A few weeks ago I built a multiplayer drawing game — basically a Skribbl.io clone, real-time rooms, scoring, the whole thing — in about 2 hours using AI to do the heavy lifting. Not a tutorial-follow project. A working thing people could actually open and play. It got me thinking about something I keep going back and forth on: For the last decade the advice was "get the degree, get the certs, build the resume." But right now I can describe what I want, ship it the same afternoon, and put a live link in front of real users. The gap between "idea" and "shipped" has basically collapsed. So my honest question for this community: \*\*Does shipping a real, working product matter more than credentials now — or is that just survivor-bias talk from people who got lucky?\*\* A few things I'm genuinely unsure about: \- Does "I built X and here's the link" beat a CV in 2026, or only for indie/maker roles? \- Is AI making the *building* easy but the *distribution* the actual hard part now? \- For anyone hiring — what would make you stop scrolling, a portfolio of shipped products or a clean resume? Curious where everyone lands on this. I'll share what I learned shipping fast in the replies if there's interest.
