Now the dopamine boost comes from being able to build resilient, secure, & scalable end-to-end working systems instead of spending an hour to fix a syntax bug.
yesterday i signed up again for claude max $200 plan and had it change the whole visual metaphor of the productivity app i’ve been working on intermittently over the past year: instead of a traditional UI with tables, lists, tools, etc, i told Fable to use a desktop OS metaphor instead for displaying the various built-in mini apps (tasks, chat, notes, etc). all with a functioning dock and animated wallpaper and multiple window support etc.
fable was able to solve the problem but really i’m beyond the point of being impressed by an LLM doing some upfront task. everything worked, it “made no mistakes”, all tests passed (it even fixed old tests), but i was like ok whatever thanks. i blew past my $200 limit in 2 hours.
and now i’m sitting here like, ok, now what? do i ship this? hear me be a whiny bitch for a second: that it was too easy killed the whole part of the journey of making an app where you become a new person through the creation process, and you earn such pride in your work which in the past gave you the energy and courage to ship things.
and i’m like, i can ship this. i can try to make a buck. the app is done. but i just don’t feel a bond with the work. now if you were a somewhat savvy operator, the business type that would happily sell refrigerator coolant if you sensed an opportunity, AI will be a godsend for you. but i don’t wanna sell refrigerator coolant.
and now because everything is so easy, i hardly ever feel like i’m solving a real problem anymore. it’s like how deep of a problem am i really solving if someone can one shot my app in 2 hours?
i will say that in those 2 hours yesterday, i really enjoyed being back near the code. there’s nothing funner than making shit.
it’s just that the new way of doing things kills a lot of the creative and spiritual juices you used to get before, that many times lead to commercially beneficial outcomes.
now, i just don’t know what’s worth building anymore.