Short, plain-English pieces on building with AI for people who aren’t developers. Same voice as the book, free to read.
If you're new to AI coding, these are the four pieces that put the ground under your feet.
· 5 min read
If we were starting AI coding from zero today, we would pick one tool, build three small projects in a weekend, learn the loop cold, and resist the urge to chase every new framework. The skill is portable. The tool is the brush.
· 4 min read
Every AI coding tool runs on the same workflow: ask, review, approve or correct, checkpoint, repeat. Learn this five-step loop once and you've learned every tool in the category.
· 4 min read
The command line is a window where you type instructions instead of clicking buttons. AI coding tools live there because it gives them reach, transparency, and the ability to chain operations. You do not need to master it to use one.
· 5 min read
You don't need a drag-and-drop builder anymore. An AI coding tool installed on your computer can write, edit, and deploy a real website from a plain-English description, and the result is yours to change for as long as you want.
Concrete project ideas you can ship this weekend, with the walkthroughs to do it.
· 4 min read
AI coding tools are excellent at turning a website you admire into a starting point for your own. The legal trick is to copy the layout and patterns, not the brand, content, or proprietary assets, and to make the result your own from there.
· 5 min read
You can build a small SaaS with AI coding tools in a few weekends. The risk is not the building; it is the parts AI handles badly, like auth, billing, security, and the unglamorous operational work that keeps a real product alive.
· 4 min read
The trick to a first weekend with Claude Code is picking a project small enough to finish and useful enough to keep. Here are ten that fit that shape, each finishable in an afternoon or two.
· 4 min read
The best targets for AI automation in a small business are repetitive, well-defined chores worth doing again and again. Quote calculators, spreadsheet summarizers, custom booking forms, and small inventory tools are the highest-payback first projects.
What each AI coding tool is, what it does well, and how the major ones compare.
· 4 min read
MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is a standard for connecting your AI to the other software you use, like email, calendars, and project trackers. It is powerful, real, and almost certainly not the thing you need to learn first.
· 5 min read
Claude Code is a terminal tool that asks permission and works in conversation. Cursor is an editor that puts AI in the writing surface. Pick Claude Code for small, focused projects; pick Cursor when you want to navigate many files visually.
· 4 min read
Vibe coding is writing software with an AI doing most of the typing, accepting changes that look right, and shipping without reading every line. It works for personal projects and prototypes; it's risky for software that handles money or sensitive data.
· 4 min read
For most non-developers, the right AI coding tool is whichever one runs on the AI you already pay for. Claude Code and Codex CLI are terminal-first and beginner-friendly. Cursor is an editor that shines once you have many files to navigate.
· 5 min read
Claude Code is Anthropic's command-line coding assistant. Unlike the Claude chatbot, it runs on your own computer, can read and change your files, and runs the code it writes. It is the version of Claude with hands.
The small habits that separate fluent users from frustrated ones.
· 5 min read
Most frustration with AI coding tools comes down to five repeatable mistakes: vague prompts, no testing, skipping the diff, big sessions without checkpoints, and the wrong project for the tool. Each one has a quick fix.
· 4 min read
You only need to recognize five Git commands — clone, add, commit, push, pull — and your AI coding tool will run most of them for you. The one habit that matters is committing often with clear notes.
· 4 min read
The difference between great results and frustration with AI coding tools is how you brief them. Be specific, give context the way you would a new hire, show examples instead of describing, and correct in plain language.
The honest math on AI coding subscriptions, hosting, and what you replace.
· 4 min read
For someone using Claude Code, yes. The Pro plan unlocks the coding tool entirely, which the free tier doesn't include, and twenty dollars a month buys more headroom than most readers ever use.
· 4 min read
Plan for about twenty dollars a month for an AI coding subscription, ten to fifteen dollars a year for a custom domain, and zero for hosting most small projects. A typical first year costs around two hundred fifty dollars total.
Where the category is heading and what it means for your work, whether you build software or hire someone who does.
· 4 min read
AI coding tools have moved from novelty to default in 2026. The big four (Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, Grok) share the same workflow, and the models are good enough that the bottleneck is usually the human, not the AI.
· 5 min read
Some web developers, yes. Specifically the ones whose work consisted of producing the same kinds of small sites and forms over and over. The web developers who design systems, debug under pressure, and run things in production are getting more valuable, not less.
· 3 min read
For working adults, no — you can build the things you need without becoming a developer. For someone starting a coding career, yes, but focus on systems thinking and judgment, not the typing AI now handles.
· 4 min read
AI replaces the small, useful projects that never got built. It does not replace developers building software where real money, sensitive data, or many users are involved. The job shifts from typing to judgment.
These articles are the warm-up. The full walkthrough, from a fresh laptop to a shipped project, is in the book. See the editions.