Thanks to the progress of AI—also known as Large Language Models (LLMs)—I find myself doing something I never thought would be possible.

I’m now able to code. Unreal.

I was never able to do this on my own, but thanks to good ol’ ChatGPT, I’ve learned how to do things like scrape data from websites and build this website almost from scratch.

What’s next? I’ve been thinking about building some kind of tool to help with my language learning. I’ve also been interested in creating an alternative social media platform—something similar to what Craig Mod has done.

These are interesting times.

Non-coders now have the tools to build. Maggie’s great article compared this new unlock to 1960s China. Just like the Barefoot Doctor program brought basic medical training to rural villagers so they could serve their own communities, LLMs bring coding capabilities to non-coders, empowering them to solve their own problems without needing to become full-time developers.

Along these lines is a concept I recently came across that I love:

Home-cooked apps.

These are apps made for personal use—no need to scale, no need to monetize.

On the flip side, is this a threat to commercial software?

My blog has replaced the need for platforms like Facebook or Twitter. I don’t care about reach or followers.

Will there come a time when more non-coders like me build their own websites, social networks, and tools? As ChatGPT, Claude, and similar tools get more advanced, will complex commercial software become less necessary?

Commercial software, once injected with investment, is pushed to grow as much as possible. In doing so, it often loses the very value it brought in the first place. No software is perfect—it can’t meet the needs of every user. Which is why this whole idea of home-cooked apps feels so special. Especially now, when newbies like me can start to create, to code.

There’s also a bit of relief in knowing that my data isn’t being sold to advertisers. Whatever I create, I own.

Of course, the concept of home-cooked apps isn’t new. Programmers have been making their own tools and utilities for years. The difference this time is that we—the villagers—are learning to build too.