Foreword
As an independent developer and a “Vibe Coder,” I have to admit: I enjoy the thrill of “hunting” and “being hunted” on Product Hunt and X (Twitter). We launch new projects, we share our MRR growth curves (even if it’s just $0 to $50), we like each other’s posts, and we encourage one another. It’s a great community, full of creativity and passion.
It seems we are all in a massive “echo chamber,” building increasingly exquisite “toys” for one another. That is, until I stumbled upon a viral post on Reddit today that, in an almost brutal fashion, shattered this “Emperor’s New Clothes” illusion.
💡 “We are all building tools for each other. That is the problem.”
Let’s break this down.
1. The Introduction: A Reddit Thread That Shattered the Illusion 👑
The story begins in r/indiehackers, a global gathering place for independent developers. A post suddenly detonated within the community, titled:
“After failing at 8 side projects, I finally understand why most indie devs stay poor.”
The developer (let’s call him JFerzt) didn’t share another “success template.” Instead, he offered a heartbreaking summary of “failure science.” His core argument was outrageously simple:
“We are all building tools for each other. That is the problem.”
He challenged us to scroll through any indie developer’s feed and count how many products are “Landing Page Builders,” “Twitter Schedulers,” or “AI Logo Generators.” All of these products point to the exact same target customer: “Other indie developers trying to quit their day jobs.”
Then, he dropped the most precise metaphor I’ve seen all year:
“It’s like a group of starving people opening restaurants that only serve each other.”
While everyone tastes each other’s “appetizers” (free tiers) and politely hits the “Like” button, everyone is slowly starving to death.
Think about it. Will most low-income indie devs, who haven’t yet launched a successful product, spend even a dime on so-called “productivity tools” outside of maybe Claude Code? Are open-source tools not good enough? Or is a local demo tool you wrote yourself—without a fancy GUI, without auth state management, without SSR—not good enough for your own use?
The real critical hit came in the second half. JFerzt mentioned he spent two years chasing the dopamine hit of launching “just another SaaS.” Until he met a guy making a steady $40k a month.
What does this guy do? He makes scheduling software for Car Dealerships.
JFerzt concluded: “That guy has no X followers. He doesn’t ‘Build in Public.’ He just… solved a practical problem for people with money.”
At the end of the post, he threw out a soul-searching question that forms the title of this article:
“Are we all just LARPing (Live Action Role-Playing) as entrepreneurs, building productivity tools that nobody needs?”
This post was like a boulder thrown into the developer community’s “wishing well.” It didn’t splash up wishes; it splashed up a wave of sobriety. As an INTJ, I cannot stop analyzing the systemic issues behind this phenomenon.
2. “Starving People Opening Restaurants”: Why Do We Fall into the “Meta-Tool” Trap? 🍽️
JFerzt’s metaphor is too accurate.
Our circle is obsessed with building “Meta-tools.”
What is a “Meta-tool”? It is a tool that “helps others make tools.”
- We don’t build websites; we build “AI Website Generators.”
- We don’t write tweets; we build “AI Tweet Schedulers.”
- We don’t design logos; we build “AI Logo Generators.”
- We don’t write code; we build “AI Coding Assistants.”
You see, our customer is “the previous version of us.”
In physics, if a closed system does not absorb energy from the outside, it will eventually move towards “Entropy Increase”—total silence—according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Our “developer involution” ecosystem is just such a closed system moving towards “Heat Death.”
Money (energy) is not flowing in from “outside the circle”; it is merely flowing thinly and interchangeably “inside the circle.” Until everyone’s bank account trends toward $0 MRR.
Why? Why do we, a group considered to be the “smartest” people, fall into this simplest of “groupthink” delusions?
3. Deep Dive: Three Psychological Traps of the “Echo Chamber” 🧠
As an efficiency maximalist and strategic consultant, I must dismantle the “Why.” We don’t do this because we are stupid; we do it because our brains are hijacked by three powerful psychological traps.
Trap 1: The Path of Least Resistance
This is the core trap.
What is the hardest part of a startup? “Understanding the customer.”
But if we build a “Twitter Scheduler,” who is the customer? We are the customer.
We naturally understand the “pain points.” We know where this group gathers (X, Reddit, Product Hunt). We even know the “slang” to communicate with them. This drastically reduces the cognitive load of finding PMF (Product-Market Fit).
By contrast, understanding the pain points of a plumber? You have to go to their forums (if they exist). You have to Cold Call. You have to go to their offline trade shows. You have to understand their SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) full of industry jargon.
That is too hard. That is “dirty.” That is not “Vibe.”
So, we instinctively choose the “Path of Least Resistance”—building tools for people like us, tools we would use ourselves. We mistake “self-gratification” for “market demand.”
Trap 2: The Dopamine of Instant Feedback
This is the B-side of #buildinpublic culture.
If you build an invoice management SaaS for a “local florist” and post it on X, what happens? …Nothing. Your developer friends don’t care about “florists.”
But if you build a “Beautiful VS Code Theme Plugin” and launch it on Product Hunt? “Boom!” 100 likes, 50 retweets, Top 5 of the Day.
This immediate, positive social feedback is a powerful “dopamine” injection. It feels like success. It feels like PMF.
But this is “Social Currency,” not “Bank Deposits.”
The “Car Dealership Software” guy making $40k/month? His X account might have 50 followers. He is too busy serving real customers, too busy counting money, to play “startup house” with us.
We are addicted to gaining “recognition” from peers, forgetting that the only recognition that matters is customers voting with their wallets.
Trap 3: The “Sexy Project” Bias
We are Vibe Coders. We are “technology-driven” creatures.
We like “Sexy” problems. Like:
- “How do I use the latest GPT-4o-mini model to generate indistinguishable tweets?”
- “How do I use Svelte 5 and Rust to build a website with explosive performance?”
The “Boring” problems are:
- “How does a plumber manage his truck parts inventory?”
- “How does a dental clinic automatically send appointment reminder SMS to patients?”
These problems are “technically” unchallenging, even “grungy.” They are unworthy of our “elegant” code. We are even embarrassed to put these projects in our “Portfolio” or Resume.
We would rather build 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 lies Outside the Circle 💰
The example of the $40k/month “Car Dealership Scheduling Software” is not a case of “Survivorship Bias.”
It is the “Elephant in the Room” that we collectively ignore.
The real gold mine lies buried in those “boring” industries that are “forgotten” and “despised” by the tech circle. I call them “Non-tech Native Markets.”
Why are these “boring” industries the “Blue Ocean” for indie developers?
🔑 Key Takeaways:
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High Value-Tech Gap: In our world, an “automated reminder SaaS” is worth nothing. But in the world of a dental clinic, a system that automatically texts patients and lets them confirm online is “Magic.” It solves not “efficiency,” but “Revenue”—it directly lowers the “No-show Rate.” They (or their insurance companies) are very happy to pay for this.
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Competitors are “Paper and Pen,” Not a “SaaS Matrix”: When you build a “Logo Generator,” your competitors are 50 almost identical SaaS tools on Product Hunt, plus giants like Canva. But when you build an “Inventory Quoting SaaS” for a local florist, who is your competitor? It’s the owner’s Excel sheet, or even her paper notebook. With a simple CRUD app, you can provide a 100x value increase.
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High Willingness to Pay: People in “boring” industries don’t pay for “Vibe”; they pay for ROI. Can your scheduling software help a car dealer sell 3 more cars a month? If so, a $500 monthly subscription is “dirt cheap.” Meanwhile, in our circle, we hesitate for days over paying $9/month for a Twitter scheduler.
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Insane Stickiness / Low Churn: This is the most beautiful part. JFerzt mentioned that 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 don’t have competitors to choose from). They won’t “comparison shop” on G2 or Capterra. Once they build their SOPs on your software, as long as your software “works,” they will never leave. The pain of “migration” is unimaginable to them. Your Churn Rate will be ridiculously low.
5. Conclusion: Stop LARPing, Start Real “Entrepreneurship” 🧘
Schopenhauer said, “Man is a slave to desire.” In my view, developers in our circle are slaves to the “desire for recognition” and the “desire for sexiness.”
The term “LARPing” (Live Action Role-Playing) is used too precisely here.
We put on the costumes of “Entrepreneurs” (MacBook, VS Code, PH Account), we learn the slang of “Entrepreneurs” (MRR, PMF, ARR, AARRR). We have a great time in this massive RPG, liking each other’s posts (buffing each other).
But we forget: Entrepreneurship is not “Role Playing.”
Entrepreneurship is not “Build in Public.” Entrepreneurship is “Solve in Public”—publicly solving a real, existing problem.
Entrepreneurship is not being a “Vibe Coder.” It is being a “Value Coder”—your code must ultimately be exchanged for real “value.”
Your users should not be on Product Hunt. They should not be on Indie Hackers.
This Reddit thread is the “outsider” who flipped the table and shouted: “You are all playing house!”
This shout is painful, but it is priceless.
It is time to take our eyes off our “shiny” screens and walk out of the “echo chamber.” Go talk to a plumber. Go ask a dentist. Go look at the local florist still using paper invoices and ask her, “What is your biggest headache?”
Stop LARPing. Go solve a “boring,” real, profitable problem. That is the sexiest destiny for us as “Builders.”