AI Lets Me Focus on What I Actually Like

I Think I Like Building More Than Coding

When I first started coding, I didn't start by solving LeetCode problems. I built a small program that could calculate the average grade of a student and sort them into categories like good, great, or average.

I don't remember having a lot of emotion while writing the code itself. But when the program finally worked, it felt amazing. I made something.

I also found debugging strangely enjoyable. There was something satisfying about finding out why something didn't work and then finally seeing it work.

Looking back, I think the part I enjoyed the most was the planning and building. I liked deciding what the program should do, figuring out how it should work, and watching the idea slowly turn into something real.

My First Experience Using AI

I started using AI for coding back in college. At one point, I had an assignment and used AI to help me complete it.

The problem was that I didn't really read the code. I didn't understand how it worked, and I couldn't explain why it was written that way.

Then my teacher asked me some basic questions about it, and I got nervous.

I realized that even though I had something that worked, I didn't really understand what I had built.

After that, I told myself that I would never let that happen again.

I still wanted to use AI, but I didn't want AI to build something that I couldn't understand.

Then I Built QRCodeChicken

The next big thing I built was QRCodeChicken.

This time, my relationship with AI was different. I still used AI a lot. It helped me write a lot of the code and helped me figure out problems that I didn't know how to solve.

But I was the one deciding what the product should do.

I designed the main flow. I thought about how people should use it. I decided what features it needed and how the different parts of the application should work together.

I also designed the architecture behind it, with a lot of help from AI.

I don't understand every single line of code in QRCodeChicken, but I understand the core idea and the main flow of the program because I designed it.

And that's when I started thinking, an AI can help me progress this fast and learn so much. Why aren't we using it every day?

I Can Focus More on the Product

This is the part that really excites me about AI.

I can spend more of my time thinking about the product. What should it do? How should it work? What should the user experience look like? How should the architecture be designed?

Then I can use AI to help with the implementation.

Of course, I still look at the code. I still need to understand what it is doing, and I still need to debug things and make sure the result actually makes sense.

But writing every line of code myself is no longer the only way I can turn an idea into a working product.

Watching Things Take Shape

There is a particular part of building something that I really enjoy. It's when the product starts to take shape.

At the beginning, it's just an idea in my head. Then I make a plan. Then there is a first version. Then I add something, change something, and suddenly I can look at the screen and see the thing I was imagining starting to exist.

That's the part I like.

AI doesn't change that feeling. If anything, it gets me there faster.

Instead of spending most of my time translating every idea into code, I can spend more time thinking about the idea itself and how I want the product to work.

Maybe That's Why AI Feels So Natural to Me

I don't think AI made me interested in building things. I already liked building things long before I started using AI.

What AI changed was the amount of friction between having an idea and actually making it.

I still want to become a better developer. I still want to understand how good software is designed and built, and I still want to learn from people who have been doing this at a much larger scale.

But when I think about why I started coding in the first place, I think I wanted to make something.

And maybe AI is simply giving me more time to do that.