I thought THIS... here's what actually happened.

I thought AI would build my app for me... Here's what actually happened...

I've always wanted to learn how to code... but endless tutorials and dry documentation made it feel impossible.

I'm a motion designer, I learn by clicking buttons until something works–but with coding? There are NO BUTTONS. Just a blank file and a blinking cursor starting back at me.

I had some light React experience, and I was surprisingly good at CSS (probably thanks to my design background). But so far, I had yet to build anything real.

Then, I had an idea I HAD to create – The Focus Project.

So, I turned to AI.

It was the button I had been looking for. I could click it and get working code... (kinda.)

Here are the lessons I learned building my first app:

1. The more "popular" your problem is, the easier AI can solve it.
   If your problem is common, AI will nail it. If it's niche, AI becomes an improv comedian, confidently making things up.

Great at: Perfect syntax for map method or useEffect hook.
Terrible at: Debugging electron-builder failures. AI just hallucinates custom configs that don't exist.

2. AI struggles with big-picture thinking
   AI works best for small, isolated problems but collapses when a change affects multiple files across the app.

Example: I asked AI to add a database to my app, instead of running everything on local state. AI BROKE EVERYTHING trying to refactor. Too many files, too much context - it just couldn't handle it.

3. If you don't understand how your app works, AI won't either.
   Early on, I had no clue how Electron's renderer and main processes talked to each other. So, AI gave me broken, half-baked IPC communication attempts.

Once I actually understood IPC channels, my prompts improved, and AI's responses instantly improved.

4. Problem Solving Loops
   I'm embarrassed to admit how many hours I wasted doing this:

💬 Me: "AI, build this feature!"
🤖 AI: [Generates buggy code]
💬 Me: "AI, this code is buggy."
🤖 AI: [Generates different buggy code]
💬 Me: "Here's more context!"
🤖 AI: [Reverts back to original buggy code]
💬 Me: "... AI... nevermind, I'll just read the documentation."

5. At some point, AI will make you roll your eyes.
   The first time AI gave me a terrible suggestion, something clicked. Not only was it wrong - I knew it was wrong, and I knew a better way.

That's when I realized I was actually learning to code.

Final Thoughts
I started this journey terrified of documentation and horrified by stack traces...

Now? I actually read errors. And sometimes, I even read documentation BEFORE prompting AI.

AI is great at explaining complex problems, but it isn't wise. It does what you ask, but it doesn't ask the right questions. Want proof?

Three quick conversations with my actual developer friend changed my approach and my app far more than AI ever could.

r/SideProject - Tempus from The Side Project
Tempus from The Side Project
Without AI, The Side Project Wouldn't Exist - but AI also forced me to actually learn to code.

AI got me further than I ever could’ve on my own… but not without some serious headaches. Have you had any AI coding wins (or disasters)?

Update for the curious:
In case you're interested in how The Side Project (the desktop application I built) turned out or the tools I used to build it, here's the link to try it out: https://tempus.israelfirew.co/

The tools I messed around with: Cursor, Copilot, Windsurf, Sonnet 3.5, gpt-4o, o1, gemini-2.0-flash
My favorites were: Cursor and Sonnet 3.5

Tech Stack: Electron-vite, TypeScript, Tailwind, Better SQLite3, and Kysely.