Last year, all my non-programmer friends built apps

Last year, all my non-programmer friends were building apps. Yet today, those apps are nowhere to be found.

Everyone followed the ads. They signed up for Lovable and all the fancy app-building services that exist. My LinkedIn feed was filled with PMs who had discovered new powers. Some posted bullet-point lists of "things to do to be successful with AI." "Don't work hard, work smart," they said, as if it were a deep insight.

I must admit, I was a bit jealous. With a full-time job, I don't get to work on my cool side project, which has collected enough dust to turn into a dune. There's probably a little mouse living inside. I'll call him Muad'Dib.

What was I talking about? Right. The apps.

Today, my friends are silent. I still see the occasional post on LinkedIn, but they don't garner the engagement they used to. The app-building AI services still exist, but their customers have paused their subscriptions. Here's a conversation I had recently.

A friend had "vibe-coded" an Android app. A platform for building communities around common interests. Biking enthusiasts could start a biking community. Cooking fans could gather around recipes. It was a neat idea. While using the app on his phone, swiping through different pages and watching the slick animations, I felt a bit jealous. Then I asked: "So where is the data stored?"

"It's stored on the app," he replied.

"I mean, all the user data," I pressed. "Do you use a database on AWS, or any service like that?"

We went back and forth while I tried to clarify my question. His vibe-knowing started to show its limits. I felt some relief, my job was safe for now. Joking aside, we talked about servers, app architecture, and even GDPR compliance. These weren't things the AI builder had prepared him for.

This conversation happens often now when I check in on friends who vibe-coded their way into developing an app or website. They felt on top of the world when they were getting started. But then they got stuck. An error message they couldn't debug. The service generating gibberish. Requests the AI couldn't understand. How do you build the backend of an app when you don't know what a backend is? And when the tool asks you to sign up for Google Cloud and start paying monthly fees, what are you supposed to do?

Another friend wanted to build a newsletter. Right now, ChatGPT told him to set up WordPress and learn about SMTP. These are all good things to learn, but the "S" in SMTP is a lie. It's not that simple. I've been trying to explain to him why the email he is sending from the command line is not reaching his gmail.

The AI services that promise to build applications are great at making a storefront you don't want to modify. The moment you start customizing, you run into problems. That's why all Lovable websites look exactly the same. These services continue to exist. The marketing is still effective. But few people end up with a product that actually solves their problems.

My friends spent money on these services. They were excited to see a polished brochure. The problem is, they didn't know what it takes to actually run an app.

The AI tools are amazing at generating the visible 20% of an app. But the remaining invisible 80% is where the actual work is. The infrastructure, the security, maintenance, scaling issues, and then the actual cost. The free tier on AWS doesn't last forever. And neither does your enthusiasm when you start paying $200/month for a hobby project.

My friends' experiments weren't failures. They learned something valuable. Some now understand why developers get paid what they do. Some even started taking programming bootcamp. But the rest have moved on. Their app sits dormant in an abandoned github repo. Their domain will probably expire this year.

They're back to their day jobs, a little wiser about the difference between a demo and a product. Their LinkedIn profiles are quieter now, they have stopped posting about "working smart, not hard."

As for me, I should probably check on Muad'Dib. That side project isn't going to build itself. AI or no AI.

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