Professionalism is overrated.
The industry wants you to act like an architect before you’ve even laid a foundation:
- Use TypeScript.
- Add ESLint.
- Configure CI/CD.
- Pick the “best” framework (spoiler: there isn’t one).
- Follow patterns. Respect the stack.
And when you’re done setting all that up?
You’re still staring at a blank screen.
The Cult of Professionalism
Let’s be honest: most of us learned to code by messing around.
We built bad fan sites. Wrote broken scripts. Copy-pasted from Stack Overflow until it kinda worked. And then, one day, someone started calling us professionals—and told us to forget all that.
Now it’s all about doing it right.
But here’s the secret: most of the best developers I know still build like amateurs. Not because they don’t know better—because they do.
They know:
- You don’t need type safety for a weekend prototype.
- You can write ugly code as long as it works.
- You can use global state if it’s faster.
- You can refactor later—or never.
They build to learn. To validate. To explore. They know the stack is a tool, not a shrine.
Why Amateur Thinking Wins
The “amateur” mindset is powerful because it’s not precious. You’re not building a cathedral. You’re building a shack to see if the roof leaks.
That grants you a few superpowers:
- Speed – You get to useful faster. No boilerplate worship.
- Curiosity – You ask “what if?” more than “is this idiomatic?”
- Resilience – You ship without the existential dread of “technical debt.”
- Play – You remember why you liked this in the first place.
Meanwhile, the “professional” mindset over-optimizes for safety and status:
- Will this pass code review?
- Is this scalable?
- Will this impress Twitter?
That’s not building. That’s posturing.
Start Amateur, Stay Sharp
Here’s a litmus test: if you’re not solving a real problem, learning something new, or laughing at how janky it is—you’re probably overbuilding.
Try this instead:
| Situation | Default Instinct | Amateur Move |
|---|---|---|
| Starting a new idea | Set up Next.js + Tailwind + Auth + DB | One HTML file and a <script> tag |
| Need state management | Reach for Redux or Zustand | useState until it breaks |
| Want to persist data | Wire up Firebase or Supabase | Start with localStorage |
| Building a dashboard | Scaffold with a UI kit | Use <table> and a little CSS |
| Prepping for launch | Add analytics, SEO, deploy config | Ask: “Does anyone actually want this?” |
Stop Building for the Version of You That Works at Google
You’re not Google. You’re not even pre-IPO Stripe. You’re a person with a keyboard and an idea.
Stop pretending you’re building the next FAANG-scale system. Start pretending you’re 15 again and your goal is to make something weird and cool you can show your friends.
Professionalism has its place—but it should come after usefulness, not before it.
Bottom Line
If you want to build something real, think less like an engineer and more like a hacker.
Amateurs build. Professionals talk about architecture.