Making
ChatGPT as a workaround
IP blocks, account restrictions, the full mainland China experience. Used it like a smarter search engine. Useful, nothing more.
NotebookLM made the system visible
Feed it PDFs and documents, make it answer from sources. For research and report writing, that felt closer to working memory than a chatbot.
Prompts as thinking tools
Context, constraints, examples, tone, order of questions. Most people skip that layer. I found it worth learning.
Claude moved it to execution
The barrier wasn't "I can't code." It was whether I could describe the outcome clearly, review what changed, and keep iterating.
First product in a weekend
Personal budget tracker. Idea to shipped in two days. Smaller, messier, faster than any BRD I wrote at Decathlon. It made building feel reachable.