Software development used to take months. Not anymore
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Hello Reader,
This week proved to be a hectic one, as a bunch of last-minute meetings clashed with existing commitments and scheduled plans. Not to mention a newfound obsession with... coding apps.
Today, I want to talk about how AI is already disrupting software development, two things you need to harness AI, and the upcoming Elastic{ON} Singapore conference on Tuesday.
Things are going to change
The way software is built is being upended by AI. I met an acquaintance earlier this week who shared his newfound passion at a startup, Hasky Technologies, which creates mission-critical business applications for SMEs.
Some of the apps he worked on would have had a starting quote of $150,000 from a traditional software development firm and taken a team many months to complete. Working from scratch with the help of Claude Code, he shared how some were completed and delivered by the end of day one.
Looking at the company's website, I saw a WhatsApp service platform for multiple agents, a last-mile route planner, and a staff scheduling system for over 150 employees to coordinate jobsites.
Last weekend, on a whim, and before I met him, I decided to fire up Claude Code myself. With some trial and error (I'm not terribly good at reading instructions), I had a working app up within the hour. By midnight, I had an app that loads my latest LinkedIn posts and identifies my top supporters by engagement. I could see tremendous marketing potential here.
Frustrated with the slow and clunky process of manually updating the subscriber database on Kit, I also put together an app to speed things up. Now I just click a button to load details of over two thousand subscribers. Make changes using a spreadsheet-like interface. Click another button to push changes back. The app was done in around 30 minutes on Claude Code.
Experimentation and unlearning
How can you get ahead in AI? Everyone keeps saying you need to learn AI to stay relevant. The problem is nobody is actually articulating what exactly that means in a particular industry or stage of life. Hint: nobody actually knows either.
Terrified that it could supersede the skills I've spent a lifetime polishing, I've been dabbling in AI ever since ChatGPT came out. My views have fluctuated with each successive model. But if you asked me about the key things we must do in the era of AI, it boils down to two strategies.
Constantly experimentation.
Unlearn old ways as needed.
Because I spent too much time improving my app when I should have been writing this newsletter, I'll only talk about the second item today. But if I were to evaluate my successful uses of AI, I can't help but notice the importance of being willing to adopt atypical strategies.
From improving apps iteratively rather than using an SDLC (software development lifecycle) process, to crafting detailed proposals from scratch in an hour, to building a beautiful services brochure in one morning, success often means doing things a different, often unintuitive, way.
Have a think about that.
For now, I'm seriously considering upgrading my Claude Pro subscription to a Max plan, which starts at US$100.
Too fast, too expensive. My Claude usage.
Elastic{ON} Singapore?
As mentioned last week, I'll be attending the Singapore leg of Elastic's upcoming conference this coming Tuesday (17 March). Do ping me if you're going too. I should be flexible unless it's in the afternoon, when I'll be recording a podcast onsite with AI Singapore's Laurence Liew.
At Elastic{ON}, you can attend sessions around the use of agentic AI in cybersecurity, witness the finale of the Elastic hackathon, and hear from Ng Pan Yong of HTX about how his team built an observability platform to scale AI safely and reliably. You can sign up here.
As usual, just reply to this email to reach me.
Regards, Paul Mah
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