Has Indie Hacking Become Too Fake?

I'd agree.

There's been a lot of movement around "building in public" but it's more or less all the same content:

• OMG so many signups today I had no idea where they came from
• Perfect product screenshot - Oh this? I just whipped it up in 2 minutes
• Stripe screenshots with an inconspicuously missing x and y-axis
• Pictures of a laptop on a table with a tropical background (gotta work while you relax otherwise you can't relax)
• Selfies/pictures of themselves working in non-working locations (like a hospital exam room)

And so on.

It's a lot of "here's my success please follow for more success" and it's a formula that works for social media because (like other comments have noted), people like following success stories.

But of course, none of it is real. For that reason, it's also incredibly toxic.

Building a business (not just a product, but one that has customers and consistently grows) is really freakin' hard (and at times, boring) - but no one wants to talk about the failures along the way; or the ones that do, don't get the same reach thanks to the platform algorithms.

Personally, I tried to build in public but I couldn't help feeling like I was doing a bit or putting on an act.

No CTA here, just that I feel the same way. I spend more time now building my audience and talking to customers since that's what matters anyway.

I think that sharing winnings boosts engagement, as everyone loves following a success story, especially when it's something achievable by many developers. However, the issue arises when posts on platforms like Indie Hackers or X claim, "My project is earning $XXk, and this is how I did it," creating unrealistic expectations. It's vital to remember that behind these moments of success are countless hours of hard work, failures, and learning. For someone like me that it's starting, I prefer to follow people who can bring teachings instead of just showing off.

I used to feel the same way scrolling through posts that seemed a bit too polished or staged. But I’ve found value in cutting through all that by focusing on results I can measure, like the feedback I get or small wins like someone sharing my stuff. Sometimes I take breaks and just explore something random like https://crackrelease.com/silent-hill-f/ to clear my head before jumping back in.

Yes there is a lot of cherry picking content to show the bright side of Indie hacking and a lot less of the failures.

If you think about it has to be that way.

It’s human nature people don’t like the depressing content.

On youtube people put clickbait titles to get people to watch their videos.

If Indie hackers were putting up titles like “I got one user” or “I have consistently made 3 dollars every month for a year”

Vs “I’ve been able to consistent bring in revenue on my first project”

Do you think people would click on it and read? Probably not.

And then if people never clicked, read and engaged with people content then why would someone keep producing it? Just for the hell of it?

It does make me wonder if there is a way for the community to start blending failures into positive framing to get more engagement from folks without portraying false hope.

P.s. I don’t feel like people would ever follow others who constantly share failures and not the successes. Like I don’t need someone to teach my how to fail. 😂

Yeah, I feel quite the opposite. It seems like 80% losing and 18% doing OK and then maybe 2% winning with most things I do haha.

I quit Twitter precisely because of this phenomenon, that everyone always seems like they're winning. Twitter for indie hackers is literally like Instagram for influencers, it's all heavily cherry picked.

The community has always been dominated by these "always winning" posts, though I can understand the feeling that it's gotten worse over time.

From my bird's-eye view of the entire community, there's really no way around this because of the supply-and-demand dynamics at play:

1. Founders publicly share all kinds of updates: both wins and losses.
2. Readers overwhelmingly favor the win stories in terms of views and engagements.
3. Over time, individual founders iterate their content toward what works, i.e. wins. (Those who don't eventually get drowned out by those who do, like an evolutionary algorithm.)

This is entirely rational! It's wise of the community to give status to successful founders like Pieter Levels, Jon Yongfook, Marc Louvion, and others who reach unusual milestones and share how they do it. Because success leaves clues.

The inevitable byproduct is this dynamic creates a perverse incentive for people who HAVEN'T had true business wins to publicly pretend like they have. Which is annoying. But it's not new, and it's also impossible to prevent.

I think it is important not to compare yourself aide by side with anyone, yeah we might have moment like “Looks like everyone is winning except me” but don’t get sucked into this toxic state of putting yourself on the same frame as others.

The "always winning" posts inspire you to aim higher however, I agree that they are not always realistic.
An end to end step guide including failures, feel more promising and would attract more solopreneurs and people struggling to create something from scratch.

Every tech, platform or community has its pros and cons. Like Internet ( a revolutionary tech) enabled so many billion dollar business, and yet it's also the same place where people spend mindless hours, nothing less than a chronic addiction. A platform fundamentally cannot it be biased (unless for some vested business interest), it's the people who use it make it seem so. You can always steer the system into a neutral or a version of your own.

Hi, I noticed this as well.
Also, 'building in public' has turned into 'bragging in public'.

But the issue, in my opinion, is that people then get completely distorted view of the reality (with regards to running a business, indie hacking etc.) and think somebody else's strategy will also lead to your success - "If I can do it, so can you.. and with the right attitude you can achieve everything..."

And then a year later you are burned out and wondering why nothing worked out for you.

I feel like there are real indiehackers posting about their day to day and those that have turned building in public into an advertising platform. Threadbois and people who are inauthentic and trying to push something, essentially.

I find it's usually a good sign when someone posts about various things, not necessarily related to indiehacking, and a bad sign when they do engagement bait. Twitter in particular loves hyperbole, and oversimplified hot takes that generate a response.

I think AI revolution was a golden age for indiehackers. A lot of indiehackers made huge money with AI. That why we see more success stories than failure stories. Its a trend after AI revolution which is going to last for some more time.
Now there's nothing wrong with sharing your progress on twitter.
The problem is not successful guys. The problem is social media. Any social media is bad for your mental health. Watch Justin Kan's video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rIL5vHoF34. Even though he sold Twitch for a $billion dollars still he thought he's not good enough. he told in the video that he was constantly surrounded by tech entrepreneurs on twitter who was raising millions of dollars and he compared himself with these guys and feel bad for himself.
Just think about it. he sold his company for billion dollars, he has $400 million dollars as his net worth (check on google), but still he compared himself with other guys on twitter.

In the video he said he quit social media and then his mental health is became better.

Comparing ourselves is a genetic thing and its not in our hand to control it. The best we can do is just change our enviroment to get less exposed to these kind of stuff.

If Justin Kan cannot do it, who are we?

Absolutely agree!

X is definitively bad for pushing people to always publish posts which work the best with engagement. It's too much based on quantity over quality.
So people rely on "formulaes" like posting high MRR, success or victories because it draws more engagement.

I think it depends on the circle but in general, the BIP community loves a good successful story more because it gives you hope and keeps you going on this hard path which is entrepreneurship.
It's for this reason big accounts are followed and farmed.

But I can still see a lot of founders sharing either their successes or their struggles, especially small accounts.
I tend to ignore the "I have 50KMRR, here is how" as I prefer valuable content.

I get this totally. I discovered the build in public community a year ago and it's had me quite busy since then. I discovered that it's more a way of marketing. The only thing is that the "rule" is that you have to be authentic. If you start talking about being authentic it's looking suspicous, your doing "a thing".

I totally understand what you mean and that if you have been in the build-in-public scene for a long time you have seen quit some change. That's too bad. Perhaps maybe try to change perspective and see it as a game or challnge, or something? :)

You have made a very interesting point.

I doubt if it has become fake, I am new to community so I dont have the historical context of what used to be the key discussion points. Based on my limited time I do see quite a bit of posts on seeking suggestions on landing pages with balance of success stories.

May be open discussions about what indie hackers are doing as a part of the project could be happening on X (twitter) and that is where tribulations and failures might be documented.

As a newcomer and an aspiring indie hacker it would definitely be nice to have posts that discuss failures, or things as they are happening.

If people keep sharing only their wins, but not their failures, you are bound to feel its fake. I think indie hacking is not only about wins, but failures too. People should share that equally.

It's been over a month here in Indie Hackers so I cannot build a consistent opinion on what you wrote. I've read lot of posts, some with great ideas, others not so great. Also got highly valuable information mainly from early stage entrepeneurs, most winning cases are like overnight (I don't usually pay too much attention to these).