The Digital RenAIssance

Six essays about building software without knowing how to code, in the order they happened.

I spent thirty years in tech and never wrote production code. Then I built a Mac app in three days by talking to an AI, shipped it to paying customers, and spent the next few months finding out what that actually means. This is the whole arc, including the parts I got wrong.

1. I Built a Mac App in 3 Days (And You Can Too)
Where it starts. A problem I had, a weekend, and an idea that the bottleneck was never technical skill.

I Built a Mac App in 3 Days (And You Can Too)

Three days. That’s how long it took me to build a working Mac teleprompter app called Tellie, despite spending 30+ years in tech without ever learning to code one. Here’s what surprised me most: AI didn’t do it for me. At one point it actually suggested we give up on the killer feature. I had to push it to keep going. The human part, the taste, the judgment, the stubbornness, that’s still all on us.

AI for the Rest of Us · Steve ChazinSteve Chazin

2. Is It Weird That I'm Proud of Something I Didn't Do?
Dragging the icon into Applications and feeling like a fraud. What I concluded about who this actually takes work away from.

Is It Weird That I’m Proud of Something I Didn’t Do

I dragged the icon to the Applications folder and felt... what exactly? Pride? Fraud? Both? I built a Mac app that people are downloading and using right now. And I didn’t write a single line of code.

AI for the Rest of Us · Steve ChazinSteve Chazin

3. The AI Wrote the Code. So What Did I Actually Do?
The honest division of labor. Code is cheap. Judgment is dear.

The AI Wrote the Code. So What Did I Actually Do?

I want to share the honest truth about vibe coding my app Tellie. The part where I tell you exactly how we built it. By “we” I mean me and Claude. I had the idea, the taste, the customer wishes (because I was the customer), and a Mac. Claude wrote every line of code and I brought every idea.

AI for the Rest of Us · Steve ChazinSteve Chazin

4. AI and the Evolution of the Human Brain
Why this changes how you think, not just how fast you type. In traditional development you think and then build. Here, building is thinking.

AI and the Evolution of the Human Brain

The real story about AI coding isn’t code generation: it’s about unlocking something our brains have never had before: freedom to create, unencumbered. I call this “vibe creating” and I believe it’s the beginning of a new phase in the evolution of the human brain.

AI for the Rest of Us · Steve ChazinSteve Chazin

5. I Built the App My AI Told Me What It Was For
I asked my agent to check the docs. It came back with four uses for my own product that I never imagined.

You know that feeling when someone sees something obvious about your work that you missed? That happened to me last week. The someone was an AI.

I gave my AI one instruction. She came back with four new ways to use my own app that I never imagined. This is what human-AI creation really looks like.

AI for the Rest of Us · Steve ChazinSteve Chazin

6. I Dreamed a Feature That Doesn't Have a Name
The newest one, and the turn. This time we were both stuck, and the idea that unstuck it was mine. It arrived in a supermarket.

The app all of this is about is Tellie, a Mac teleprompter that listens to you and, as of this month, understands you. It's free.