Building apps with AI — #6

Hey beautiful human 👋,

Over the weekend I built a fully working app in just 2 hours, without writing a line of code.

I’m going to share with you some of the things I learnt throughout the process.

Let’s goooooo.

Now we all know AI is here to stay, and the industry is moving at breakneck speed.

Instead of letting all this innovation fly by and risk falling behind, I decided to take some time this month to really dig into how impactful this new technology is.

The current state of AI in my workflow (Prior to this project)

Prior to this project, I had played around with Chat GPT, Claude AI, Perplexity, Midjourney and Runway.

However I hadn’t really pushed the limits of the new tech yet.

I only used AI to help polish content and patch up photos.

This month, that all changed.

Picture this: A cozy local cafe, my favorite iced latte, and a weekend with my fiancé dedicated to immersing myself in the world of Cursor AI. Romantic, right? 😂

But here's the thing - I knew learning a new skill or app can be an endless task.

So, I set myself an objective:

1. Identify a problem I face frequently.

2. Use AI to build a locally hosted app to solve it.

YouTube scripting! (We’re nearly at 200K subbies 🫶 — thank you all)

Solving for YouTube scripting

I’ve been doing this “YouTube thing” for nearly 4 years now.

And I’ve realised scripting can take forever because there are so many moving parts - ideation, storytelling, structure, and everything else that goes into it.

There’s a million things that I could solve when it comes to streamlining the process. But just like how I would advise a client to keep their MVP simple and measurable, I focused on three very achievable outcomes.

I wanted this app to allow me to:

• Quickly create a new script

• Manage all existing scripts

• Have a custom-tailored editing experience, specifically for YouTube.

The AI-Powered build

Once I had a general idea of what I needed, I did some research on AI-powered code editors (v0 and Cursor AI stood out), I dove into some YouTube tutorials to get started with Cursor AI.

Instead of complicating the process of setting up a React project, I simply prompted my way through an index.html file. And get this - after just 2 hours, I built a functional app without writing a single line of code myself! 🎉

The app also included the ability to switch between light + dark mode and scripting + note view.

The GIF recording was getting way too large, so I had to crop it out.

Some key learnings:

• Stagger the build: Instead of asking the AI to build an entire app, break up the project. Focus on one feature at a time and use job stories to instruct it specifically on how you want things to work.

• Frameworks: Cursor AI can call frameworks like Tailwind CSS, and instantly re-skin your project with a simple prompt. e.g. “Use Tailwind CSS and modernise my interface”. “As a user, I want to click a switch to toggle between light and dark mode”.

• Images: Cursor AI can accept images (designs) through the chat interface. You can simply prompt it to build the interface using Tailwind CSS.

The Future of AI and productivity

So, where do I think we'll be in a few years? I believe AI will simply 10x people's productivity. But I can't help but think it's not the answer to everything.

Here’s my ultimate realisation when it comes to using AI for building apps.

If you have some level of understanding when it comes to code and development, AI is your superpower.

It will be the path to our very first, one-person $1B company.

However if you have ZERO experience when it comes to code, the world of development is simply too vast and you will be overwhelmed by the experience.

That is why I still believe AI is a tool that is more effective when you’re going from 1 to 2, instead of 0 to 1.

However, who knows what will happen in the future.

At least for now, I think great developers will still keep their jobs.

Bite-sized learnings

1. Your sleep says a lot about you: 99% of the time I have the best sleep. It takes me a few minutes to fall asleep and I’m out of bed by 6AM on the dot. However I’m not going to lie, for a fair few months in 2024, I was waking up at 8AM. This might sound ‘normal’ for most, but it wasn’t for me.↳💡 Learning: You’d be surprised that your sleep says a lot more about you than you might think. Can’t sleep or struggling to wake up on-time? There’s probably something on your mind, something that needs to change or something you need to confront. For me, I took a month off work, confronted the issue and now I’m waking up at 6AM feeling super fresh again. I also mentioned this to a friend, and his response, “Yep, when you sleep in, you know something needs to change”.

2. Compounding: Compounding is when the money you make from an asset, like profits or interest, gets put back into the investment. This reinvestment then helps you earn even more over time, building up your returns step by step.↳💡Learning: As Warren Buffet always says, “The first rule of compounding: Never interrupt it unnecessarily”. I use to constantly ‘trade’ stocks and even though I was beating the market average, the constant chop and change was hard to keep up with. For the last few years I’ve simply been compounding my contributions to one ETF (QQQM). We’re about to cross $1M in value and the sheer size of the portfolio now means even a 1% change makes a huge difference. Keep compounding.

3. Purge expenses: The concept of compounding works for assets, but it’s also relevant to expenses. Every few months I go through all my personal and business expenses and purge.↳💡Learning: Export all your expenses out to a CSV and import it into a Google Sheet or Excel. You will notice that you’re probably overspending in a few areas that you had no idea you were. Every dollar counts!

Useful lil' links

• Cursor AI - The AI-powered code editor I used for my weekend project.

• Z0 - Another great AI-coding tool worth checking out.

• Perplexity - An AI search engine that's been impressing me lately.

• Runway - Crazy Gen AI tool for images and videos.

• My X profile - I’m back on X (Twitter).

Things I'm vibin'

• iPhone 16 Pro - As a former Pro Max owner, I’m really liking the size and weight of the 16 Pro. I think I’m going to stick with the Pro moving forward.

• Shopify’s new website - Shopify dropped a new website. I compared the previous website to the new one and there’s been a drastic change in their brand, tone-of-voice and online presence. I think they did a very good job with it. Check out the quick breakdown here.

• Custom made suits - My wedding is coming up next year (Feb 25), and so I’ve decided to get a custom suit made. Yep, I’m treating myself. I have to say, these boutique stores that provide a personalised experience definitely win it for me.

How can I help you?

Here are a few ways I can help you crush your career goals (just like me):

💼 Build confidence in end-to-end UX/UI design (10 hours) - You’ve mastered the tool and UX research and now you want to learn how to lead, design and manage a project end-to-end. Dive deep into every little step alongside me with a real-world project.(300+ designers — New course ✨)

🖥️ Master Figma (10 hours) - Become an expert in Figma so you can get more done; faster and better. This isn’t just a technical course about features, it’s an end-to-end course on how Figma fits into a real-world project.(7,900+ designers)

🔍 Dive-deep into UX Research & Strategy (10 hours) - Learn how to run UX and business research to make more strategic and data-informed decisions for larger scaled projects and improved stakeholder management.(800+ designers)

⚡️Design 10X faster with 8,000+ pre-designed components - We just launched v.2.7.1. If you’re starting every project from scratch, you’re probably wasting a lot of time. Leverage Shipfaster UI to speed up your process dramatically.(3,400+ designers)

🚀 Looking to launch a product? - At More Cursors, my team and I help founders strategise, design and launch world-class products. Feel free to book a call directly with me if this is something you need.

That's it for this month's newsletter! If you have time, definitely spend a few hours to learn and play around with AI so you don't get left behind.

Let me know how you found this month's edition. What did you love or dislike? Have you been experimenting with AI too?

It means a lot to me.

Mizko