Why would I pay for something when I could build it myself?
Almost every dev has thought that at some point. Or at least, I hope they have. Otherwise I would feel like an enormous ass—for that was my attitude towards many apps I’ve come across. I’d see something cool, think to myself “Huh, I could do that”, and then proceed to forget about it.
I don’t know if it also comes from having grown up in an environment where DIY was valued, over buying stuff off the shelf. Eating at home instead of eating out. Or, more likely, it’s the influence having “free” software growing up, where everything one ever used was either a demo, or shareware, or bootlegged in someway or the other. It wasn’t until my first paycheck that I actually spent it towards something I otherwise would have gotten through… other means. I probably shouldn’t say this stuff out loud.
It would be much later in when I first hear the phrase “Build vs Buy”, and get involved in those decisions at large enterprises. A turn of events that led to me actually giving this stuff some thought. After having done that for many years, I came around to the fact that, almost always, the answer to that question, is Buy. In fact, that isn’t even the right question to ask, but that is a topic for another day.
Why buy? As an individual, it simply comes down to one thing. Because you won’t build it. You probably could, but it ain’t happening.
There could be myriad reasons as to why. Lack of time, for one. Not an interesting enough problem to solve, for another. “Don’t need it right now”. You might even start building it and realize a while later that the problem is either too hard and requires more time and sustained interest than you initially thought. Maybe the problem it solves occurs rare enough that you’re fine solving it by hand. (There are exceptions, of course—Spite-driven development is a thing that has worked for me in the past.)
But then… LLMs come along. Time-consuming problems are suddenly less so. Everyone can just “build it themselves”, especially if their needs are straightforward enough to explain. All my dead and buried unfinished projects can be brought back to life. But, will they…?