The No-Code Mindset
Hi everyone,
Welcome to this issue of One to Better, a newsletter about building ideas, productivity, and finishing what you start through consistent daily habits.
This week I wanted to talk about what I call The No-Code Mindset.
I saw a post a while back on Twitter asking about the learning curve for @bubble. I thought it was a valid question.
Someone questioned why would you worry about the difficulty level and then boasted how the tools should be hard to learn, or there's no value in learning them, or something along those lines.
My instinct was to respond immediately and defend the person asking such a simple question, but I decided to think about it to avoid an emotional response.
Progress in society also requires the ruthless modernization and streamlining of all things once hard.
I understand the value of learning difficult things, like playing an instrument, speaking another language, or learning to code. I get it; spending hundreds or thousands of hours studying to pursue mastery is admirable and an essential part of every craft.
No one walks around, saying I wish my computer were harder to use. Why would you want this in software?
However, progress in society also requires the ruthless modernization and streamlining of all things once hard. No one walks around, saying I wish my computer were harder to use. Why would you want this in software? Things like; using computers, building digital products and services, or something as casual as recording (DVR) your favorite show. Once, all of these things were difficult. Now they are simple.
There will always be things in life that are hard, but none of us should actively want this. We all should demand ease of use for one simple reason, time.
Time is the one thing in life that treats everyone equally. All of us have only 24 hours in a day, and that time is valuable. The whole point of no-code tools is to allow faster development times because our time is limited, and time is money.
As makers, we should always be asking how I can make this easier.
As makers, we should always be asking how I can make this easier, and we should celebrate products that follow this path while politely encouraging those who don't.
Of course, just because the development tool is easy to use doesn't mean that the journey will be easy, but getting from zero to launch quickly should be one of the main reasons you're using a no-code tool, so questioning the learning curve is a logical question.
Searching for no-code tools that are easy is not a fault; it's a mindset, a mindset where you look for the tool that does the same thing as the hard tool but is more accessible and requires less time—a tool where ego takes a backseat to efficiency. Work smarter, not harder.
This is the no-code mindset, and I believe it's a core component to bootstrap, indie-style no-code development. It’s also a business mindset, so if you plan to build a company, remember, time is money, and don’t focus on hard to use tools if you don’t have to.
An ego trip is a journey to nowhere. – Robert Half
That's all for this week. I hope this issue was helpful. Thank you for subscribing and following. If you like the newsletter, please share it.
Stay positive, and be well. See you next issue. ✌️
Great article.
This is why I love how makers have described No Code as the Ikea of software. It abstracts all the complexities which has been happening since Marc Andressen wrote that software is eating the world