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Fake it till you make it approach?
by
Jin
Does any indiehackers use the above approach and succeeded? Which part do you fake it?
I wholeheartedly believe in this. Believe in yourself, project confidence and eventually it will become real and you're not "faking" anymore. If you approach your work with confidence, more opportunities will arise and present themselves to you naturally.
As a first time maker, I believe the confidence of a person can make a huge difference on a startup’s success. We always seek some sort of approval from strangers which then make us think too much before action.
I want to share a personal story, that fits the motto. In 2017 I was bidding on a web dev project, which used a framework I had no experience in. I was in a tough spot and really wanted the job, so I told the client I had plenty of experience in it and that it was no problem (I "faked" it). I won the project, and then I spent countless nights learning the framework so I could actually fulfil the project. In the end, I nailed it and the project outcome was a success.
Going into the next client meeting I did not have "fake" it anymore, as now I actually had some experience under my belt.
Fake it till you make it.
Wow this is a great example. This is something like chicken and egg problem.
Spot on! I think it is part of our DNA as social animals that we are always seeking external validation.
I fake my confidence.
Whether it is when giving a presentations, talks, and even small talks. That said, I am not selling snake oil, and I try to both mentions pros and cons without becoming overwhelming, and I listen.
I think confidence comes from real knowledge and experience, but many people suffer from impostor syndrome.
And in my case, "fake it till you make it" approach toward sharing my knowledge is very beneficial.
That’s right. Confidence is what a maker need especially for those who is first timer.
We fake social proof, the widget at the bottom that says, "someone started a free trial". Though it's pretty much close to the number we get but that's fake! https://strikingdigital.com/
The worse part is our conversions reduced ever since we turned that on. We gotta remove or refine that.
Do you find out why the conversions are reduced?
We were adding many features at that time and ran into several issues.
That may be it, or visitors found out it's fake and didn't like to buy our product.
This comment was deleted 5 years ago
Like Raj, I'm also curious to know more. What part are you going to fake? DM me tho, otherwise your plans will be ruined.
This comment was deleted 5 years ago
I would love to hear more about this. Could you share a few instances where you clearly identified this happening?
We've had two PH launches in December and have noticed A LOT of bot activity on our posts. Most leave generic comments and have very broad titles. If you check their joining date, most are fairly recent with close to zero points - someone's probably warming up their fake accounts or bots before upvoting their own projects.
In the last two weeks, we've identified two separate products that seemed to start the day with upwards of 70 upvotes at midnight, and stayed at the top of the page which no doubt drove them thousands of "real" visitors.
That’s really true. I’m having the same thought about fakers are having higher chance of succeeding.