I’m going to say something I had to learn the hard way.

Most devs don’t fail because they can’t code.

They fail because they build things nobody asked for.

I did this for years.

New idea → start coding → spend weeks polishing → launch…
Silence.

No users.
No revenue.
Just another “learning experience.”

At some point, that excuse stops working.

The uncomfortable truth:

We like building more than we like being wrong.

So instead of testing ideas early, we hide inside the code.
Feels productive. Feels safe.

But it’s not.

The market doesn’t care how clean your code is.
It cares if the problem is painful enough to pay for.

Everything changed for me when I flipped the order:

Find real pain first 🔎
Check if people are already paying 💰
Test interest before building 🧪

If nobody cares, I move on. Fast.

It’s less fun. But it works.

Curious how others here think about this:

Do you validate first, or build and figure it out later?