[upmind]

As much as people like to say, I don't think ideas are cheap. The best e.g., indie games didn't succeed just because of great execution but also great ideas and a good vision. I still think that holds true today. Happy building!

[topocite]

Exactly. The idea that ideas are cheap and all that matters is execution is absurd.

Imagine saying this about a great record album in music. Or any masterwork of art.

From growing up with my young brain being programmed by surrealist MTV videos, in a society driven by tiktok brains, creativity will be at an absolute premium.

Just the idea that this is a bad time for the solo developer is so uncreative that it boggles my mind but it is hardly surprising.

[robofanatic]

Ideas were “cheap” before because implementation was harder. Now I guess the coin has flipped.

[al_borland]

A huge part of implementation is how it’s done. A lot of companies made mp3 players, Apple made the iPod. Their implementation was different. It was done with more care and thought. The idea was cheap, 1,000 songs in your pocket. An implementation that connected with people and brought it to the mainstream was hard.

Someone quickly vibe coding something might fulfill the requirements of an idea. However, their implementation will likely be poor and lack the care needed to connect with people on a way that makes them want to use it.

I think understanding this has always been the key to standing out. That doesn’t change in the world of LLM, it becomes more important than ever.

[marginalia_nu]

There have been times in history when merely having the ability to turn an idea to software has been such a marketable skill you could fairly effortlessly get rich off it, like the early mobile app era saw some examples of that.

Those times were always pretty brief, and those markets were quickly saturated by people looking to make it rich. It was certainly not the state of anything in the years leading up to agentic coding.