Pieter Levels makes thousands a month by building applications while ignoring the hype about frameworks and libraries. He uses plain HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP on the backend without any framework, stores data with SQLite, and serves all his apps using a single VPS.
Meanwhile, the internet is full of evangelists promoting the next framework, libraries, and AI tools promising simpler and faster applications.
This begs the question, does tech stack matter?
Solo engineer
Pieter Levels is a solo engineer focused on building things fast. He does that by simply using what he knows and is readily available and stable.
Not having to go learn a new library and new fancy tool saves him tons of time as these tools often come with a steep learning curve and an extensive list of dependencies and setup requirements that only hold people back.
For a solo engineer, this makes sense. You dont have to worry about what others think or know or ensure everything is well documented following strict guidelines to ensure quality and code readability, etc.
In a team environment you need all this stuff to ensure everyone stays on the same page and thats exactly what makes every team environment setup complex and slows down deployment.
