🛠️ Simon Willison: 8 Years of Wanting It, 3 Months of Building It With AI

What if that project you've been dreaming about for nearly a decade could actually get built — by you, alone, in just three months?

Simon Willison, the creator of Datasette and one of the most respected voices in the developer community, just shared a story that resonates with every maker who's ever shelved an ambitious idea.

For 8 years, he wanted to build a specific tool. The scope was too large, the skills required too diverse, and life kept getting in the way. Then he started building with AI as a coding partner.

Three months later, the project was done.

But here's the real insight: AI didn't replace Simon's expertise — it unlocked projects he never would have started. His 8 years of domain knowledge told the AI exactly what to build. The AI just made it possible to actually do it.

🎯 Key takeaways:

• AI lowers the activation energy for ambitious projects — not the thinking, but the doing
• People with clear vision benefit most — knowing what you want is the hard part AI can't solve
• The solo developer era is expanding, not because AI replaces teams, but because it makes one person feel like a team

The question isn't whether AI can code. It's whether you're ready to finally start that project you've been putting off for years.