AI App Development from Zero Knowledge – 1000 Hours #1: The First Monster (Setup) Nearly Wiped Me Out

The first monster I encountered wasn’t a weak little slime—it was a full-on mid-boss-level beast: environment setup, error messages straight from hell, and a surprise critical hit from my own daughter.
"Papa, aren't you going to work?"
With my defense stat at zero (because, well… I was unemployed), I was completely cornered. Was it time to flee? No—I had to fight!
This is the beginning of a battle filled with laughs, tears, and plenty of pain.

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Why I Quit My Teaching Job at 42 to Start Coding

People say we live in a "100-year life era." But let's be real—just existing for a hundred years doesn’t mean you're actually living, does it?

That thought kept nagging at me. So, at 42, I quit my job as a high school teacher. I wanted to be on the creation side of AI and the metaverse, not just an observer. First step? Learning how to code.

Of course, that wasn’t my only reason. My wife had battled a serious illness, making me painfully aware of how short life really is. If I wanted to do something exciting, I had to do it now.

I also had my students in the back of my mind. I used to tell them:
"Dream big! If you want something, go after it!"
But in reality, I hadn’t chased my own dreams at all. So, I made up my mind. It was time to go all in.

…But then I hit my first real obstacle. And it was way bigger than I ever expected.

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What Do You Even Do When You Know NOTHING?

"Alright… where do I even start?"

I knew absolutely nothing about programming. "Environment setup?" Never even heard of it.

I started Googling, and every beginner’s guide said:
"Just build a simple app first!"

Seemed logical. Alright, let’s make a To-Do List app.

"It’s a common project. Should be perfect for practice, right?"

…That’s what I thought. And that’s where I made my first mistake.

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I asked AI, “I want to make an app—how should I start?”

The first step in app development: setting up your coding environment.

"Node.js? npm? React? Why is everything in English?! And why are there so many damn acronyms?"

(Sure, I was an English teacher, but this was some next-level gibberish.)

The more I researched, the more mystical incantations I encountered. I finally found a tutorial and followed it step by step. I typed in the exact command as instructed:

bashコピーする編集するnpx create-react-app ProTask-Quest

And then…

"Error."

Huh? WHY?!

I stared at the error message. It was in English, but might as well have been ancient runes.

"Something something Windows security blah blah can’t execute script."

What the hell does that even mean?!

I tried Googling it. After three hours of reading forums, trying random fixes, and breaking things even worse, I finally figured it out:

Windows has a security setting that prevents script execution.

Great. Just great. The solution?

powershellコピーする編集するSet-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

Excuse me?! Is this coding or black magic?!

I had no idea what it actually did, but I copied and pasted it.

And just like that… it worked.

First lesson learned: AI can solve problems, but only if you know the right question to ask.

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1000 Hours of Battle: Way Harder Than Expected

I decided to make an app called "ProTask Quest"—a To-Do List with a twist.
Instead of just checking off tasks, you complete them to level up your avatar.

At first, I thought:
"This should take about a week, right?"

Hahahaha. No.

I ended up spending 10 hours a day for 3.5 months (a total of about 1000 hours).
Errors popped up non-stop.
Some of them took three whole days to fix.

Every time I thought I was making progress, another bug appeared.

Then, just as I was mentally collapsing, my 4-year-old daughter hit me with this:

"Papa, aren’t you going to work?"

Direct hit. Critical damage.

"What… I AM working! (Even though I’m making zero money… so I guess it’s technically NOT a job…)"

But yeah, she had a point. I’d been locked inside, staring at my laptop for weeks.

My body was falling apart.
I used to walk 8000 steps a day as a teacher. Now? Maybe 300 steps, max.

This wasn’t just a mental battle anymore—it was physical, too.

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End of Chapter 1: Did I Survive? Barely.

No sleep. Constant errors. Back pain.
Every day felt like an endless fight.

I kept thinking:
"Maybe I’ll never finish this… maybe I should just quit?"

But I didn’t. I couldn’t.

And after 1000 hours of pure struggle, I finally finished the app.

This is the story of a complete beginner who somehow survived and built an app from scratch.

Want to know what happened next?
Read on and follow my journey.
I promise—it only gets crazier from here.

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Next Time: AI App Development from Zero Knowledge - 1000 Hours #2 - The Next Boss: Git!

Just when I thought I’d cleared the hardest part, a new enemy appeared: Git.
"Commit? Push? What do you mean ‘merge conflict’?! What is this madness?!"

Next time, I face off against the monster known as version control—and completely lose my mind.

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●NEXT
AI App Development from Zero Knowledge - 1000 Hours #2: The Next Monster is Git!