The more apps I build, the more I think the actual product is only 10% of the battle.
Building is comfortable because progress is tangible.
Distribution is harder. You can do everything โrightโ and still have no idea whatโs going to work.
Codex usage limits on Pro are brutal.
I used Astra Light for just 11 minutes and burned through 5% of my allowance.
At that rate, โProโ doesnโt feel very pro.
Astra is a Fable-level model suited for visually demanding tasks, but the usage cost isnโt great. Iโve already burned through 10% of my usage designing just a few screens. The same work on Claude would use around 5% of its five-hour usage limit. Not a great first impression.
ChatGPT app now allows sections, instead of manually doing it. Ask this:
> Go through my chats from the last 30 days. Create clear sidebar sections based on recurring themes, move each chat into the best section, keep pinned items pinned, and leave only genuinely unclear chats ungrouped.
ChatGPT built an app identity from scratch.
I gave it a fictional time-tracking app. It named the product, designed the logo, then used Apple Icon Composer on my Mac using Computer Use to produce every App Store icon appearance.
Bloody fun to watch.
Output
Codex just changed my mind about AI-generated UI.
I asked it to design a welcome screen for a fictional time-tracking app. It produced the entire screen, including the illustration.
For the first time, I prefer its UI output to Claude Opus and Fable.
Thoughts? @thsottiaux