Readit News> it still takes a lot of trial and error to develop intuition about how to use them well.
I used to think so. Then a customer made their own replacement for $600/mo software in 2 days. The guy was a marketer by training. I don't exaggerate. I saw it did the exact same things.
It's true. We're also at the point where the models and the orchestration around them are so good that any beginner to those tools who knows how to use a computer can build working apps. Interesting times.
I was pointing out that practice helps with the speed and the scope of capabilities. Building a personal prototype is a different ballgame than building a production solution that others will use.
What knowledge cutoff? They all have web agents to Google it.
They all do, true. But some are better than the others in how they retrieve, digest and present you with the information. Boils down to personal preferences and experimenting.
Genuine question, will this actually give you the latest solid local model?
I would've thought no, because of the knowledge cutoff in whatever model you use to download it.
I think it will give you a good "starter model". But then, it ultimately depends on what you want to do with the model exactly and your computer's specs.
For example, I needed a local model to review some transactions and output structured output in .json format. Not all local models are necesserily good at structured outputs, so I asked grok (becuase it has solid web search and is up to date), what are the best recommended models given this use case and my laptop's specs. It suggested a few models, I chose one and went for it and now it's working.
To summarise, - find model given use case and specs. - trial and error - test other models (if needed) - rinse repeat - because models are always coming out and getting better
I'm from an accounting/finance background and spent about 10 years in Big4. I was always into tech, but never software development because writing code (as I thought) takes years to master, and I had already chosen accounting.
Fast forward to 2024 when I saw Cursor (the IDE coding agent tool). I immediately felt like this was going to be the way for someone like me.
Back then, it was brutal. I'd fight with the models for 15 prompts just to get a website working without errors on localhost, let alone QA it. None of the plan modes or orchestration features existed. I had to hack around context engineering, memories, all that stuff. Things broke constantly. 10 failures for 1 success. But it was fun. To top it all off, most of the terminology sounded like science fiction, but it got better in time. I basically used AI itself to hack my way into understanding how things worked.
Fast forward again (only ~2 years later). The AI not only builds the app, it builds the website, the marketing, full documentation, GIFs, videos, content, screen recordings. It even hosts it online (literally controls the browser and configures everything). Letting the agent control the browser and the tooling around that is really, genuinely, just mad science fiction type magic stuff. It's unbelievable how often these models get something mostly right.
The reality though is that it still takes time. Time to understand what works well and what works better. Which agent is good for building apps, which one is good for frontend design, which one is good for research. Which tools are free, paid, credit-based, API-based. It all matters if you want to control costs and just get better outputs.
Do you use Gemini for a website skeleton? Claude for code? Grok for research? Gemini Deep Search? ChatGPT Search? Both? When do you use plan mode vs just prompting? Is GPT-5.x better here or Claude Opus? Or maybe Gemini actually is.
My point is: while anyone can start prompting an agent, it still takes a lot of trial and error to develop intuition about how to use them well. And even then everything you learn is probably outdated today because the space changes constantly.
I'm sure there are people using AI 100× better than I am. But it's still insane that someone with no coding background can build production-grade things that actually work.
The one-person company feels inevitable.
I'm curious how software engineers think about this today. Are you still writing most of your code manually?
The simplest way to really start, use anything like claude code, vs code, cursor, antigratvity, (or any other IDE) ask them to install ollama and pull the latest solid local model that was released that you can run based on your computer specs.
Wait 5-10 minutes, and should be done.
It genuinely is that simple.
You can even use local models using claude code or codex infrastrucutre (MASSIVE UNLOCK), but you need solid GPU(s) to run decent models. So that's the downside.
This blew my mind the first i saw this. Another leap in AI that just swooshes by. In a couple of months, every model will be the same. Can't wait for IDEs like cursor and vs code to update their tooling to adap for this massive change in claude models.
I'd push back slightly on the production grade point. The models aren't the ceiling, the user's mental model of software is, depending on his experience/knowledge.
Someone just starting out will get working prototypes and solid MVPs, which is genuinely impressive. But as they develop real engineering intuition — how Git works, how databases behave under load, how hosting and infra fit together — that's when they start shipping production-grade things with Claude Code.
Based on what I'm seeing, the tool can handle it. The question is whether the person behind it understands what they're asking for. Anthropic, for example, mostly uses claude code to develop claude code.