Iâm not a developer.
But I am someone with big ideas, relentless curiosity and a love for building things from scratch.
When I decided to create a Farcaster Mini App, I didnât have a co-founder or a team. What I had was ChatGPT.
And it became my full-time coding partner.
That came with some serious upsides and a handful of facepalm-worthy downsides I really wish Iâd known about earlier.
But before we get into that, let me say this:
Even if youâre starting from absolute zero, Base makes sure youâre never truly lost.
Thereâs a ton of well-structured information already out there, including:
Base documentation (clear and friendly).
Recordings of workshops and live sessions.
Step-by-step breakdowns of the whole ecosystem (I can practically say that it's written like they knew you might be doing this at 2am in your hoodie, with zero sleep.)
And donât underestimate the power of asking questions.
In 90% of cases, someone will reply.
In 50%, itâll be a helpful, thoughtful response.
And in 10% youâll get pure gold: deep dives, links, support.
Thatâs community. And thatâs priceless.
The good, the bad and what you might want to know before you go full solo-mode with an AI co-founder.
1. Yes, itâs possible to build an app from scratch in 2.5 weeks.
From idea to MVP. But buckle up, there will be days when you forget to eat, when 3 hours of sleep feels generous, and when you check components and commit new parts of code even in your dreams.
2. You can do it solo with AI.
But youâll need a few key things:
â A clear idea of what you want to build.
â The ability to break down your journey into checkpoints.
â A basic understanding of how to prompt and communicate with your AI partner like youâre running a real team meeting.
3. Everything youâve ever learned will come in handy.
I leaned on skills I didnât expect:
Negotiation.
Marketing.
The ability to zoom in like a builder and zoom out like a client.
Helicopter view thinking.
Knowing how to write good prompts saved me more than once.
And honestly, the emotional intelligence to stay patient when things broke down was probably the biggest superpower.
1. GPT will slow down. A lot.
The more code you feed it, the messier it gets. Eventually, itâll start confusing files, hallucinating edits, or rewriting things you didnât ask it to touch.
And when youâre sleep-deprived and behind schedule, thatâs a recipe for a mini panic.
(yes, I was crying siting in the hotel's bed after the update that lead to 382 problems in code)
2. I didnât keep track of changes.
No logs. No checkpoints. No backups.
So when we broke something (and we did), it was painful to go back.
Donât be me, please, track your progress. Even just a Notion doc or daily log helps.
3. I didnât switch chats often enough.
After 6 days of working non-stop in one GPT chat, we got stuck. Hard.
Now I know: every 3 days, start a fresh thread and paste in all the critical context.
Itâs annoying, but it works.
4. I worked in ONE chat for everything.
UX/UI, backend, frontend, creative ideas, visual assets, all in one messy stream.
Big mistake.
Later I split it:
â One for code
â One for UX
â One for prompts/visuals
â One for thinking out loud
Wish Iâd done that from day one.
5. I didnât double-check GPTâs work.
Heâs good, but not flawless.
Even if you donât know how to code, just search for key terms in the docs and compare. Ask follow-up questions. GPT will admit mistakes if you catch them. You donât have to know everything, still you need to be curious and persistent.
Estimate your time. Then add 50%. Youâll need it. Trust me.
Done > perfect. A working MVP is better than a perfect idea sitting in your drafts.
Ask questions. Everyone starts somewhere. Cool devs arenât scary. They were beginners too.
No team? No experience? No budget? Still possible. Just add +20% more time. And patience.
Use all the resources. Even if they seem repetitive. Sometimes one sentence in a different doc will solve what five threads couldnât.
Even when you outsource - stay engaged. Whether itâs AI or another person, you still need to understand the flow.
Learn from others, but experiment. Your weird idea might be the one that wins.
Take care of yourself. Sleep is part of shipping. Mental clarity is a feature. Water is⊠well, water is just basic survival.
Believe in yourself. If youâre building something youâre already doing something brave. Thatâs rare. Thatâs powerful.
_____________________
Hope all these will motivate you to move forward your dream. Or at least you have 5 good minutes reading.
And while I'm finishing with the project you can already press on a heart and support me a little by the link with my project submission
https://devfolio.co/projects/habitglow-gamified-habit-tracker-mini-app-083c
See you on BASE. đ
Marina Iakovleva
Back with the 44th edition of Paragraph Picks, highlighting a few hand-selected pieces from the past couple of weeks. âŹïž
@caro.eth reflects on the emotional and economic significance of both macro and micro bubbles, exploring how attention, behavior, and meaning shape our evolving digital economy. "The pop, when it comes, wonât be a spectacle. It will be a silence." https://paragraph.com/@caro/the-thought-bubble
@ramina13 shares the highs and lows of building a solo Mini App with ChatGPT as her co-pilot, offering practical lessons and encouragement for non-technical builders entering web3. "I didnât have a co-founder or a team. What I had was ChatGPT." https://paragraph.com/@ramina13/what-i-wish-i-knew-before-building-my-first-farcaster-mini-app
@albertwenger argues that subjective experiences are fundamentally inaccessible to science, highlighting the inherent limits of objective understanding and the value of preserving diverse consciousnesses. "A world with many different subjective experiences is thus in an important way a richer world." https://continuations.com/philosophy-mondays-qualia-and-scientific-incompleteness
thank you so much for reading and sharing! Iâm very inspired to continue writing here âđœâš
didn't expect to appear on the list. thank you!!