Today, anything can go viral in seconds. Marketing has more power than ever. Whether through a 6-second video, a viral X (formerly Twitter) thread, or even an article like this one. Software development is no exception; we’re just as influenced by trends and hype as any other industry.
Most Shiny Tools Are Just Good PR
The influencer market reached $30 billion in 2025, up from $20 billion just a year earlier. While most people associate influencers with fashion, lifestyle, or travel, there is a big slice of “tech influencers”. Their reach is enormous, shaping the perspectives of aspiring developers, startups, and even established companies.
There are millions of content creators in the software development niche, but most are full-time creators rather than practicing software developers. Because content creation relies on influence to generate income, many tech influencers earn money through paid sponsorships, affiliate links, and similar revenue streams.
At the same time, companies spend thousands — even millions — on PR budgets to promote their products. With the right marketing team, they can convince thousands of developers to adopt tools or practices that might not actually be the best fit.
Selling Dreams
Tech influencers often use hooks to grab your attention, like:
- “Learn this and land a six-figure job.”
- “I scaled my app to 1M users with just this stack.”
- “This is the only tool you need as a developer in 2025.”
These lines sound inspiring, but they’re designed to sell a dream. Often oversimplifying reality and glossing over the hard work, trade-offs, and failures behind real success.
Remember, they’re getting paid. What about you?
The Cost of Hype
This leads early-stage startups into vendor lock-in, where they burn through a significant share of their investment or revenue on tools that look shiny in the beginning but don’t scale when the business grows. Instead of focusing on product-market fit or customer needs, much of their runway gets tied up in subscriptions, infrastructure commitments, or platforms they can’t easily escape from.
For developers, the story isn’t much brighter. Many get trapped in “tutorial hell” jumping from one crash course to another without ever applying the knowledge to meaningful real-world problems. The relentless pace of new tools creates a sense of constant pressure to keep up, which often spirals into imposter syndrome: the belief that everyone else is ahead while you’re falling behind. Over time, this culture of hype not only wastes resources but also erodes confidence, motivation, and in some cases, careers.
Hype or Not Framework
This is the framework I use to navigate hype. It has saved me from making costly mistakes more than once.
- Wait: Sleep on it. Sometimes for months, even years. If a tool survives the hype cycle, it’s worth a second look.
- Investigate: I check the GitHub Issues tab, Reddit threads, and community discussions. Look for recurring pain points.
- Experiment: Tutorials are great for learning the basics, but I always test against real problems I face in projects.
- Compare: Stack it up against alternatives. Is it actually better, or just newer? Does it solve a unique problem, or reinvent the wheel with flashier branding?
- Validate: Look for battle-tested evidence, case studies, production usage, and benchmarks. Is anyone at scale using it successfully?
- Decide: If it checks out, adopt it gradually. If not, move on without regret.
A Personal Note
I’m not against companies spending on PR, nor do I think every influencer is bad. In fact, many gorgeous, well-built products have grown thanks to big marketing budgets. At the same time, I’ve also seen — and personally fallen for — solutions that were all hype with no real substance. I’ve invested time, energy, and money into tools that weren’t battle-tested and never grew beyond the early stages. That’s the reality of today’s ecosystem: influence is powerful, for better or worse.
Special Thanks
Many highly skilled engineers share knowledge responsibly. These creators are aware of their influence and produce content that genuinely helps thousands of developers learn, grow, and build better software. Supporting them is how we build a healthier developer ecosystem, one where influence comes from trust and experience, not just marketing.
Drop a comment if you know someone who deserves recognition for doing this right.
Top comments (2)
Are there tech influences? Now I know I'm always late to the new technologies.
I don't think scale is not a good check. The think the scaling process is a better check. If you have to rewrite more than fifty procent of the code to scale, it signals it is not fit to use at scale.
On the other hand not every solution needs to scale.
I agree “scale” isn’t something you can just check off in software development, and you’re right, not every solution even needs to scale.
What I meant in the article is that scale goes beyond code. It’s about how the system and business respond when growth happens:
In this context, “scale” means the overall response to growth, not just technical capacity.