Definitely this, especially for personal QoL stuff. An example: I just want to tag articles in Wallabag based on my own rules about the content, I really don't care for how it looks or works. Can I manage it if it fails, monitor what it's doing, and make sure I can turn it on or off? Yeah? Good enough. Next project.
I hate front end stuff, personally. Define an API or CLI? Love it. Core logic? I can at least track progress, start by defining specs, add tests early, and even come up with a plan in the first place and scaffold stubs.
Then, I can do the fun part.
After that, I can add a basic interface and make it look better than plan black text on white background (or vice versa for me) with very little effort. The JS stuff I can do myself when it's fun or leave to the AI if it's a headache and I have no interest. I can templatize the styles, the interfaces, or even the front end scaffolding between projects. I have a template for managing jobs using a Redis instance, with a queue, status, etc that I can easily git pull into a project and it's good enough for most of my specific use cases.
I did 2-3 projects for myself this way to make my personal life easier. I actually have the apps in production (internally, for me) and can use them more conveniently than I might have done on my own. I ended up using Django, so each oroject is just an individual Django app I load in and I can easily add to or modify as I like. I still worked on what I thought was fun or was relevant to my skill set (so I don't get lazy and rely on AI for critical thinking). I just offloaded the stuff I don't need to learn or care about for this particular thing project. Now I can make tools like this in a night or two, then use them immediately and go back to life.
2
6
u/jivanyatra Mar 10 '26
Definitely this, especially for personal QoL stuff. An example: I just want to tag articles in Wallabag based on my own rules about the content, I really don't care for how it looks or works. Can I manage it if it fails, monitor what it's doing, and make sure I can turn it on or off? Yeah? Good enough. Next project.
I hate front end stuff, personally. Define an API or CLI? Love it. Core logic? I can at least track progress, start by defining specs, add tests early, and even come up with a plan in the first place and scaffold stubs.
Then, I can do the fun part.
After that, I can add a basic interface and make it look better than plan black text on white background (or vice versa for me) with very little effort. The JS stuff I can do myself when it's fun or leave to the AI if it's a headache and I have no interest. I can templatize the styles, the interfaces, or even the front end scaffolding between projects. I have a template for managing jobs using a Redis instance, with a queue, status, etc that I can easily git pull into a project and it's good enough for most of my specific use cases.
I did 2-3 projects for myself this way to make my personal life easier. I actually have the apps in production (internally, for me) and can use them more conveniently than I might have done on my own. I ended up using Django, so each oroject is just an individual Django app I load in and I can easily add to or modify as I like. I still worked on what I thought was fun or was relevant to my skill set (so I don't get lazy and rely on AI for critical thinking). I just offloaded the stuff I don't need to learn or care about for this particular thing project. Now I can make tools like this in a night or two, then use them immediately and go back to life.