How I GPT-ed all the way to my first (finished) full-stack application

Just wanted to share my journey, maybe someone will find it encouraging or interesting, or perhaps instructive.

I have a limited background in coding, as an automation engineer. It’s nowhere near enough to provide me with the tools to build a fullstack application, and as a result, my project cemetary was massive, starting and stopping trying to learn all the necessary technologies. But then ChatGPT arrived, and my life changed.

I began prompting for everything, not just ‘write me the code’, but ‘write me the code and explain it to me, step by step’, and if I didn’t understand something, I would continue with, ‘I didn’t understand what you wrote and seem to be missing some foundational background knowledge, assume I’m a complete beginner and explain it again’.

I started the business side of it with prompting GPT for business ideas based off of the OpenAI API. Then used it to brainstorm. ‘Explore this idea in depth’. Then to ‘build a plan’. Learn about ‘what I need before starting an application’. ‘Prepare the tech stack’. ‘Break it down into a multi-step plan’, and then finally, begin asking GPT to start spitting out code. It starts off easy, and then as the code base grows, it gets harder and harder. I started asking it, ‘what is this error’ and ‘how do I debug this code’ and ‘how can you add more debug console messages to help me understand where the error is occurring’ and so on. As well as, of course, ‘explain the code in detail’, each time, always learning and growing in the process. Trying to avoid shortcuts. Not relying on this miracle crutch.

Ultimately, it was React for the front end, and NodeJS and Mongo for the back, on AWS. I learned a ton, cried a bit, and almost gave up countless times, but finished it, and I’m very proud of myself. I did get help on the aesthetics of the design, I doubt I’d ever be able to tackle that, but who knows?

After a few months of Herculean effort, the final result: https://therapywithai.com

Don’t hesitate to drop a comment if you connected with this on any level. Can’t wait to hear from you :)