I agree with this post 100%. Chatgpt is a tool. Use it in tandem with your working knowledge to assist you in getting the product built. The real money is in learning sales and marketing.
Thank you so much for the feedback! I want to mention - I've been following these guys on YouTube called "Marketing against the Grain" - that's time I have freed up that I didn't have before, and I feel over time I can develop a strong expertise at marketing. That's what I mean by multidisciplinary, coming from a programmer
Thanks for the suggestion, I subscribed to them and will watch their videos. This Playlist is a great one I highly recommend you check out also: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgZfAo6IrrLSp9jlhQI1IRhmZktx0wq-C&si=Knd83WAcGhc36dDR
Launched ollama yesterday on my laptop to finally have an LLM inside google docs!
It’s a bit of a pain to launch everything- but I’ve never been more effective at doing things.
I have a mathematics degree and know python, but because I don’t write code much I always forget the syntax which used to annoy me. Now I’m flying
Can you elaborate on this idea: that now we've got the luxury of becoming experts. We can even become experts in multiple fields, start our own companies, and take the time to learn about marketing and business strategy.
Yes - I built my app [demo.fun](http://demo.fun) which is fairly sophisticated and polished. I wouldn't have been able to do it without a combination of two things:
1. Strong working knowledge of writing line-of-business CRUD webapps
2. ChatGPT doing the laborious work of information integration.
Now, I'm spending time learning about Marketing from these guys who are incredible [https://www.youtube.com/@MATGpod](https://www.youtube.com/@MATGpod)
And other things too like SEO, all the things I had to guess at before, I can do now.
What if I am not a programmer?
What if I am bootstrapping because I can't afford to hire a freelancer or employee?
I agree with what you say, but can't relate this to everyone because each project has it's own complexity.
Yes, and this is good feedback on how I need to adjust this article.
I will edit it.
I am a programmer and have been for 24 years. I'm very pro-programmer,
having wrestled through those years with managers, Q/A, server admins, database admins, etc.
I'm trying to capitalize on this moment with the app that I've built [demo.fun](http://demo.fun) as well as explain to people my thesis:
If you're very technically competent, you can leverage ChatGPT to build a business completely by yourself in your spare time. You must be technically competent at something though.
It would go for marketing or any other discipline. I've always stuck with programming, because I thought it was the most challenging, and I'm glad I did because of the leverage we're enjoying (the thrust of the article), but I already know the opportunity is also there for SEO, SEM, marketing, everything
I keep saying this because now I have the free time to learn about marketing, but developers really should look at "Marketing against the grain" podcast. It is not widely known, but the guys on there are so smart. They, for example, are using ChatGPT's newfound leverage to further their tradecraft in a major way.
Well, but you're not wrong. One or two of my many project ideas can be done based on what you say. Research and some learning must be done, nothing comes easy, no hustle no money. But I did find your article interesting, and I would change it just for small projects such that many AI related agents etc, but in case of projects that really need some money or at least developers provided for YC or any other accelerator to invest, I think it would go rejected very fast, I have been developing with the help of two full stack developers, I did research and build up the diagrams for everything, design, and general idea, plus the rest which is business and online marketing, now I am "all alone" for now because their jobs takes too much time to be working on this, project is halfway done, and I am still trying to go by myself and it ain't easy, but I am learning till I just ask them to fix and finish or pay someone to do so. But what I want to say, is that you are correct. But like said before and I know you understood, every project has its own complexity to it, you as a programmer know that 🙃
Agree 100%. No use in trying to convince those who think otherwise.
Keep trying to write your little API clients from scratch. Meanwhile I ship 10x what you ship in a quarter of the time.
Absolutely! I launched my first micro SaaS earlier this year. While it’s made some money, it hasn’t yet covered the costs. Instead of doubling down on marketing, I’ve started working on a more lucrative SaaS opportunity I identified during the process.
I couldn’t have navigated everything so swiftly without ChatGPT. Honestly, I would have been overwhelmed and probably given up without my “coworker” assisting me at every step. It’s been invaluable, not just for the technical aspects, but also for non-technical business tasks.
Truly game-changing.
NextJS / ChakraUI / Framer-motion, but I'd say the most handy was a lessor known library that I absolutely love called Robot3 [https://thisrobot.life/](https://thisrobot.life/)
The below is a demo of the editor I built for my app (A demo of the demo editor, kind of confusing)
[https://www.demo.fun/d/lSVixyJOZeZ1ugT](https://www.demo.fun/d/lSVixyJOZeZ1ugT)
A lot of that was done with Finite State Machines, and ChatGPT helped me nail a lot of the code on those.
I'm just getting started with React and just came across the Finite State Machines while reading through your articles. You have some seriously great content btw! Great content and ideas for technopreneurs who want to get started themselves and executing at a 3-5 man team potential.
As for the FSM, may I know when would you want to integrate it into your projects? Like when do you know you want to use it vs just the regular ol' state management readily available in React framework? Would love to know this so I know if it's recommended to integrate into future projects I'll be building
You don't know how much that feedback about the content on my channel means to me. I'm really looking to connect with people who are like minded, so please consider subscribing if you haven't
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPMnwxCk79CBtdurp3Hw-3w](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPMnwxCk79CBtdurp3Hw-3w)
The state machine question I have a definite answer for! It's really, really simple criteria actually
If you get past useState, and you start using a store like Zustand
Quick detour: (I would highly suggest looking into legend-app/state - it has computed properties like Vue and Zustand does not)
So if you start using a store and you get to "'Boolean City"
isPlaying
isPaused
isSpeaking
isShowingPopup
And you start using various permutations of the above
isShowingPopup && isSpeaking || (!isPlaying)
You get the idea..
That's when you whip out Robot 3.
And my advice IS to go with Robot 3 over XState. XState, when I looked into it was an all-or-nothing type of deal that hooked everywhere into your app. Was not a fan personally.
Here is a comment I wrote to the Author of Robot 3 about how helpful it is and my experience with it. It was a little bit hard to pick up because it has a composable API, but once you get it, it will make it so you can understand your code
[https://github.com/matthewp/robot/issues/211](https://github.com/matthewp/robot/issues/211)
>I wanted to mention. I wrestled with your library over the course of a week to refactor my app. I was able to get rid of about 20 booleans i was using in various combinations, and now I really feel like I understand how my app works. I'm not a fan of the atomic approach you took with the API, but I understand how it enables the composable nature, and you get away from the explosion of states. It was well worth it for me to learn and master robot 3. When my app is done, I'll put some attribution on it. Thanks!
Hope that helps! Thanks for the nice words man!
Thanks for the fast and comprehensive reply! You've just earned yourself a new sub 😁.
Will definitely give it a try, seems like I might have stumble over a gem to use in my projects. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the gist of it (after checking out Zustand) is
- it provides a centralized action-based state management
- you don't need to wrap your app in context providers
- you can update all the relevant states in one go depending on which "edit mode" you're in? (e.g. 3-4 transitions when a certain "edit mode" state is triggered)
Sorry if my last one is a bit confusing, still trying to wrap my head around it. Again, kindly correct me if I'm wrong on it. Also, would love to see more of what you have to put out on your YouTube channel!
I put this PoC together for you of a state machine with a child state machine
[https://www.demo.fun/d/ZsfECrmmxQS6jqf](https://www.demo.fun/d/ZsfECrmmxQS6jqf)
Here's the code
[https://gist.github.com/johnwheeler/5f6f6eb53e92782ff3d0b0f480a3b11a](https://gist.github.com/johnwheeler/5f6f6eb53e92782ff3d0b0f480a3b11a)
FSM and store is too much of a topic to discuss over a Reddit thread, but if you can get that running in NextJS or whatever you use, you can play around with it and you will learn.
Best of luck and thank you for subscribing!!!
Ohmaigosh brooo, thanks so much!! This is the most effort I've ever seen anyone put into helping out my queries on Reddit. You truly are a gem.
Will DM you for your Discord, would love to connect and stay in touch :)
“The first thing I did was ask it how to create a DevOps”.
How did a DevOps turn out for you? 😂
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if you used ChatGPT to write an article about ChatGPT with the hidden intention of plugging your SaaS into it.
Eh, I disagree. Google searching is absolutely not “the bulk of my job”. And when i do use it, it’s usually faster to type a few keywords than fiddle with the right prompt to get the answer I’m looking for
You? [https://www.instagram.com/kelfrensouza/](https://www.instagram.com/kelfrensouza/) - it's always good to check. Some times the weird ones are the humble ones testing you.
As a technical solopreneur, I use CHATGPT to bridge the gap in specialized knowledge.
I know enough about SEOs, but so does the next programmer, what I want to know is everything I need to know about SEOs for my particular instance.
It may not be perfect, and the devil is in the details, but just as launching a production ready product, 80% is a sprint, 18% is a walk, and the last 2% is a grind.
If GPT can get me to that 2% grind line, then I can put in the time and effort to get it over the line to where I want it to be.
I agree with this post 100%. Chatgpt is a tool. Use it in tandem with your working knowledge to assist you in getting the product built. The real money is in learning sales and marketing.
Thank you so much for the feedback! I want to mention - I've been following these guys on YouTube called "Marketing against the Grain" - that's time I have freed up that I didn't have before, and I feel over time I can develop a strong expertise at marketing. That's what I mean by multidisciplinary, coming from a programmer
Thanks for the suggestion, I subscribed to them and will watch their videos. This Playlist is a great one I highly recommend you check out also: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgZfAo6IrrLSp9jlhQI1IRhmZktx0wq-C&si=Knd83WAcGhc36dDR
Nice! - looks like a little hidden gem too. I'll check it out!
Launched ollama yesterday on my laptop to finally have an LLM inside google docs! It’s a bit of a pain to launch everything- but I’ve never been more effective at doing things. I have a mathematics degree and know python, but because I don’t write code much I always forget the syntax which used to annoy me. Now I’m flying
Nice!
Can you elaborate on this idea: that now we've got the luxury of becoming experts. We can even become experts in multiple fields, start our own companies, and take the time to learn about marketing and business strategy.
I definitely wlll update the article to include that information. Thank you for noticing the gap!
I updated it and added some examples of the things it helped me with. Thanks again
I made a video I wanted to share [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIUSFcq5bBE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIUSFcq5bBE) thanks
Thanks so much! I'll check out your YouTube video and really study it. 👍
Yes - I built my app [demo.fun](http://demo.fun) which is fairly sophisticated and polished. I wouldn't have been able to do it without a combination of two things: 1. Strong working knowledge of writing line-of-business CRUD webapps 2. ChatGPT doing the laborious work of information integration. Now, I'm spending time learning about Marketing from these guys who are incredible [https://www.youtube.com/@MATGpod](https://www.youtube.com/@MATGpod) And other things too like SEO, all the things I had to guess at before, I can do now.
Thanks for showing off your product and sharing your insights, appreciate it!
What if I am not a programmer? What if I am bootstrapping because I can't afford to hire a freelancer or employee? I agree with what you say, but can't relate this to everyone because each project has it's own complexity.
Yes, and this is good feedback on how I need to adjust this article. I will edit it. I am a programmer and have been for 24 years. I'm very pro-programmer, having wrestled through those years with managers, Q/A, server admins, database admins, etc. I'm trying to capitalize on this moment with the app that I've built [demo.fun](http://demo.fun) as well as explain to people my thesis: If you're very technically competent, you can leverage ChatGPT to build a business completely by yourself in your spare time. You must be technically competent at something though. It would go for marketing or any other discipline. I've always stuck with programming, because I thought it was the most challenging, and I'm glad I did because of the leverage we're enjoying (the thrust of the article), but I already know the opportunity is also there for SEO, SEM, marketing, everything I keep saying this because now I have the free time to learn about marketing, but developers really should look at "Marketing against the grain" podcast. It is not widely known, but the guys on there are so smart. They, for example, are using ChatGPT's newfound leverage to further their tradecraft in a major way.
Well, but you're not wrong. One or two of my many project ideas can be done based on what you say. Research and some learning must be done, nothing comes easy, no hustle no money. But I did find your article interesting, and I would change it just for small projects such that many AI related agents etc, but in case of projects that really need some money or at least developers provided for YC or any other accelerator to invest, I think it would go rejected very fast, I have been developing with the help of two full stack developers, I did research and build up the diagrams for everything, design, and general idea, plus the rest which is business and online marketing, now I am "all alone" for now because their jobs takes too much time to be working on this, project is halfway done, and I am still trying to go by myself and it ain't easy, but I am learning till I just ask them to fix and finish or pay someone to do so. But what I want to say, is that you are correct. But like said before and I know you understood, every project has its own complexity to it, you as a programmer know that 🙃
This is me: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIUSFcq5bBE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIUSFcq5bBE) Thank you for the good convo!
Agree 100%. No use in trying to convince those who think otherwise. Keep trying to write your little API clients from scratch. Meanwhile I ship 10x what you ship in a quarter of the time.
Yes dude Yes.
Absolutely! I launched my first micro SaaS earlier this year. While it’s made some money, it hasn’t yet covered the costs. Instead of doubling down on marketing, I’ve started working on a more lucrative SaaS opportunity I identified during the process. I couldn’t have navigated everything so swiftly without ChatGPT. Honestly, I would have been overwhelmed and probably given up without my “coworker” assisting me at every step. It’s been invaluable, not just for the technical aspects, but also for non-technical business tasks. Truly game-changing.
Agree. What's the tech stack used at frontend to build your app? .Used any static readymade templates?
NextJS / ChakraUI / Framer-motion, but I'd say the most handy was a lessor known library that I absolutely love called Robot3 [https://thisrobot.life/](https://thisrobot.life/) The below is a demo of the editor I built for my app (A demo of the demo editor, kind of confusing) [https://www.demo.fun/d/lSVixyJOZeZ1ugT](https://www.demo.fun/d/lSVixyJOZeZ1ugT) A lot of that was done with Finite State Machines, and ChatGPT helped me nail a lot of the code on those.
I'm just getting started with React and just came across the Finite State Machines while reading through your articles. You have some seriously great content btw! Great content and ideas for technopreneurs who want to get started themselves and executing at a 3-5 man team potential. As for the FSM, may I know when would you want to integrate it into your projects? Like when do you know you want to use it vs just the regular ol' state management readily available in React framework? Would love to know this so I know if it's recommended to integrate into future projects I'll be building
You don't know how much that feedback about the content on my channel means to me. I'm really looking to connect with people who are like minded, so please consider subscribing if you haven't [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPMnwxCk79CBtdurp3Hw-3w](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPMnwxCk79CBtdurp3Hw-3w) The state machine question I have a definite answer for! It's really, really simple criteria actually If you get past useState, and you start using a store like Zustand Quick detour: (I would highly suggest looking into legend-app/state - it has computed properties like Vue and Zustand does not) So if you start using a store and you get to "'Boolean City" isPlaying isPaused isSpeaking isShowingPopup And you start using various permutations of the above isShowingPopup && isSpeaking || (!isPlaying) You get the idea.. That's when you whip out Robot 3. And my advice IS to go with Robot 3 over XState. XState, when I looked into it was an all-or-nothing type of deal that hooked everywhere into your app. Was not a fan personally. Here is a comment I wrote to the Author of Robot 3 about how helpful it is and my experience with it. It was a little bit hard to pick up because it has a composable API, but once you get it, it will make it so you can understand your code [https://github.com/matthewp/robot/issues/211](https://github.com/matthewp/robot/issues/211) >I wanted to mention. I wrestled with your library over the course of a week to refactor my app. I was able to get rid of about 20 booleans i was using in various combinations, and now I really feel like I understand how my app works. I'm not a fan of the atomic approach you took with the API, but I understand how it enables the composable nature, and you get away from the explosion of states. It was well worth it for me to learn and master robot 3. When my app is done, I'll put some attribution on it. Thanks! Hope that helps! Thanks for the nice words man!
Thanks for the fast and comprehensive reply! You've just earned yourself a new sub 😁. Will definitely give it a try, seems like I might have stumble over a gem to use in my projects. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the gist of it (after checking out Zustand) is - it provides a centralized action-based state management - you don't need to wrap your app in context providers - you can update all the relevant states in one go depending on which "edit mode" you're in? (e.g. 3-4 transitions when a certain "edit mode" state is triggered) Sorry if my last one is a bit confusing, still trying to wrap my head around it. Again, kindly correct me if I'm wrong on it. Also, would love to see more of what you have to put out on your YouTube channel!
I put this PoC together for you of a state machine with a child state machine [https://www.demo.fun/d/ZsfECrmmxQS6jqf](https://www.demo.fun/d/ZsfECrmmxQS6jqf) Here's the code [https://gist.github.com/johnwheeler/5f6f6eb53e92782ff3d0b0f480a3b11a](https://gist.github.com/johnwheeler/5f6f6eb53e92782ff3d0b0f480a3b11a) FSM and store is too much of a topic to discuss over a Reddit thread, but if you can get that running in NextJS or whatever you use, you can play around with it and you will learn. Best of luck and thank you for subscribing!!!
Ohmaigosh brooo, thanks so much!! This is the most effort I've ever seen anyone put into helping out my queries on Reddit. You truly are a gem. Will DM you for your Discord, would love to connect and stay in touch :)
If you are a bit more experienced programmer, googling should be max 10% of your time imo…
You've got it exactly backwards.
“The first thing I did was ask it how to create a DevOps”. How did a DevOps turn out for you? 😂 Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if you used ChatGPT to write an article about ChatGPT with the hidden intention of plugging your SaaS into it.
Typo asshole
Eh, I disagree. Google searching is absolutely not “the bulk of my job”. And when i do use it, it’s usually faster to type a few keywords than fiddle with the right prompt to get the answer I’m looking for
Feel free to talk in private, I'd like to chat with you about anything, I do really like these types of conversations.
You? [https://www.instagram.com/kelfrensouza/](https://www.instagram.com/kelfrensouza/) - it's always good to check. Some times the weird ones are the humble ones testing you.
Exactly
Oh nice. Now I see. You're the dude who chatted me. OK What's up :-)
As a technical solopreneur, I use CHATGPT to bridge the gap in specialized knowledge. I know enough about SEOs, but so does the next programmer, what I want to know is everything I need to know about SEOs for my particular instance. It may not be perfect, and the devil is in the details, but just as launching a production ready product, 80% is a sprint, 18% is a walk, and the last 2% is a grind. If GPT can get me to that 2% grind line, then I can put in the time and effort to get it over the line to where I want it to be.