In today’s world, industries across the board are increasingly drawn to the allure of glamor and quick results, often at the expense of depth and substance. This phenomenon isn’t just confined to flashy events like Jake Paul boxing Mike Tyson—it’s also creeping into fields like software development. The focus has shifted from craftsmanship to clout, with metrics like the number of apps launched or the dollars earned overshadowing the hard work and creativity behind truly impactful projects.
This post explores how this shift mirrors the glamor-driven culture seen in entertainment, using Marc Lou—a prolific SaaS creator—and Mike Tyson as case studies. By unpacking their approaches, we’ll see what this trend says about our industry and why we should reconsider what we value most.
Clout, Money, and Influence
In a recent video by Moon on YouTube, Moon explains how our community is becoming more and more attached to all the glam and showmanship but not hard work. As the world chimes in to watch Jake Paul fight the boxing legend Mike Tyson in the ring, just like any fake and temporary dopamine shot, it’s the anticipation of the match that matters most to the fans, nobody is expecting any show of pure skill from a content creator or a 60 year old retired athlete.
You can’t help but notice that part of the software domain is catching on, attracted and motivated not by grit or curiosity, but by how much money you made from your app, the number of apps you created in the last week, or the languages you wrote a todo app in. Some of the tools we integrated into our daily lives started off as a hobby project and did not cost users a dime.
The loss of interest in the core value of a product and the genuine interest in how it was built is beginning to show in the industry, especially in junior and newcomers, some relevant examples to list are products released by Marc Lou.
A bit of context concerning Marc Lou since Mike Tyson doesn’t need one:
Marc is a French self taught programmer living in Indonesia saving on taxation and building more SaaS than JS frameworks popping up at a pace of 12+ startups in one year . “Impossible!” You might say, how may one release solid, fresh and secure entrepreneurial tools with such speed and effectiveness, you simply do not, kind of.
Ship Fast ⚡️
I’ll just quote Ship Fast ⚡️’s description of the product:
The NextJS boilerplate with all you need to build your SaaS, AI tool, or any other web app and make your first $ online fast.
Otherwise said, it’s a paid Github repository that Marc will give you access to once you pay the hefty price tag of $199.. And if you have deeper pockets you can pay $299 to get get Ship Fast & the CodeFast combo wombo. The latter is a course that teaches you, you the non tech-savvy entrepreneur with 1000 ideas, the fundamentals of coding, creating a users table in a db, setting up stripe, and just like that, after 12 hours of watching content, you launch your idea to the world.
This reminds me of the type of content you might find on Youtube: learn Python in 5 min, create a full-stack app in 1 hour, learn C++ in 1 day. Or more recently on X: create an AI startup in 3 steps, I do not code and built a full app in 1 hour.
I feel that, more than anything, Marc is a showman before anything else, just like Jake Paul is, the glam, the marketing, the amount of excitement he brings to the table any time he has a new product out is really different from any other creator in this space, it’s attractive and encouraging. His approach tho, being indifferent towards which tool is used, ignoring security and clean code best practices, as Jake Paul did, will bring a lot of eyes and people motivated by questionable intentions. As an example, the following is a ridiculous security accident Marc Lou faced:
Ship Fast’s Security Bugs
In the hopes of not beating a dead horse, I’ll make this quick: a recent Twitter drama started after a software security advocate reported a bug with Ship Fast publicly, the community’s response was, surprising to say the least. Many supported either side, main arguments being:
- Any $200 product deserves a great security service
- Bug reports should be discussed in private to avoid abuse
Marc got mad, blocked some people, apologized, got a security audit by the same guy, and that was it, we’re all friends at the end of the day. What stood out was the polarized reaction from the community. Some supporters (almost like a crypto cult) criticized Marc’s detractors, equating monetary success with the sole measure of credibility, which risks stifling constructive feedback.
Ending Thoughts
My criticism over the prior content is that it does not focus on actually helping you become a better engineer or programmer, nor does it teach you the ins and outs of any tool, framework or library, nor does it thoroughly explain any fundamentals. This content focuses on making you remember and carrying the same todo app tutorial over the hill eternally like Sisyphus.
Following these 'Ship Fast' or 'Learn Python in 5 Minutes' approaches feels eerily like Sisyphus pushing his boulder up the hill—an endless cycle of shallow effort that never leads to mastery. Every time you follow a rushed tutorial or rely on pre-built templates without understanding the underlying principles, you’re rolling the same boulder, only to watch it tumble back down when you face a real-world challenge.
True growth as a software developer—or in any field—requires breaking this cycle. Instead of copying yet another to-do app tutorial, we should strive to understand the fundamentals that empower us to build unique, scalable solutions. Learning isn’t just about reaching the top of the hill; it’s about mastering the tools and skills that make the journey worthwhile.
Creating the ideology of one programming language syntax being the one all be all of the software industry is almost blasphemous: a 50+ year old industry cannot be simply summarized in creating a sum() function. I do acknowledge that everyone needs an easy starting point, no one enjoys a daunting 101 class, but teaching one programming syntax and calling it a day misses the point of teaching algorithms: how they matter most for business logic, how they’re so tangled with data structures, how different programming languages have different philosophies and how the latter interact in unique ways with different computer hardware. A programming language is one weapon in your arsenal, not a swiss knife to every problem. To a project, infrastructure is as important, a good database structure is as important, so is proper networking and a clean codebase, so is reading documentation and critical thinking.
At the end of day, it comes down to the type of person you want to become, a mechanical engineer that can bash the keyboard all day and leech every new OSS with so little patience you ask ChatGPT every question that comes to mind, or a sophisticated engineer with deep understanding and passion for the industry that takes advantage of OSS and aspires to improve the field and give back to the community.