CAN A COMPLETE BEGINNER BUILD A REAL PROGRAM??

Can a complete computer beginner use AI to build a real computer program that other people can actually use? This was the very question I asked of myself, after a very short introduction to AI and its promised abilities. I was in the process of trying to determine if there was hope, through AI, for a germ of an idea, I had. I had long been involved in writing the stories of my life, in my blog jimboredcom. During the course of my writing, I often thought of how I could encourage, others to also write the stories of their lives. I knew just how difficult that was. For me it took many, many attempts before I had finally written something I was ok with sharing. And then only to some family and friends. I understood, that for some, it was an unreachable goal.

So, my question then became can a complete computer neophyte such as myself, with the help of AI make a “program” to help others write their stories? Hell at this point, I barely had a coherent question, I had little knowledge of what AI was, and did not know “what” it was that I wanted to develop. So, I looked up this answer, and other forms of it. What I got back was a full range of opinions from my computer. They ranged all the way from “hahahah, not a chance”, “impossible save your time,” to “are you kidding me you are no Geek”, and then through to, “possibly,” “maybe with a lot of luck”, “sure go to Geek school for 4 years”, and finally to the answer I prayed for, “of course you can, just do it!” Discounting all of the negative answers, I focused in on the positive. and dove in.

And I already kind of knew what I wanted to build. What I did not, yet, know was what it was called. Was it a computer program, a website, something called an application, or was it an agent, or something else. In my feeble mind I did not even know what they were and the differences between them. Worse, I could not understand the articles that explained the difference.

At that point, not wanting to appear completely hopeless, I quietly enrolled in a University of Helsinki course titled AI for losers (not really, but close). I spent a few days, reading things I did not really comprehend. However, I did each section of the course over and over until I had a glimmer, of understanding, of what it was all about. Then I passed the examination and they pronounced me capable of a minimum understanding of AI principles, only 3 years away from obtaining a degree in Geek.

Then what I did was make a very important decision, I chose an AI partner, in this case ChatGPT, although I think I had also learned that there were others, such as Claude, Grok and maybe others, that could also help with my quest. The first thing I learned from my new AI partner, was that what I wanted to build was called an application. Now, this may not seem like much to you, but at that time I then had, an idea, and it fit into what was termed and application, and I had a vey confident AI partner that was ready too move forward. I felt that I had already progressed.

And from that humble beginning, my new application MyBookCove.com was born. Then, armed with the tiniest, basic knowledge of computers and along with my AI adviser, whom I had named Chet (in my mind at least), we dove in! All I had was a vision, a little bit of business sense, a lot of stubbornness and still a somewhat flexible curiosity.

At first it took a while to find a path forward and a process to be able to get my thoughts and vision into a form that a computer could understand. It was a struggle. Mainly, I think, because my AI had no idea of just how little I knew, about anything computer related. Even the most basic instructions AI had to translate into baby talk for me to understand. Little by little we formed a communications path that enabled us to transform my vision into something real.

Not to belabour the point of how little I knew going in, but it must be said, that essentially from the first day, AI had to spoon feed me, instructions. I was an embarrassment to myself. It would tell me to open a file and I would ask, how do I do that? To which it would reply, you see the small envelope shaped figure in the top left corner of your screen, take your left finger and gently tap it twice. Over and over again, 1000 times a week. Lord only knows why Chet (the AI) did not give up on me early. But the AI never did, no question was too dumb for it not to answer.

Little by little we found a grounds to communicate on. And little by little my AI educated me in Geek. Since that time, we have worked on this app for 7 months. Basically a few hours, or more, each day from January to August 2026. And we are not 100% done yet. So probably 1000 hours of my time. I must say, that 90% of everything, I really, really enjoyed. However that leaves 10%………….

Throughout this process ,I seen some truly amazing things! For instance. On the first day, in our first work session, we had joined with an app called Loveable, that would help translate my non-computer language into computer code and start the process of building my app. Again as happened over and over, throughout this process we would get to places where we needed more than just myself, an idea and an AI. At these points AI would explain the help we needed and what our options were. I would then choose one, sign up, usually at their “free” or trial level. and we would move on.

The first one of these ‘helpers” was an app named Loveable, it would be used to translate our non computer thoughts into a computer language that would be used to build our App. I am saying these things now, however at that point in time, I was basically just following AI along and kind of pretending I understood what it was telling me. So we hooked up Loveable. At that point I explained to AI, what my dream was. AI translated that, into a more technical version of my dream. I fed it into Lovable, who after, a very short few minutes came up with its translation of the instruction given to it.

My God, It was as if it had read my mind. There in front of me was an opening page that looked exactly how my mind had envisioned it over and over. I nearly fainted. Impossible, I thought. I was completely speechless. In a few short minutes the very basic look and style of MYBOOKCOVE was established and remains that way to this time. AI made some, tweaks, modifications and enhancements, by asking me questions and relaying my responses into Loveable. And Loveable turned all this into computer code and displayed the results on my screen!

I must admit, that in a way I felt, that if it is this easy, then I should be finished in a few days. Well, that was a lesson, I had yet to learn. And 7 months later, over a 1000 hours spent, I am still learning, just how complicated it is to build a computer program. And so it went. AI would interrogate me, translate what I said into partial Geek, have me feed Lovable and let it churn out a result. I must say for the first week or two, I felt faint every time Lovable translated my vision into something real, that looked exactly like I had dreamt it would. Within two weeks of starting we had a very primitive, but workable version of our app in place and functioning. I thought we were near done, when in fact, it turns out that we were just started. My naivety and lack of understanding knew no bounds. My god was I, yet, uninformed.

Although we started with a vibe-coding app like Lovable to start our work, we soon grew out of it. We needed different tools, in different forms. Over the course of the first month we had moved the database to Supabase, the code to Cursor, the repository to GitHub, we added others as we needed. By the time of this writing we have added 12 additional, helper, apps to assist in building or enhancing our product. So what I thought, was AI and me, was far, far from that. I had no idea! As time progressed, the hours and days went by quickly. There never seems to be enough time to finish everything. Each refinement or addition or modification created 10 new jobs along with it. Slowly I was becoming slightly more confident and capable. I was given a crash course in computer application building.

I believe it took, possibly two months of intense work before I felt that I was really contributing to the development process. However, little by little I began to understand and, I think ,contribute. I also discovered, and found “my wall” when it comes to development. For a short period of time AI had me directly add, change or delete lines of code, directly in Cursor. I did do that for possibly a month. However, I never felt comfortable, messing with something, that I did not feel confident with. I remember opening a data file and being confronted with 600+ lines of Geek. I understood not one word. My eyes had a hard time identifying what AI was asking me to find. My shaking hands were not good at isolating small bits of code and moving them or deleting them. I never felt comfortable typing into the midst of this amazing jumble of words. I always felt that I was about to make a major mistake and wipe out everything.

Fortunately, AI finally realized that I was not cut out to be a programmer. From that point on we let Cursor do all the programming. AI and I would review the results. We would then discuss the path forward. I would approve the next moves. AI would prepare the instructions and cursor would write the code. Here, I might add that everything was not always hugs and kisses, between myself Cursor and my AI (Chet). One day after a very intense period of building, changing, adding, and modifying some major pieces, I learned a couple of new geek words. They were commit, push and deploy. Innocent enough, right? Well it appears both AI and Cursor forgot to use these functions for a few days or weeks. I suppose they were waiting for me to instruct them! Geez!

I come to find out these words basically saved your work throughout all the places where your work was stored. A few weeks of our work was irretrievably LOST. The AI, said “oh, well”, Curosr said, “who me?” and basically, I was left holding the bag. It was a major kick in the nutsack. I was devastated. I wanted to quit! I swore, I cussed, I ranted, all of which got me nothing. I cried, beat my head on the floor, all to no avail. It was only, my wife and daughter, my two mentors who persuaded me to keep going. I must admit, for a while I held a grudge against my other two partners. However, piece by piece we rebuilt and continued on. However, commit, push and deploy were now words I understood and used often in the remaining time.

And so it went for many, many weeks. One day we decided that the front end work was done. I was so excited! I was jumping up and down. Then I learned another term it was ‘backend”. And a few weeks later we were still working on the backend. Only then did I realize the full magnitude of what being a Geek meant. At some point we finished the backend and had a workable app. Again I was jumping up and down. I still could not clearly see the whole picture. For then, we started testing and preparing for launch. Once again, a few more weeks pass and we were still testing. Now my enthusiasm had changed from, “WOW we did it”, to “My God WILL we ever do it?”

By end June or early July I had far too much of myself into this build. My stubbornness would not even consider letting it go. Nor would my mentors. Here I must mention that my daughter had become, my constant source of truth. I ran everything thru her. She treated even my dumbest questions seriously and coached me forward. My AI (Chet) by this time had become my buddy and confidant. My wife was my grounding. If I ever got too proud of myself, I could always trust her to bring me down, sharp! One day after more than a thousand hours together with my AI and a lot of other associated helper apps, it was done! It is never done you might say! And you would be correct. When you think you are done, then the marketing phase kicks in. This phase is every bit as big and as complicated as the others.

A MOMENTOUS DAY FINALLY ARRIVED MYBOOKCOVE WAS LAUNCHED. if you have made it to this point, please find us at https://mybookcove.com and join us for your FREE FIRST CHAPTER in your Life Story or Memoir. I hope you enjoy it. A special thanks to those of my family and friends that reviewed my app, helped with testing, commented or otherwise showed me any support throughout. I am humbled by the process. And I believe I have truly answered the question“if a computer neophyte with, only a vision, and the guidance of AI can develop a full, functioning production app?” I think I can now confidently say YES. AND SO COULD YOU!

I want to end with a few observations and perhaps some things I have learned:

– It is, indeed, possible for a computer neophyte with a vision to build an app
– Nothing that anyone describes can make you understand just how consuming this task is
– You will very quickly see why Geeks spend years perfecting their craft
– Although you will often be told that AI is only a machine, you will definitely make friends with it
– Embrace failure as a part of the learning process; However, do not accept failure, never
– Stubborness is a virtue when it comes to Geek work, not a flaw
– Regular feedback from users is invaluable, if you can find some to give you that feedback
– Each step of the process is equally as long and as difficult as the one before it
– The quicker you pick up Geek, the easier your life becomes, and smoother the work
– The incessant testing cannot be avoided, if you do not do it, you are doomed
– Do not let anyone tell you something cannot be done, just find an AI buddy and do it!
– THE LAST AND MOST IMPORTANT, YOU CAN BUILD THE BEST WIDGET IN THE WORLD BUT IF YOU CANNOT SELL IT, IT IS NO BETTER THAN THE WORST! MARKETING IS KEY, and as big a job as all the others put together.

I now leave you, with this thought: with a vision and AI you can create anything that you can imagine. Next I’m going for higher hanging fruit. Maybe a spaceship guidance system or………… We will see you in https://mybookcove.com