One of my first professional coding jobs was in 2007 when Facebook first introduced 'Facebook Apps'. I worked for a startup making a facebook app, and EVERY SINGLE app company had the same monetization strategy: Selling ads for other facebook apps.

So the lifecycle of an app would be:

1) Create your game/quiz/whatever app.

2) Pay a successful app $x per install, and get a bunch of app installs.

3) Put all sorts of scammy "get extra in game perks if you refer your friends" to try to become viral.

4) Hope to become big enough that people start finding you without having to pay for ads.

5) Sell ads to other facebook app startups to generate installs for them.

It was a completely circular economy. There was not product or income source other than the next layer of the pyramid.

It didn't last long.

That is the problem with software developers with expertise in software, but no deep domain knowledge outside the CS world.

I’ve been a year deep into my first job out of tech. There is a never ending slew of problems where being able to code, specially now with AI, means you have wizard-like powers to help your coworkers.

My codebase is full of one-offs that slowly but surely converge towards cohesive/well-defined/reusable capabilities based on ‘real’ needs.

I’m now starting to pitch consulting to a niche to see what sticks. If the dynamic from the office holds (as I help them, capabilities compound) then I’ll eventually find something to call ‘a product’.

Talk to people.

There are an infinite amount of problems to solve.

Deciding whether they’re worth solving is the hard part.

Nailed it!

This is not even AI - it's pre-AI, and everyone has continued to try to create things that other people can use as a dependency, just on a much higher pace.

I've found writing simulations that my childhood brain would have LOVED to see run fun and fulfilling.

Maybe have it build some toy apps just for fun! My wife and I were talking once about typing speed and challenged each other to a typing competition. the existing ones I found weren't very good and were riddled with ads, so I had Claude build one for us to use.

Or maybe ask yourself what do you like to do outside of work? maybe build an app or claude skill to help with that.

If you like to cook, maybe try building a recipe manager for yourself. I set up a repo to store all of my recipes in cooklang (similar to markdown), and set up claude skills to find/create/evaluate new recipes.

Building the toy apps might help you come up with ideas for larger things too.

I’m really enjoying these LLMs for making ad-hoc tooling / apps for myself. Things that I only need for a day or a week, that don’t need to work perfectly (I can work around bugs).

It’s really liberating. Instead of saying “gosh I wish there was an app that…” I just make the app and use it and move on.

I’m on the other hand, I have a million ideas and AI has allowed me to implement so many of them.

I find myself building fun tools for myself and things that help with quality of life slightly, but I don’t need all this extra enterprise stuff for that. I actually find myself more likely to use something I built because I am proud of it, even if there is already something on the market that addresses my need.

build us a way out

When there’s a gold rush, sell shovels.

Ask an LLM for suggestions on what to build

Someone on HN pointed out how all the LLM companies are basically going “we made this thing, can y'all please find the billion dollar application for it?” and that really made a lot of things - namely why I’m frequently raising an eyebrow at these tools and the vague promises/demand that we use them - click into place.

Don’t get me wrong, I have found uses for various AI tools. But nothing consistent and daily yet, aside from AI audio repair tools and that’s not really the same thing.

Speak for yourself. I’ve been using Claude Code to build lots of customer facing things.

building is the easy bit, more than ever.

selling it is the hard part, nothing new there

Another option is to bring your coding skills to a industry not particularly known for using tech.

Sell the shovels!!

There are companies making a lot of money directly from software largely written by LLMs especially since Claude Code was released, but they aren't mentioning LLMs or AI in any marketing, client communications, or public releases. I'm at least very aware that we need to be able to retire before LLMs swamp or obsolete our niche, and don't want to invite competition.

Outside of tech companies, I think this is extremely common.

This type of software is mainly created to gain brand recognition, influence, or valuation, not to solve problems for humans. Its value is indirect and speculative.

These are the pets.com of the current bubble, and we'll be flooded by them before the damn thing finally pops.