apps. Just like the Flappy Bird guy. Sure, it was big hit, but so easy to have a hundred knock offs within a week.

Scoundreller 2y ago
Part of the goal might be to stay under the radar. In a pre-app world, I wrote some blogs with ads. Some of my favourite ones were dumb but fairly evergreen articles where I had domain knowledge like “best directions to the dmv offices in $mytown”. (Pro-tip: it’s upstairs at the XYZ shopping mall, but if you park by the pizza place, you’ll be at the doors that take you straight there) Reliable and consistent income. Not a ton, but more like a bond than a stock.
kflgkans 2y ago
I think it's simply survivorship bias. Thousands of people try this and fail. And occasionally you read an article like this, which is like the one in a million who managed to get lucky with their ideas and manage to make it a success. And I think they underestimate how much luck they had.
- czue 2y ago
  Luck is a huge factor for sure but I also think it's not as hard as you're making it out to be if you set yourself up for success. I have four products that make money, built over the course of seven years. None of them really benefit from each other. If it was pure luck and 1/1,000 chance of success I don't think my current portfolio would be possible. (I also have a lot of failures, so I agree there's luck and risk, just not as strong as you're making it out to be)
factorialboy 2y ago
Building a business is more than just building the app. And everything can be duplicated for cheap, especially with gen-ai. But small-businesses will transform, continue and dare-I-say thrive.
- czue 2y ago
  Yeah, one of the critical lessons I learned is that building is really the easy part, and most "traditional" developers who fail will do so as a result of not marketing enough, or well. That's an oversimplification, but directionally true. Being able to make apps isn't enough. You also have to develop a broad set of skills to complement that.
qup 2y ago
The thousands of software devs that got laid off aren't starting businesses. They're also not a cross-domain expert at the same things you are. You might be in the top N coders in a niche, and you might be the only one with the motivation to work on the problem. You also might just do it better than them. And last, you might just split the pie with them. Really, it's okay to have many apps doing the same thing with different approaches.
p_j_w 2y ago
>Just like the Flappy Bird guy. Sure, it was big hit, but so easy to have a hundred knock offs within a week. I doubt the creator minds too much, I know I wouldn't: he still made millions off it.
- joseda-hg 2y ago
  It's not uncommon for post succesful people to resent their greatest hits
poisonborz 2y ago
The world would require an x-th number of skilled developers existing for problems that could be solved by digital services. Ask in any forum about any niche/hobby/expert field and they tell you dozens of things they would gladly pay for but doesn't exist. It's one thing to be a good dev/coder, but another level entierly to be a one man team delivering a product.
vlod 2y ago
>They can all make apps. They could, but most likely they are doom scrolling while saying things like "Isn't there competition from the thousands of software devs laid off in last couple years. They can all make apps." :)
- FrustratedMonky 2y ago
  Yeah. Lot of that. How many apps we can point to that are huge today, are really not that complicated, and any number of people 'could have' built them.

Scoundreller 2y ago

Part of the goal might be to stay under the radar. In a pre-app world, I wrote some blogs with ads. Some of my favourite ones were dumb but fairly evergreen articles where I had domain knowledge like “best directions to the dmv offices in $mytown”. (Pro-tip: it’s upstairs at the XYZ shopping mall, but if you park by the pizza place, you’ll be at the doors that take you straight there) Reliable and consistent income. Not a ton, but more like a bond than a stock.

kflgkans 2y ago

I think it's simply survivorship bias. Thousands of people try this and fail. And occasionally you read an article like this, which is like the one in a million who managed to get lucky with their ideas and manage to make it a success. And I think they underestimate how much luck they had.

czue 2y ago
Luck is a huge factor for sure but I also think it's not as hard as you're making it out to be if you set yourself up for success. I have four products that make money, built over the course of seven years. None of them really benefit from each other. If it was pure luck and 1/1,000 chance of success I don't think my current portfolio would be possible. (I also have a lot of failures, so I agree there's luck and risk, just not as strong as you're making it out to be)

factorialboy 2y ago

Building a business is more than just building the app. And everything can be duplicated for cheap, especially with gen-ai. But small-businesses will transform, continue and dare-I-say thrive.

czue 2y ago
Yeah, one of the critical lessons I learned is that building is really the easy part, and most "traditional" developers who fail will do so as a result of not marketing enough, or well. That's an oversimplification, but directionally true. Being able to make apps isn't enough. You also have to develop a broad set of skills to complement that.

qup 2y ago

The thousands of software devs that got laid off aren't starting businesses. They're also not a cross-domain expert at the same things you are. You might be in the top N coders in a niche, and you might be the only one with the motivation to work on the problem. You also might just do it better than them. And last, you might just split the pie with them. Really, it's okay to have many apps doing the same thing with different approaches.

p_j_w 2y ago

>Just like the Flappy Bird guy. Sure, it was big hit, but so easy to have a hundred knock offs within a week. I doubt the creator minds too much, I know I wouldn't: he still made millions off it.

joseda-hg 2y ago
It's not uncommon for post succesful people to resent their greatest hits

poisonborz 2y ago

The world would require an x-th number of skilled developers existing for problems that could be solved by digital services. Ask in any forum about any niche/hobby/expert field and they tell you dozens of things they would gladly pay for but doesn't exist. It's one thing to be a good dev/coder, but another level entierly to be a one man team delivering a product.

vlod 2y ago

>They can all make apps. They could, but most likely they are doom scrolling while saying things like "Isn't there competition from the thousands of software devs laid off in last couple years. They can all make apps." :)

FrustratedMonky 2y ago
Yeah. Lot of that. How many apps we can point to that are huge today, are really not that complicated, and any number of people 'could have' built them.