When I was in college, I was pretty smug about certain things — like people getting degrees they’ll never actually use.

Philosophy came to mind, a lot.

Nearly 20 years on, two things are true about me:

1. I have a Master’s Degree in Software Engineering that I’m not using (at least, not in the traditional way)
2. I’m reading more philosophy, cursing younger me for being so closed minded.

The fact that I’m not using my Master’s hasn’t always been true. I taught Computer Science at the college level for a decade.

I worked in software development for higher ed, and for agencies. I wrote 4 web development books.

But today, I’m an automations and podcast coach. And when people ask me if I still make websites for hire, I sheepishly say, “no.”

Sheepish because I’ll say “yes” to some. But they need to be the right project.

Straightforward, clear, but a little interesting.

Usually for a non-profit. And I don’t want to code.

I only really code for LinkedIn Learning courses now.

But recently I took on a project I didn’t properly scope — I relied on my memory of WordPress tools, instead of seeing what they’re like now, post-Gutenberg.

I realized I needed at least some custom code.

So I turned to ChatGPT. And you know what?

ChatGPT can Code

It’s been absolutely f@#$ing flawless.

Shortcode to filter posts a certain way? No problem.

Write some JSON to send info from WordPress to Zapier? Got it.

Write an importer for a CSV that brings in users and assigns them multiple roles? Worked on the first freaking try.

6 months ago I was saying, “sure it can help, but someone who knows what they’re doing still needs to look over it.”

I know what I’m doing, and for this project, I don’t feel like I need to look over it.

VS Code’s Agent, from what I hear, is even better.

It has me thinking a lot about my old profession. It’s not something I can really comment on because I haven’t professionally developed software in nearly 9 years.

Developers are a clever lot, and I’m sure they’re coming up with interesting ways to use them.

After all, we were thinking about this when I was in school in the early 2000s.

What I’m really thinking about is how this can help solopreneurs.

How Can You Reduce Friction Through AI Coding?

This project would have gone off the rails for me if it hadn’t been for ChatGPT, if I’m being totally honest.

But it also shows that with little to no knowledge of coding, you can have completely working apps.

ChatGPT even gave me proper instructions for how to get the code working.

Just a few years ago, I vowed not to teach code anymore because I wanted to be able to help solopreneurs without relying on custom code.

Today, it seems just about anyone can write an app.

So how would you get started if you have no coding background. I have a couple of thoughts:

1. If you have a WordPress site, you can ask it to write a function or plugin to add a feature and see how it does.
2. Have it write Python or Javascript to perform a coding task in Zapier.
3. If you’re feeling really adventurous, try VS Code’s Agent Mode to write a full app for you.

I shared with a friend that if I were still a developer, I’d probably be scared for my job.

But the truth is, this, like anything with Generative AI, is a huge enhancement. It’s more of an enabler than a disabler.

And this is great news for solopreneurs.