You can make any software you want now, then why don't you? | Hacker News Reader

You can make any software you want now, then why don't you?

1 pointsarmadgulzar5 comments

The software that we can create today was always possible a couple years ago too. The difference is that we can do it a lot faster now. But the subtle thing to realize is that the same argument of "speed" which is supposed to help you create software better and faster is also the exact same one that's holding you back from creating anything at all.

How?

Well before, you knew it was gonna take time so you tinkered and took things easy and whatever you built gave you a sense of purpose and meaning that you put so much time, blood, sweat and tears into your project and now it exists.

But now? Now the illusion of speed tricks our brains into thinking that anything can be built in two days of vibe coding but the problem is that we keep thinking just that and do actually nothing. Just the realization that it's now possible to build anything now has seemed to killed all ambition to actually go ahead and do it.

Anyone else who feels the same?

> sense of purpose and meaning that you put so much time, blood, sweat and tears

But is that what you really feel? It seems like a repackaged cliché.

I read your text a couple of times, and I still don't understand what makes you feel unmotivated to work on software. The reasons you state seem disconnected from the actual outcome of the whole thing.

Perhaps there is a deeper, more stealthy motivation you are actually concealing (maybe even from yourself). Like getting recognition, status or something else? That would explain why you wouldn't engage with it anymore (since the bar for those is significantly higher now that "anyone can do it"). Don't take it the wrong way, it's a genuine question and I'm not implying those are somehow shallower objectives.

Exactly because everyone can do it. There is no money to be made building software anymore. Even traction or network effects don't work - it will be copied on first signs of success before network effects properly get in play.

Shipped ApplyBoost this morning (ATS resume rewrite + cover letter in ~2 min). Free checker: https://grhawk.inkboxwire.com/free.html — site: https://grhawk.inkboxwire.com. Building was the easy part; first-dollar distribution is the product.

Nope. For me the constraint is the same as before: time. A 2-day vibe coded project is a prototype, not a product. An actual product takes months. AI merely allows you to build more ambitious products.

I wish more people understood that prototype != product

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