Foreword
As an indie developer and Vibe Coder, I must admit — I enjoy the thrill of “hunting” and “being hunted” on Product Hunt and X (Twitter). We launch new projects, share MRR growth curves (even if it’s $0 to $50), we like each other’s posts, we encourage each other. It’s a great community, full of creativity and passion.
We seem to all be in this giant “echo chamber,” building increasingly elaborate “toys” for each other. Until today, when I stumbled upon a Reddit hot post that, in an almost brutal way, burst this “Emperor’s New Clothes” bubble.
💡 “We’re all building tools for each other. That’s the problem.”
1. Introduction: A Reddit Hot Post That Burst the “Emperor’s New Clothes” 👑
The story begins in r/indiehackers, a global gathering place for indie developers. A post suddenly exploded in the community, titled:
“After 8 failed side projects, I finally understand why most indie hackers stay broke.”
This developer (let’s call him JFerzt) didn’t share another “success story” template — instead, he gave a heartbreaking “failure study” summary. His core argument was simple to the point of being brutal:
“We’re all building tools for each other. That’s the problem.”
He asked us to browse any indie developer’s feed and count how many products are “landing page builders,” “Twitter schedulers,” “AI logo generators”… and all these products point to the same target customer: “Other indie developers trying to escape their day jobs.”
Then he gave what I think is the most precise metaphor I’ve seen this year:
“It’s like a bunch of hungry people opening restaurants that only serve each other.”
While everyone’s tasting each other’s “appetizers” (free tiers) and politely liking each other’s posts, everyone is slowly “starving to death.”
Imagine most low-income indie developers who haven’t built their own successful product yet — would they spend even a dime on any so-called productivity tool beyond Claude Code? Are open-source tools not good enough? Can’t you just write a local demo tool for yourself that doesn’t need fancy GUIs, login/registration state management, or SSR?
The real knockout punch came in the second half. JFerzt mentioned he spent two years chasing the dopamine hit of launching “yet another SaaS.” Until he met someone stably making $40k per month.
What did this person do? Scheduling software for “Car Dealerships.”
JFerzt concluded: “That person had no X followers, no ‘Build in Public.’ They just… solved a real problem for people with money.”
At the end of the post, he threw out a soul-searching question that forms this article’s title:
“Are we all just LARPing as entrepreneurs, building productivity tools nobody needs?”
*(Note: LARPing = Live Action Role-Playing. Here, it means we’re just “playing the role” of entrepreneurs.)*
This post landed like a boulder in the developer community’s “wishing well,” creating not wishes, but splashes of sobriety. As an INTJ, I couldn’t stop analyzing the systemic issues behind this phenomenon.
I’ve actually been in some indie developer circles recently, and I frequently hear things like “Your tool is pretty good, I’ll go back and write one myself,” or “Bro, this thing is great, can you open-source it on GitHub?” Or people directly ask about technical details — how did you solve xxx problem? — with the underlying intent of going back to build one themselves.
2. “Hungry People Opening Restaurants for Each Other”: Why Do We Fall Into the “Meta-Tool” Rat Race? 🍽️
JFerzt’s metaphor was too perfect.
Our circle is obsessed with building “meta-tools.”
What are “meta-tools”? Tools that “help others make tools.”
- We don’t make websites — we make “AI website generators.”
- We don’t write tweets — we make “AI tweet schedulers.”
- We don’t design logos — we make “AI logo generators.”
- We don’t write code — we make “AI code assistants.”
See, our customers are just “the previous version of us.”
In physics, a closed system that doesn’t absorb energy from outside will eventually move toward “entropy increase” per the second law of thermodynamics — becoming total stillness. Our “developer rat race” ecosystem is exactly such a closed system heading toward “heat death.”
Money (energy) isn’t flowing in from “outside the circle” — it’s just thinly, mutually exchanging within “the circle.” Until everyone’s bank accounts converge toward “$0 MRR.”
Why? Why do we — supposedly the “smartest” people — fall into such simple “group think”?
3. Deep Dissection: Three Psychological Traps That Keep Us Obsessed with the “Rat Race” 🧠
As an efficiency maximalist and strategy consultant, I must deconstruct this “why.” We do this not because we’re stupid, but because our brains are hijacked by three powerful psychological traps.
Trap 1: The Seduction of “Path of Least Resistance”
This is the core trap.
What’s the hardest part of entrepreneurship? “Understanding customers.”
But if we build a “Twitter scheduler,” who’s the customer? We ourselves are the customer.
We naturally understand the “pain points,” we know where this group gathers (X, Reddit, PH), we even know what “jargon” to use when communicating with them. This dramatically reduces the cognitive load of finding PMF (Product-Market Fit).
In contrast, understanding a “plumber’s” pain points? You’d have to find their forums (if they exist), make cold calls, attend their offline tool expos. You’d have to understand their jargon-filled SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures).
That’s too hard. Too “dirty.” Not “Vibe” at all.
So we instinctively choose the “path of least resistance” — building tools we ourselves would use, for people like us. We mistake “self-satisfaction” for “market demand.”
Trap 2: The Dopamine of “Instant Feedback”
This is the B-side of #buildinpublic culture.
You make an invoice management SaaS for “local florists.” You post it on X. What happens? …Nothing. Your developer friends don’t care about “florists.”
But if you make a “gorgeous VS Code theme plugin,” then post it on X and Launch on Product Hunt? “Boom!” 100 likes, 50 retweets, Daily Top 5 on Product Hunt.
This instant, positive social feedback is a powerful “dopamine” injection. It feels like success. It feels like PMF.
But this is “social currency,” not “bank deposits.”
That $40k/month “car dealership” software guy? His X account probably has 50 followers. He’s too busy — busy serving real customers, busy counting money — no time to “play” entrepreneur house with us.
We’re addicted to getting “validation” from peers, forgetting that the only “validation” that matters is customers voting with real money.
Trap 3: The “Sexy Project” Cognitive Bias
We’re Vibe Coders. We’re “tech-driven” creatures.
We like “sexy” problems. Like:
- “How do I use the latest GPT-4o-mini model to generate tweets that seem real?”
- “How do I build a blazingly fast website with Svelte 5 and Rust?”
While “boring” problems are:
- “How does a plumber manage their truck parts inventory?”
- “How does a dental clinic automatically send appointment reminder texts to patients?”
These problems are technically unchallenging, even “embarrassingly basic.” They’re unworthy of our “elegant” code. We’d be embarrassed to put these projects in our “Portfolio” or resume.
We’d rather make an AI knowledge base SaaS with $0 MRR than a plumber scheduling app with $10,000 MRR.
We mistake “technical complexity” and “elegant architecture” for “business value.”
4. The “Boring” Truth: Why the $40k/Month Opportunity Is Outside the Circle? 💰
That $40k/month “car dealership scheduling software” example isn’t a “survivorship bias” anecdote.
It’s the “elephant in the room” we’ve collectively ignored.
Real gold mines are buried in those “boring” industries that tech circles “forgot” and “look down on.” I call them “Non-tech Native Markets.”
Why are these “boring” industries the indie developer’s “blue ocean”?
🔑 Key takeaways:
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1. Huge “Value-Tech” Gap:
In our world, an “auto-reminder SaaS” is worthless. But in a dental clinic’s world, a system that automatically texts patients appointment reminders and lets them confirm online is “magic.” It doesn’t solve “efficiency” — it solves “revenue.” It directly reduces patient “No-show Rate.” They (or their insurance) are very happy to pay for this.
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2. Competitors Are “Pen and Paper,” Not “SaaS Matrix”:
When you make a “Logo generator,” your competitors are 50 nearly identical SaaS products on Product Hunt, plus giants like Canva. But when you make “inventory quoting SaaS” for “local florists,” who’s your competitor? The owner’s Excel spreadsheet, or even her paper notebook. With the simplest CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) app, you can provide 100x value improvement.
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3. Extremely High Willingness to Pay:
“Boring” industry people don’t pay for “Vibe” — they only pay for “ROI” (Return on Investment). Can your scheduling software help a car dealership close 3 more cars per month? If so, $500/month subscription is “practically free.” Meanwhile, in our circle, we hesitate for ages before paying $9/month for a “Twitter scheduler.”
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4. Insane Customer Stickiness (Low Churn):
This is the most beautiful point. JFerzt mentioned those customers don’t even know what a “tech stack” is. This means: They won’t choose your competitor because you used React instead of Svelte (they have no competitors to choose from). They won’t “comparison shop” on G2 or Capterra. Once they build their SOP (workflow) on your software, as long as your software “works,” they’ll never leave. Because the pain of “migration” is unimaginable to them. Your “Churn Rate” will be embarrassingly low.
5. Conclusion: Stop LARPing, Start Real “Entrepreneurship” 🧘
Schopenhauer said: “Man is a slave to desires.” In my view, developers in our circle are slaves to “the desire for validation” and “the desire for sexy.”
“LARPing” (pretending to be entrepreneurs) — this word is too precise.
We’ve put on “entrepreneur” costumes (MacBook, VS Code, PH account), we’ve learned “entrepreneur” jargon (MRR, PMF, ARR, AARRR). We’re having a blast in this massive “role-playing game,” liking each other’s posts (buffing each other).
But we forgot — entrepreneurship isn’t “role-playing.”
Entrepreneurship isn’t “Build in Public.” Entrepreneurship is “Solve in Public” — publicly solving a real existing problem.
Entrepreneurship isn’t being a “Vibe Coder.” Entrepreneurship is being a “Value Coder” — your code must ultimately exchange for real “value.”
Your users shouldn’t be on Product Hunt or Indie Hackers.
This Reddit hot post is that “outsider” who comes in and flips the table, shouting: “You’re all playing house!”
This shout is painful, but priceless.
It’s time to look away from our “shiny” screens, step out of the “echo chamber.” Go chat with a plumber. Go ask a dentist. Go look at that local florist still using paper invoices and ask her “What’s your biggest headache?”
Stop LARPing. Go solve a “boring,” real, valuable problem. This is the sexiest destiny for us as “builders.”
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🌌 True curiosity should point toward the “boring” world we know nothing about, yet truly exists.