When I started my career as an engineer, I deleted an entire customer's production database.
One stroke of a key.
Poof. Gone.
Worst part?
I did it twice.
I used to dread writing code. Projects felt like an uphill battle every single time - wrestling with convoluted setup processes, troubleshooting annoying errors, burning hours optimizing performance before launching meaningful apps.
I quickly realized coding wasn't my cup of tea. I loved the technical aspects, but I was more drawn to other parts of the business.
But in the past few months, something changed. I'm back into "writing" code, and it's all thanks to AI. Diving deep into AI coding tools over the past couple of months has been a real turning point. It has allowed me to build applications, collect user feedback, and iterate at an incredible speed using simple, natural language.
The timing couldn't have been better
As a founder, I've needed to create quick prototypes to gather customer feedback and demonstrate value. But wiring up third-party applications led to clunky experiences, and hiring developers was beyond my budget. Additionally, with shifting project scopes, nailing down steady work was a challenge.
That's where AI coding tools like Replit have come in. So far, using these tools has given me the quickest way to go from idea to app, and it truly has been the magical solution to my development woes.
Starting a "Repl" in the Replit platform by using a natural language prompt.
Getting started is easy
After signing up on Replit, their intuitive interface allowed me to dive right in. With a lot of these tools, you'll find the familiar prompt text box that you'll see in ChatGPT or other natural language AI tools.
Yes, it's extremely easy to tell Replit to build an app with very little detail. But what really drew me in was Replit's assumptions when starting a project and throughout the development process. It seemed to know exactly what I needed before I even asked. When submitting my prompt, Replit Agent reiterated my request and suggested a few other ideas to further enhance my app.
Replit Agent checking in with me before starting the build process.
I realized something incredible: I wasn't just submitting my prompt and walking away. Replit actually engaged and acted like a pair programmer who could build anything at all.
I built my first successful web app with Replit in no time. The impact was immediate - I could finally bring my ideas to life without the usual headaches.
But it wasn't always simple
Don't get me wrong, AI coding tools like Replit won't do all the work for you. Replit makes mistakes, but its error handling is out of this world. If you do run into an error, you can prompt the AI in multiple ways by describing the incorrect behavior, attaching a screenshot of the error, or simply pasting the error message. The AI has the entire context of the code and it gets to work.
As I experienced more of these errors, I discovered scenarios where Replit slips up. I adjusted my prompts to try to account for some of these regularly occurring errors. And if I was really stuck, I was able to copy my code into another AI platform like Claude to call on an additional debugging partner.
Replit Agent fixing a filtering issue based on my ill-defined description.
Fortunately, with each update of the platform, the frequency of errors seem to decrease meaningfully. Soon, I imagine I'll never have to deal with bugs at all (a guy can dream, right?).
In the past, chasing down and fixing bugs could take hours or even days. With Replit, it's a matter of seconds. The time savings alone have been a game-changer.
Want to get started?
Looking back, my experience with AI coding tools (though a short one so far) has been transformative. It's reignited my passion for coding and empowered me to build faster than ever before.
If you're looking to build your own software products or rekindle an old software development flame, here's my challenge for you:
Start by observing and logging the daily problems you face, both big and small.
Experiment with an AI-powered coding platform like Replit, Claude Artifacts, or v0. Begin asking the AI to build solutions for those small problems you documented.
To dive deeper, take the Coding with AI Bootcamp course on Maven. It's only 3 weeks long and will transform the way you build new products.
And most importantly, have fun with it.
Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:
Free AI resources: Get immediate access to my AI knowledge hub which includes guides on using tools like ChatGPT to boost productivity and creativity. Interested? Check it out here.
Your questions, answered: DM me on LinkedIn with any questions you have on today's newsletter or anything I've published in the past.
