Starting a side-project: Why you (and most developers) should, and how AI can help.

Summary

Carl, a veteran software professional, encourages developers to start their own software businesses or products, arguing it enhances programming skills and changes perspectives on software quality. He acknowledges the current challenging job market and the potential impact of AI on programming jobs. Carl suggests starting with a problem you've faced, leveraging AI for marketing through A/B testing, and building a minimum viable product. He warns of the hard work involved and the scams in the startup space, advocating for a cautious yet proactive approach.

Takeaways

• 🚀 The speaker encourages viewers to consider starting their own business or building a product, despite the challenges and without expecting quick riches.
• 💼 The script is aimed at developers or those aspiring to be, and assumes they are not bound by restrictive employment contracts.
• 💡 Starting your own venture can make you a better programmer by changing your perspective on software development, bugs, and user experience.
• 📈 The speaker has personal experience with starting several ventures, which have provided valuable lessons even if they didn't result in significant financial gain.
• 🛠️ The best programmers the speaker has encountered have often been those who have taken on full responsibility for a project or worked in very small companies.
• 💼 The job market for programmers is not as robust as it was a few years ago, and economic indicators suggest a potential recession on the horizon.
• 🤖 There's skepticism about AI replacing programmers soon, which is good news for developers as it means their skills remain in demand.
• 💼 The cost of starting a software business has never been lower, with cloud services reducing the need for significant upfront investment in infrastructure.
• 🛠️ When starting a business, it's advised to build something that would be useful to you personally, ensuring you gain value even if the business isn't successful.
• 🔧 The speaker suggests using AI for generating marketing text and employing A/B testing to refine it, leveraging a programmer's strengths and AI's capabilities.
• 💼 The script concludes with a cautionary note about the hard work involved in starting a software business and the importance of being wary of scams in the space.

Q & A

What is the main message Carl wants to convey in the video?

Carl encourages viewers, particularly developers, to consider starting their own business or building their own product to become better programmers and to change their mindset about bugs and software users.

Why does Carl believe that starting your own business can make you a better programmer?

Carl believes it can make you a better programmer because it requires you to be wholly responsible for the project, which includes dealing with bugs, customer support, and financial implications, thus enhancing your skills and understanding.

What is Carl's view on programmers who have never been wholly responsible for a project?

Carl views programmers who have never been wholly responsible for a project negatively, as they often consider themselves too good for QA or first-line support and lack the experience of dealing with the full scope of software development.

What is the significance of the interview question Carl mentions about building something with $100K and six months?

The interview question is significant because it indicates whether a programmer has thought creatively and independently about product development, which is a trait of good programmers according to Carl.

Why does Carl think the current job market for programmers is not as great as it was a few years ago?

Carl thinks the job market for programmers is not as great due to economic changes, potential recession, and the rise of AI, which some companies are hoping will replace the need for programmers.

What is the 'magic trick' Carl refers to for improving AI-generated marketing copy?

The 'magic trick' Carl refers to is A/B testing, where multiple versions of a webpage are shown to visitors, and statistical analysis is used to determine which version performs better.

What advice does Carl give for the type of business a developer should start?

Carl advises starting by building something that would be useful to the developer themselves, ensuring that even if the business doesn't succeed, they still have a useful software product.

How does Carl suggest using AI in the context of starting a software business?

Carl suggests using AI to generate marketing text for a website and then refining it through A/B testing to improve the effectiveness of the copy and the overall business.

What is Carl's stance on the idea of using AI to replace developers in the software creation process?

Carl is skeptical about AI replacing developers for technical tasks, as he believes AI is better at generating marketing text rather than writing code, which is where developers excel.

What precautionary measures does Carl suggest for developers considering the current economic climate?

Carl suggests that developers should start thinking about starting their own projects or businesses as a precautionary measure against potential economic downturns and job insecurity.

What resources does Carl recommend for those interested in starting a software business?

Carl recommends books like 'The Lean Startup' by Eric Ries and 'The Lean Product Playbook' by Dan Olson, as well as websites like indiehackers.com and microconf.com for community support and learning.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Starting Your Own Business: A Developer's Perspective

The speaker begins by candidly admitting the difficulty of discussing the topic without it sounding like clickbait. They emphasize that starting a business or building a product is not a get-rich-quick scheme and that few will become wealthy quickly, if at all. The speaker encourages viewers to consider entrepreneurship, especially developers, as it can significantly improve their programming skills and change their mindset towards software development and users. The speaker shares their own experiences with starting various projects, which, despite not making them wealthy, provided invaluable learning experiences. They contrast the attitudes of less effective programmers who have avoided full responsibility for their work with those of the best programmers they've encountered, who have often taken on significant challenges or started their own projects. The speaker suggests that taking on one's own project can lead to better software development practices and fewer bugs.

05:04

💼 The Current State of the Job Market and the Potential of AI

The speaker discusses the current challenges in the job market for programmers, noting that it's not as robust as it was a few years ago, and the possibility of an impending recession in the US that could affect global economies. They also mention the trend of companies delaying hiring programmers in favor of waiting for AI capabilities to mature. Despite these challenges, the speaker sees opportunities for developers. They argue that AI is unlikely to replace skilled developers soon and that AI's strengths lie in areas like marketing copy, where it can be refined through A/B testing. The speaker highlights the reduced costs and increased ease of starting a software business, thanks to cloud services and the ability to trade time for development costs. They advise starting with a product that would be useful to oneself, leveraging common architectural elements across online services, and being prepared for the iterative process of startup development and pivoting.

10:04

📚 Resources and Advice for Aspiring Software Entrepreneurs

In the final paragraph, the speaker acknowledges the vagueness of the details provided in the video, attributing it to the complexity of starting a software business, which has been extensively covered in books and could fill many hours of video content. The speaker's intent is to inspire viewers to consider starting their own business and to look for problems in their lives that software could solve. They mention plans for more videos on the topic and introduce a channel membership for deeper, code-focused content. The speaker recommends 'The Lean Startup' by Eric Ries and 'The Lean Product Playbook' by Dan Olson as starting points for further reading. They also suggest an article by Patrick, known as patio11, for insights on A/B testing. The speaker warns about the prevalence of scams in the space and recommends indiehackers.com and microconf.com as communities that have been helpful. They conclude by emphasizing the hard work involved in starting a software business and caution against believing in quick-success promises.

Keywords

💡Clickbait

Clickbait refers to sensationalized or misleading headlines designed to attract users to click on a link. In the video, the speaker preemptively addresses the concern that the topic might seem like a 'get rich quick' scheme, which is a common clickbait tactic. The speaker clarifies that the video is not promoting such a scheme, setting a tone of authenticity and trustworthiness.

💡Get rich quick

A 'get rich quick' scheme typically refers to a business or investment strategy that promises large profits with little effort or time. The speaker explicitly states that the video is not about such schemes, emphasizing the hard work and dedication required to start a business or product, which aligns with the video's theme of encouraging thoughtful entrepreneurship.

💡Side hustle

A side hustle is an additional job or business venture taken on outside of one's primary occupation. The speaker suggests considering a side hustle as a way to start one's own business or product, indicating that it can be a stepping stone to entrepreneurship and a means to diversify one's income sources.

💡Developer

In the context of the video, a developer refers to a software professional who writes code and creates applications or systems. The speaker assumes the audience is composed of developers or aspiring developers, as the video's advice and strategies are tailored to individuals with programming skills looking to start their own projects.

💡AI

AI, or artificial intelligence, is the development of computer systems to perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. The speaker mentions AI in the context of using it to assist in generating marketing text or performing tasks that developers might not be as skilled in, highlighting the potential for AI to complement a developer's skillset in starting a business.

💡A/B testing

A/B testing is a method of comparing two versions of a webpage or other user experience to see which performs better. The speaker suggests using A/B testing to refine marketing copy generated by AI, demonstrating a practical application of this testing method in the context of starting a software-based business.

💡Recession

A recession is a significant decline in economic activity that lasts more than a few months. The speaker mentions the possibility of a recession as a reason to consider starting a business or side hustle, suggesting that economic downturns can motivate individuals to seek alternative income streams.

💡Minimum viable product (MVP)

An MVP is a version of a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide feedback for future development. The speaker implies the creation of an MVP as a goal for those starting a business, emphasizing the importance of launching a basic version of a product to begin gathering user insights.

💡Pivoting

Pivoting in a business context means changing the strategy or direction of a product or company in response to feedback or market conditions. The speaker discusses how startups often pivot, indicating that the initial idea may evolve as the business learns from user engagement and market response.

💡Indie hackers

Indie hackers are individuals who create and launch their own software products independently. The speaker mentions indiehackers.com as a resource, positioning it as a community where developers can learn from others who have successfully started their own software businesses.

💡Lean Startup

The Lean Startup is a methodology for developing businesses and products, which emphasizes validated learning, iterative product releases, and efficient resource use. The speaker recommends 'The Lean Startup' book by Eric Ries, suggesting that the principles outlined in the book can guide developers in their entrepreneurial journey.

Highlights

The video discusses the benefits of starting your own business or product, despite the challenges.

It emphasizes that getting rich quickly is not the goal, but personal and professional growth is.

The speaker, Carl, shares his experience as a software professional and his quest to eradicate bugs on the Internet.

The video encourages developers to consider starting their own projects to enhance their programming skills.

It suggests that taking full responsibility for a project can lead to better programming practices.

Carl highlights the importance of being responsible for all aspects of a software project, including QA and customer support.

The video points out that the best programmers often have experience running their own projects or being in small companies.

An interview question about building a product with a budget and timeline is mentioned as a good indicator of a good programmer.

The current job market for programmers is discussed, noting it's not as strong as it was a few years ago.

The potential for an economic recession and its impact on the job market is mentioned.

Carl talks about the possibility of AI replacing programmers, and why he thinks this is unlikely in the near future.

The video argues that starting a software business has never been more accessible due to cloud services.

A strategy for starting a business by building something useful for oneself is suggested.

The concept of startups pivoting and the importance of learning from the process is discussed.

Carl explains how AI can be used to generate marketing text and the power of A/B testing in refining it.

The video advises against quitting your job to start a business full-time, but suggests it as a side project for income and skill development.

Resources for further learning, including books and websites, are recommended for those interested in starting a software business.

The video concludes with a warning about scams in the space and the importance of being cautious and patient.

Transcripts

So as I'm recording this, I have no idea what

this video will be titled, or what the

thumbnail will be.

I'm finding it really difficult not to have

this topic sound like a bunch of clickbait.

This is not a get rich quick scheme.

Very few, if any, people who do what I'm about to

describe are going to get rich, and for any

that might get rich this way,

it's not going to be quick.

However, I want to encourage you to do it

anyway.

I want to encourage you, or at least many of

you, to consider starting your own business, or

at least building your own product.

Today, I'm going to talk about why I think many

of you should, and some about how, although

that's a huge topic,

and it won't fit in one video, or even a dozen.

But if you're watching the video because you

saw the title and you want to get rich quick, I

can help you.

But good news is there are a lot of other

people on YouTube who say that they can, so

they might be able to help you,

but they probably won't, because most of them

are full of sh***.

This is the Internet of Bugs. My name is Carl. I've been

a software pro for about 35 years,

and I'm on a quixotic quest to

eradicate bugs on the Internet.

So today, I'm going to be talking about

starting your own thing.

Product, service, business, side hustle,

something - We'll talk about what later-

With AI. Now, assuming that you're a developer,

or starting to be one,

that is. If you're not, or you don't want to

write a ton of code, this path isn't for you.

Also, I'm assuming that you're not working for

an employer who has an employment contract with

you,

where everything that you write belongs to them.

If you're in that boat, feel free to think

about this,

but don't actually start anything, or write

anything down until you get a different kind of

job,

because you don't want that lawsuit. But if you're

a developer currently looking for work,

or expecting that you might be looking for work

soon, or you think that your current work isn't

100% secure, then I encourage you to start

thinking about this. And if you aren't in one

of those

three buckets, I'm not exactly sure what you're

doing. Okay, that out of the way. Let me tell

you

why I want you to start your own thing: because

it will make you a better programmer. And it

will

change your mindset about bugs, and about the

people that use your software. So I've started a

few things.

None of them made me a lot of money. Some of

them never really got off the ground,

some were instrumental in getting me hired

somewhere, and some I launched and eventually

shut down. But I learned a ton from all of them,

and I think that you will too. All of the worst

programmers I have ever worked with, some of

them very, very, very senior at very big

companies,

all spent all or almost all of their careers in

teams where they avoided being

wholly responsible for anything. I think there

was one of them that actually did his own thing

for a very short period of time and didn't like

it and bailed. These folks, guys, almost all

guys,

all consider themselves too good for QA. They

consider themselves too good for first line

support.

They never worried about losing money because

some customers stop using their software. Now,

not every programmer that I worked with that

had that background was awful, but pretty much

all of the awful ones had that background. Also,

none of the best programmers I've ever worked

with

were ever that kind. All of the really good

programmers I've ever worked with at some point

did their own thing, or they were at a really,

really small company where they were running

the

whole show. And the best development manager I

ever worked with had an interview question that

he said was the best indicator of a good

programmer. It was something on the order of: "If

I give you

$100K and six months, what would you build?" The

numbers change depending on the years, but you

get

the idea. He said anyone who didn't seem to

have thought about that question never made his

teams.

Better developers make software with fewer bugs.

I want fewer bugs, so I want you to all be

better

programmers. And that means that I want you all

to do your own thing. Now, let's talk about

what's

in it for you. So first off, I've got three

pieces of bad news. So number one, the job

market for

programmers right now isn't great. It's still

better than for a lot of professions, but it's

nowhere near it was three to five years ago.

Number two, there's a decent chance that we

will - here in

the US where I am - are heading into a recession.

And when the US has economic issues, it affects

a

lot of the rest of the world. Now, I'm not an

economist. I don't know if we're heading for a

recession. I don't know if anybody else really

knows, but here are some articles, links in the

description, from actual economists talking

about indications that we might be starting one

or

might be in the beginnings of one. And the idea

that we might be close to one is enough for me

to start to try to take precautions. Number

three, there are companies out there who are

holding

off hiring programmers, hoping that AI will be

able to do that work soon. This will be the

case

until the AI bubble pops, and I don't know how

long it's going to take for the bubble to pop.

And when it does, it's going to take a bunch of

stuff with it, and it's going to take us a

while to recover. So it's not unlikely that it's

going to be a rough couple of years.

So let's talk about the good news. There are a

ton of people out there promoting using an AI

to start a business, and almost all of them are

counting on the AI to do some or all of the

programming

or technical tasks. And if you've seen my other

videos, you know that I doubt that those AIs

will

do a very good job of the technical tasks. But

that's good news for you, because you're a

developer,

and that's the part that you are good at. And

the kinds of things that developers typically

aren't good at, marketing copy, sales copy,

that kind of stuff. AI is way better at that

stuff

than it is at code. And even if that AI

marketing copy stinks, there's a magic trick to

make it

work better. And that magic trick is called "A/B

testing," and it absolutely should be in every

programmer's toolbox these days. More about

that later. So here's the thing. It has never

been

cheaper or easier to start a software-based

business than it is now. If you go look at most

of the "let me tell you how to start a

business" folks. You'll find that the thing

they say is the

biggest cost these days is the development cost.

And that's what you already do.

Back when I was starting out, you had to have

your own servers, you had to have your own

UPSs, you had to have your own network

connections, all that kind of stuff. All that

stuff's in the

cloud now. It is so much easier to start a

software business now. And the startup costs

are really,

really small. If you're not having to do the

development, or if you're not having to pay for

developers, which you luckily don't. In

startups, of which I've done several, there are

really

two huge costs, development, and marketing

advertising and sales. You can trade your time

for the development costs, and you don't need

to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on

ads

because you don't have a bunch of venture

capitalist investors that want to get their

payout as fast as they possibly can. I only

have one piece of advice for you about what

kind of

business to start, and that's to start by

building something that would be useful to you

yourself.

That way, if it doesn't work out, you still

have the software that you built to use

yourself.

From a development perspective, realize that a

very large amount of the architecture of any

online software service is pretty much the same

as all the other ones. You need a website, you

need

a database, you need authentication, you need a

way to take money, etc, etc, etc. So first off,

what you learn building your own thing will

have a bunch of overlap with whatever future

opportunities might come up for you in the

online software service. And secondly, whatever

you build

will share a lot in common with a bunch of

other things that you might have built or could

build.

And that's something a lot of people don't

realize about startups. Startups do a LOT of

pivoting.

I've worked at several early stage startups,

and none of them have ever found success

on the first iteration of the first idea that

they started building. You put the thing out

there,

you see what people resonate with, you tweak it,

you change it, you tweak it, you change it,

you find something that people like that you

didn't expect, you start focusing your product

on that.

That's the pivot, that's the way it all works,

right? So the idea is to get something out

there,

and then to see what people respond to. And

once you get something out there, a lot of the

basic puzzle pieces you've got are the same, no

matter what direction you start going from

there.

There are a lot of opportunities once you get

something up and running.

You're quite a way down the path of having

built a lot of other things that you could have

built.

So even if your first idea doesn't work out,

and there's a good chance that it won't,

you've still learned a lot, and you've built

foundations that you might be able to apply to

other problems as they come up. And once you

have that foundation and a minimum viable

product,

then the goal is to attract people to it, and

that's where AI comes in. You can use AI to

generate

a bunch of marketing text for your website,

and some of it will stink, maybe most of it

will stink,

but that's okay. Because that's where A/B

testing comes in. You make however many copies

of the

webpage that you want. Just ask GPT, ask Claude,

whatever. You randomly assign each person,

each visitor to your website, one of the

versions of that, and then you use statistics

to figure out

which one performs better. You throw out the

ones that don't perform better, you iterate

over the

ones that do perform better, and you just keep

going. Over time, you refine the copy, you keep

refining your services until either you realize

that you've got something worth selling, or you

don't.

In the startup world, all of this is

accelerated by throwing a ton of money at it.

Develop faster,

to bring in a ton of website visitors with

expensive ads, but if you can be patient, you

don't have

to throw a lot of money at it, but that means

it'll take a long time. And that's okay,

because the

idea here, at least to start with, isn't to

quit your job and do this full time. That's a

really

bad idea. But you could potentially make some

amount of side income, and that gives you a

little

bit of financial cushion, and honestly, you'll

be surprised how much of a difference that

makes.

If something happens to your primary income,

having that little bit that doesn't seem like

much

actually turns out to be a lot more important

than you'd think, or at least than I ever

thought,

until it happened to me. And if you do end up

laid off, it gives you something productive

you can do with your time besides fretting

about job hunting. Now, don't get me wrong,

people who've been laid off need to spend time

job hunting, but it turns out that the

difference in effectiveness of job hunting

between job hunting two hours a day and job

hunting 16 hours a day is actually pretty small.

But once you get to a couple hours a day,

you're really not doing much except churning

and stressing yourself out. And the impact on

your

mental health of spending 16 hours a day job

hunting is very, very high. So having something

productive to do if you do get laid off is

great, and it gives you something to talk about

in

interviews. Now, I know I've been pretty vague

on the details in this video, and that's

because

there've been a lot of books written about this,

and there can be many, many hours of video

content

made on on each little subtopic of starting a

software business. This video was just about

making you start thinking about whether or not

you should do it. And if you think you might,

start looking around for things in your life

that bug you, that a software service

potentially

might be able to help with for you, and

potentially for other people with that problem.

I'll be making

more videos on this topic, probably a lot of

them. As I've said before though, once I get

into

talking about specific blocks of code, YouTube's

analytics tell me that a lot of people stop

watching.

So at YouTube's suggestion, I've started a

channel membership as a way to separate those

deep

dives from more general interest stuff. I've

got a video linked at the end of this video

talking

about the membership, so please watch that if

you're interested in a deeper, more detailed

code-based content. And if you really can't

wait for more videos, here are some resources

to tide you over and get you thinking: A couple

of books, "The Lean Startup" by Eric Ries,

R-I-E-S, not sure how to pronounce that, and "The

Lean Product Playbook" by Dan Olson are

good places to start. For the incredible

utility of A/B testing, here's an article that

you started

on a site from one of the authorities on the

topic. His name's Patrick, he goes by patio11

on the internet, everything he writes on this

topic is gold. So once you've read this article,

click around on that site, there's a bunch of

good stuff there. There are also a ton of

websites

dedicated to starting these sorts of businesses,

but be very, very careful because there are a

ton of people running scams in this space.

indiehackers.com and microconf.com are two

websites I've had

pretty good luck with, but those are both

communities and with a lot of people in them,

and where there's a lot of people, they're

going to be grifters, so be careful. Because

starting a

software business will teach you to be a better

programmer, and it might make you some money as

well, but it's definitely a lot of work, and

anyone who says that there's a quick path

is trying to sell you something. Let's be

careful out there.