So, You Built a Chat Bot. Why?

You see, I’m not that smart. Or at least, I don’t feel like it most of the time. That nagging sense of imposter syndrome creeps in. Everyone else seems to know the latest thing, and I’m just over here, clueless. This isn’t new for me. It’s been a shadow trailing me through most of my 20+ years as a software developer. Imposter syndrome, inferiority complex, call it what you want. It’s that constant, creepy voice in my head, looping criticism. Sometimes it’s a whisper, sometimes it’s shouting, but it’s always there. Paralyzing. Maybe I need therapy.

So, what’s my move? Face it head-on. If that voice says I don’t know enough, I dig in and learn. Awesome, right? Well, here’s the catch: I love learning new things, but I’m terrible at it in the traditional sense. Reading docs? Sure, I can do it. After a while, though, it just slides off me. Smooth brain, no grooves to catch the details. Then I’m back to square one, feeling like I’m not smart enough. Ugh. Over the years, I’ve figured out I learn best by doing. Reading theory takes me forever to absorb, but when I roll up my sleeves and start building, that’s where the magic happens: trying, failing, trying again, succeeding. Here’s how it usually goes:

Read the Docs

I’ll crack open the docs first. This is where I wrestle with the high-level concepts and start piecing together how I might pull off what I want. But a lot of it doesn’t stick yet. It’s like skimming a map without knowing the terrain.

Start Building

Armed with whatever scraps of knowledge I’ve retained, I dive in and start hacking something together. Progress happens until it doesn’t. I hit a wall, unsure how to do the next bit, and that’s when I return to the docs.

Read the Docs (Again)

Now those roadblocks turn into questions I can actually ask the docs. With the problem staring me in the face, the answers finally click. I might’ve skimmed them before, but they didn’t mean anything until I saw the issue. Back to building I go. Progress, another snag, more docs, repeat until I’m ready for the next step.

Throw It All Away

Wait, what? Yup, chuck it in the trash and start over. By this point, I’ve not only learned how to build what I wanted, but also how not to build it. Docs don’t tell you that part. You only get it by screwing up firsthand. Giving myself permission to ditch version 1 and restart with fresh eyes, loaded with everything I’ve just learned, means version 2 comes together faster and way better. It’s like a cheat code for leveling up.

Quick prototypes are my secret weapon for cracking “how do I solve this?”. On personal projects, it’s a breeze. Professionally, it’s not so simple. There’s pressure to ship fast. The pragmatist in me gets it, but I’ve learned the hard way that shipping a prototype never ends well. Bake in time to prototype early, then be disciplined enough to rebuild it right, and you’ll ship something solid every time. Anyway, I’m rambling.

So Why Did You Build a Chat Bot?

Alright, I’ve blabbed about how I learn and how I apply it at work, but I still haven’t answered the damn question. Here’s the deal: a while back, I found myself jobless. First time in my career. Lucky streak broken. After a quick snowboarding break to clear my head, I started plotting my next steps. The usual suspects made the list: update the resume, spruce up LinkedIn, fire off applications. But I also thought a personal website could be cool.

Problem is, I’m no front-end wizard. I can sling React around and get stuff done, but it’s not winning any design awards. Most dev websites are front-end folks flexing their pixel-perfect skills. How do I show off my backend chops on a site? Technical blogs could work, but I hadn’t been writing them. Building a worthy backlog would take time. While I was mulling this over, recruiters started pinging me on LinkedIn: “Got Java experience? Node? Python?”. I’m easily bored. After typing near-identical replies a few times, I wondered if I could automate this. That sparked the idea: an AI chatbot that knows my experience and plays “virtual me.” Perfect project. Learn something new, flex my full-stack skills, and maybe even save me some typing. Off I went.

Realistically, no recruiter’s hitting up my website. But I could at least paste their questions into my bot and get solid answers to copy-paste back. Bonus: it’s pretty handy at whipping up cover letters too.

So, why’d I build a chatbot? I’m not that smart, and I’m kinda lazy. But I’ve been doing this dev thing for over 20 years. If I can turn my weird learning quirks into something useful, while maybe inspiring a few newer devs along the way, that’s a win in my book.