Overview
A theater automation software CEO shares his experience using AI coding tools to build custom applications for niche artistic projects. His perspective reveals how AI democratizes specialized tool creation for small audiences that would never justify traditional development resources.
The Breakdown
- Quality control remains essential - AI can make bad programmers faster at bad code and good programmers faster at good code, but doesn’t fundamentally improve programming ability
- Niche application development becomes viable - Chris built a polished lighting design app for just 3 users in a few days, something that would never have been worth 20 years of professional development time
- Professional skepticism evolved into cautious adoption - After two years of dismissing AI as garbage, hands-on testing revealed genuinely useful capabilities for experienced developers
- Power tool analogy for responsible use - AI coding tools are like giving skilled craftspeople power tools instead of just hand tools, but untrained users risk serious harm