Tools appreciation post
Or how I managed to build an old idea of mine in 10 minutes
What amazing tools we have!
Several years ago, Google quietly removed one of my favorite features of their weather app - showing the difference in temperature as compared to the day before. You would get a push notification saying something like “it is 5 degrees colder than yesterday”. For my brain this data was so much easier to parse, than getting the temperature in absolute terms. Saying it is 18 degrees forces my brain to think: what does that actually mean, what should I wear? But if you just compare the temperature to yesterday, I can remember what I wore then and make changes accordingly.
I have tried to build this several times before but always ran out of time or patience. Getting weather data for the specific location, storing it, having a nice frontend, and above all - deploying the whole app was a tad bit much. I knew I could do it with sufficient time, but I had just hours to spare.
Fast forward to several weeks ago, when I finally tried to use Lovable1 to do it. Since I have written quite some web software during the years, I have been skeptical of no-code tools. But I was so surprised at the quality of the results, see for yourself in the video below:
In 10 minutes, I managed to build this. I had to write some prompts for the design and add new features, but the app just works. I still think we are some ways to go before we can get production level apps in 10 minutes, but for PoCs this is amazing. We can use these tools to validate value before we commit.
P.S. I really would like to make it into an android/iOS app, but don't have the time now, so if anyone feels so inclined please go ahead and steal the idea. I'll be you first user!
P.S.S. If you want to check out the app, for now at least it is hosted here: https://weatherdiff.lovable.app/
What is also amazing about this product that it is built in Europe!