Open, for example, Reddit, and check the SideProject channel. I counted 1 application per 2 minutes! This is huge! And a lot of it is bad quality, because people have no technical and UI/UX skills. They don't know what architecture, MVC, code review, retrospective, technical documentation, target group, performance, hashing of password, and a lot a lot of things really EXISTS.

Even if you make something cool and stable, you just can't popup! And that's the current state. Too much noise!

I have 18+ years of experience as software developer. But I have no experience with Kotlin. And to learn Kotlin, to learn the Android libraries, it is not an easy job. I may need at year of active learning and trying things, before having the confidence to start doing something.

So, I asked myself, how far can I go with AI tools? And I went far!

I created https://howareu.app/

The boring statistics: 126,000 lines of Kotlin across 398 files 45,000 lines of tests across 130 files 3000+ unit tests 50+ production lessons captured 4 months from zero Kotlin experience to production app; 0 lines of Kotlin written manually

Below are the main things that I did and helped me do the product!

Good framework Vibecoding something that big is not an option. You can't write anything in one session. You need a way to keep the context somehow. You need specification. To maintain my specifications I use BMAD framework. It helped me a lot to clear the requirements, prepare the architecture, UI, find any gaps. I used it also a lot for brainstorming session and for marketing. For the latter, it failed

Follow the project rules I use Claude Code with Opus 4.6 (yes, the old version) and keep all my important rules saved in CLAUDE.md file. Every rule in that file exists because I violated it once and something broke. The file grows with the project. This is the key insight: CLAUDE.md turns one-time lessons into permanent constraints. The AI never forgets a rule I put there. I forget constantly.

Keep your documentation up to date I start my session with a custom command that loads all important documents. Enough context, so that when I start prompting, the AI has the basis to make best decisions possible. I end my session with custom command to save all learned, and architectural updates. This way each session is built based on the knowledge from the previous. I have a history, I have an AI that gets smarter with each next session.

Be as descriptive as possible

When you prompt, be as descriptive as possible. I use BMAD to create technical specifications out of my prompts. If the idea is not clear in my head, I do brainstorming session. All possible to minimize the guessing and wrong interpretations during the development phases.

Do you all do code reviews? I do. Usually, with a different LLM. This gives a 'different point of view'. Improves greatly the code quality!

What this is not It is a no-code, but If you know the language, it is worth checking and correcting. With time, the needed small fixes will become less. It is always good to understand and to make the design decisions yourself. It is not effortless. The workflow took months to build. The documentation is extensive. It is not magic. The AI makes mistakes. The difference is that mistakes are caught by the process (tests, reviews, rules, audits) instead of by users;

The takeaway

AI coding tools are not magic code generators. They are force multipliers for engineering process. If your process is "open chat, type prompt, hope for the best," you will be disappointed.

If your process is "document the architecture, define the rules, automate the lifecycle, capture every lesson, review everything critically", the AI becomes unreasonably effective. The investment is not in better prompts. It is in better engineering.

Honesty first

Why am I writing all this?! Because I am desperate! I made this app to help people. Make something good. I want to be sure that I cover as many cases as possible, and that it will really help people. The moment I share in the proper channels that such app exists, I get treated as an intruder, who sells evil!

If somebody would like to help, please, install it, and give me a honest feedback! Thank you!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48184549

Points: 2

# Comments: 2

All else is confidence, experience, nice professional stories, curiosity, good soft skills. People need to like you as a person, to feel unconsciously that working with you will be safe, cool, fun, productive process.

I will continue to push forward :)

And the other thing I just started is a MCP server that will connect to Java remote debugging entry point. This way I will try to allow Claude to start debugging session by its own. And I hope that in pure back-end logics, it will easily trace and fix bugs. I now do it with log messages, but it is kind of annoying and dirty and error-prone to do it that way. I would like to try an approach that does not mess up the code so much. Let's see how it will go :)

Be consistent, try on multiple places, be active, make good site, good videos, good training, talk to people, listen what they say. Post it in reddit, write articles in places like here, dev.to, medium, explain how you did it, why, what you learned...

Cases where somebody implements something and it becomes viral for a one night sleep are so rare, that I am not really sure that they actually exists ;)

My wife's grandfather had his health issues and all were concerned about him.

And now my parents. What if something happens to them? How will I know? How can I help, when I am not around, with two kids. What can I do about it?

And I know my father. He will not carry a smart watch, he will not call me, he will not like being watched by a camera.

What if he can't pick up the phone and call me?

And I don't see such software on the market, that you install on his device, and it stays passively there, not bothering him for anything. Just monitoring there, quietly.

I tried to make this application up and running. With modern technologies, this is possible. The application monitors and updated regularly the patterns of sleep, activeness, and rests. Searches frequently visited places, and if detects something might be wrong, it sends me notification.

For example:

* My father is usually has a daily walk between 7AM and 11AM. If he does not do it, he might have fall, and I will receive a notification;

* He usually have a rest between 14:00 PM and 16:00PM. If the rest goes too long, I will be notified;

* If he is still on an unknown place for a long time, I will get notified.

There are still cases that I follow and resolve, but this is how it is, with software. It requires dedication and support. And I really want to support this and make the product better and better!

It is free the first 21 days, so that people can see if this works for them. Afterwards, I wanted to keep it cheap: $49 annual subscription for the first year, and $5 subscription for each next one. I have some expenses that I need to cover.

I don't do it about the money, I just want to help people, learn new things, and take the whole journey. The journey is more important about the money, for me.

From technical perspective, the biggest challenge was to keep at app alive. Every Android based OS has its own way to detect for an app that runs and does too much: * At night, android enters doze mode and all dies;

* If the app is not opened for a few weeks, some permissions are silently removed;

* If the OS updates itself - some permissions might be silently removed;

* If the app does some extreme usage, especially for newly installed apps, it gets flagged, and it might revoke some configurations like 'disable battery optimizations';

It was a nightmare. I think I covered a lot of cases, and I also implemented an application health check monitoring, so that if something like that happens, to be able to notify the people, to set again the silently removed permissions.

I am writing to different communities, asking for help and support. I need feedback. Honest people to install it, and check if that works for them, what else should I add so that it gets better, and do its job perfectly.

Even though it is hard to convince people, I don't want this to be treat as promotion. I would like this to be treated as a request, to do good things for our well-deserved parents and relatives.

Thank you!

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48077782

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

AI can produce garbage, it can produce excellent results. As long as you know what you are doing, and provide perfect specification, it can come with results, that you alone can't think of, or they can take a lot of time for 'manual' research and implementation. Some people still find issues, and don't trust, but the topic is big here: what's the model, how good is the specification, what's the used process/workflow, what are the agents, what's the technical background of the person leading the agents. Not that easy to say: AI does not work, why people want to use it after all, when it produces garbage

Life changes, customer demand it. We have no choice, and we need to adapt. Of course, there will be places that code will still be written manually. Banking, military, and other highly confidential areas have no other way to do it.

How did people feel in the beginning of the industry revolution? Have they felt the same way back then ?

I read it in a report, and I wrote it here in HN many times in the last few weeks: AI amplifies... It amplifies the success of the good professionals, and it amplifies the failure of the bad ones.

Good professionals are needed so that AI is used the proper way. I think that the way we do our job will change, but there will also be place for developers, PMs, POs, Team leaders, etc.

AI can give suggestions, not decisions. IF you want decisions and responsibility to be taken, use real people.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48014574

Points: 4

# Comments: 1

I wonder, why he did not have any friends from the years of studying. Usually, this is the place friendship forever happen :)

I am happy for him :)

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47978280

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47972218

Points: 2

# Comments: 0

But let's look at the big picture. When using a tool, it must make our lives easier and more convenient. To stop troubling our minds with redundant things. Our focus must be on the product and its quality, and features, and don't waste energy on things outside the scope. What's the point of using a product that pushes us to think about redundant things.

The whole point of using Claude Code just disappeared. I am thinking more on tokens, limits, and optimizations, making compromises on the tasks, rather than product vision and requirements.

And this is a pity. Total waste of time and energy