F**k 996. I used AI to ship 10 apps in a year - now I'm going indie
At 30, in a world of uncertainty, I traded a steady paycheck for a dream powered by code I don't entirely write myself. Here's my story.
I just quit my job.
Right now, that probably sounds like a foolish idea. Trade wars are ongoing, actual wars are happening, the market is volatile, and I just turned 30.
We spend our lives chasing certainty, but how stable is “stable,” really?
After graduation, I fell into the rhythm of the 9-to-5. Clocking in and out of a job, to me, felt like a curse. It buys your time, your mental power, your curiosity, and your creativity. I knew something had to change.
A Lifelong Obsession with Creating
I’ve always been obsessed with making things. When I was a kid, I took the paddle wheels from a science kit’s steam engine and slapped them onto a mini 4WD toy car, turning it into my own James Bond-style submarine.
Later, a trash-talking session with a friend led me to create my own horror game. I spent a summer studying horror movies to figure out how they scare people and then coded those mechanics into my game. The result? Over 200,000 downloads.
When my mom told me I played too many video games and it was bad for my eyes, I even made a board game that combined the mechanics of Hearthstone and Monopoly — a game that could be played without a single screen.
I tried a lot of things. I was a vlogger, a photographer, and I ran a YouTube channel. I had fantastic memories of traveling and shooting in places like New York, but none of these ventures became a great success in terms of business value. I kept asking myself the same question, and I felt stuck. I didn’t have the ability to ship a real deal.
The AI Revolution Changed Everything
Then, AI arrived and changed the entire game.
I started using AI to code back in the days of GPT-3.0. It felt less like I was coding and more like I was witnessing a miracle. Suddenly, I had a real “AI co-pilot.” It could help me fix bugs or add new features while I was driving home from work. I started squeezing every spare second out of my life to build products with AI.
With its help, I built 10 different iOS apps in a single year from the ground up.
I built SideProject, an app to track and visualize your side hustles.
I built XpanCam, a cinematic camera app focused on capturing beautiful, intentional photos.
I built MistLens, a camera that finally brings a true black mist filter effect to the iPhone.
It was fun, and I could finally make money from my creations.
Finding My Path: From T-Shaped to π-Shaped
Years ago, a professor in grad school talked about the idea of being a “T-shaped” person — having deep expertise in one area and a broad base of knowledge in others. But because I was never interested in just one thing, he suggested I could be “Pi-shaped” (π), with deep expertise in two distinct fields. For years, I struggled to figure out what my two pillars were.
Now, with the help of AI, I’ve finally found my path. My two skills are Build and Sell.
Build: I use AI to turn the endless, sometimes ridiculous, ideas in my mind into real, tangible products that people can use.
Sell: I use my camera and video skills to tell stories and market those products across every social media platform — YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, X, and beyond.
These two skills, working together, create a fantastic business combination.
The Journey Begins
This is the story of Johnny. A man who just quit his job to chase a dream with AI as his partner.
In the future, I’m going to turn all the ideas in my head into different products. I’m betting on my creativity and the incredible power of this new technology.
So please, stick around.
Let’s see what great things we can build together.