“Hey, I have this great app idea…”
“You should build…”
“What if there was an app that…”
Many of us in tech here these statements all of the time.
They’re innocent. Fun. With a sliver of seriousness intertwined.
Our circle knows that we build products, but might not grasp the complexity behind them.
Sometimes, an idea is sound, but there is no conceivable way to justify the time and effort of a build out.
Sometimes, an idea is sub-par, but there is a minuscule chance it just might catch some attention, and turn into something.
Sometimes, the ideas are just plain fun.
No matter the idea,* usually* these conversations amount to nothing but a fleeting laugh, an offended pitcher, or an “I’ll think about it”.
Not to mention that a codebase can feel like…
“Hey, I have this great app idea…”
“You should build…”
“What if there was an app that…”
Many of us in tech here these statements all of the time.
They’re innocent. Fun. With a sliver of seriousness intertwined.
Our circle knows that we build products, but might not grasp the complexity behind them.
Sometimes, an idea is sound, but there is no conceivable way to justify the time and effort of a build out.
Sometimes, an idea is sub-par, but there is a minuscule chance it just might catch some attention, and turn into something.
Sometimes, the ideas are just plain fun.
No matter the idea,* usually* these conversations amount to nothing but a fleeting laugh, an offended pitcher, or an “I’ll think about it”.
Not to mention that a codebase can feel like a sculpture.
Your own digital David.
That you create, care for, upgrade, protect.
If you’re going to spend the time sculpting, the idea better be fantastic.
Something you* believe* in.
Something that justifies all the time, attention, and care it would take to build.
However, recently,** something changed. **Something monumental.
Generative AI tools for development in particular have taken off, creating some efficiencies that would have been hard to fathom a few years ago.
Said another way, the time required to build software is dramatically decreasing.
In my own (non-scientific, I might add) case studies, I’ve seen as much as 400% efficiency gains for delivery when I try to measure it.
Tasks that would traditionally take 5 hours are shrunk to be planned, developed, and deployed in 1.
This is a small example, but something psychological is happening here too.
And that’s what is so interesting about it.
Not only do these efficiency increases save time and effort, they lower the attachment to the code as an artifact.
If I spend less* time* building something, I’m less inclined to be as attached to the artifact.
Killing your darlings, as they say, has become much easier.
I’m less inclined to see David, and more inclined to see the product.
Hence, the era of disposable software.
Here’s an example.
Every night, we tell our kids a story before bed.
They love it, we love it, it’s great for everyone.
Except we quickly run out of ideas.
There’s only so many talking animals and magical worlds you can come up with before your creativity center runs dry.
So I built Story Bot that gives us a new story idea everyday.
Is it a great product? No.
Do I even want to share this with anybody? Not really.
Does it make our life better? Yes.
It took me about 45 minutes to ideate, build, and deploy with Anything.
When it stops working, or I see that I’m ignoring the prompts, I’ll just delete it.
Hence, disposable.
P.S. I hope you’re reading this sometime in the future, and Story Bot is a dead link. That would be some provable evidence I couldn’t make up.