(Originally from iamcharliegraham.com)
We are in the middle of the biggest red ocean I have ever seen in software development.
Thanks to AI coding, it has never been easier to design, develop, and distribute software. A process that once took months - designing in Figma, having developers write and test code, and deploying to AWS - can now take days with tools like Claude, other vibe-based coding assistants, and quick and easy deployment sites.
Yes, non-developers may hit a “vibe wall,” and yes, the code may run into huge technical debt quickly, but developers using AI coding tools can build new software from scratch probably 5x faster than before.
The result is a Cambrian explosion of software launches.
Where a great idea in a space once had 5-10 competitors, hundreds now appear - all competing for attention. Big companies used to move slowly, but now a ragtag team of two developers at a large firm can whip up something that looks top-of-market to the untrained eye in a matter of weeks.
Your company can scream to anyone that listens that all the competition is AI SLOP, but when hundreds of companies are pitching the same solution, your one voice will get lost.
In the past, the best practice to win in a competitive market was to differentiate yourself - “be different,” as Steve Jobs would say.
But product differentiation is no longer effective in this new world.
Differentiate on an amazing UX? You used to rely on your awesome UX team for a sustainable advantage. Now, dozens of competitors can screenshot (or soon video) your flow and give it to an AI to reproduce quickly.
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