China Dev Notes

Software developer in China. Sharing China tech, AI, software, apps and internet trends from a developer’s perspective.

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

Hi, I’m a software developer based in China.
I build backend systems, SaaS tools and business software.
Here I share:
• China tech and AI
• Software and apps
• Internet products and business models
• A developer’s perspective on what’s happening behind the headlines
If you’re curious about how technology and software are evolving in China, follow along.

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

@ArbieuLucien Still using PhpStorm every day🤣

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

PHP was born in 1994.

So was I.

32 years later, we’re both still fixing bugs. 😂

#PHP #Programming #DevLife

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

Interested. This is actually very close to how I work today.

I’m a software engineer who uses AI heavily to turn rough ideas into working products. I can take an idea from “this workflow is painful” to a deployed solution — product design, coding, APIs, automation, deployment, and iteration.

Would love to learn more about the role.

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

Building yet another standalone tool is getting harder and harder.

But I still see plenty of opportunities in something else:

Find the workflows people struggle with every single day.

They might be exporting data from one system, cleaning up Excel files, sending messages, collecting documents, matching records, checking for errors, and finally importing everything into another system.

The opportunity isn’t always to replace their existing software.

Sometimes, it’s simply to connect the broken pieces and turn a 10-step manual process into 2 steps.

Don’t just look for tools to build.

Look for repetitive workflows to simplify.

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

@victorundr Exactly. AI has made building software easier than ever, but actually solving real problems and getting people to use it is still the hard part.

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

两周时间，几乎全靠 AI 写代码，开发了一套匹克球场馆预约、赛事报名、培训报名及积分商城系统。🏓
从需求梳理、数据库设计到前后端开发，AI 参与了绝大部分编码工作，我主要负责业务逻辑、架构设计、调试和验收。
不得不说，AI 真的大幅降低了独立开发者的开发成本。以前可能需要一个小团队完成的项目，现在一个人也能做出来。
当然，AI 能写代码，但搞清楚客户到底需要什么，还是得靠自己。😂
#AI编程 #独立开发者 #微信小程序 #SaaS

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

@arvidkahl Not yet. My clients aren't technical, and the ones who are probably don't need me. 😂

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

I asked ChatGPT to create a Chinese invitation poster, but it kept getting one character wrong: “阖” (hé).

I corrected it multiple times, and it still couldn’t get it right.

Then I tried Grok, and it got it right.

AI image generation has come a long way, but accurate Chinese text is apparently still a challenge. 😂

#ChatGPT #Grok #AI #ImageGeneration

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

Growing up, I realized it’s not that I don’t have a home anymore.

It’s just that home is now scattered across so many different places.

Anyone else know this feeling?

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全。但愿人长久，千里共婵娟

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

ChatGPT for planning.

Codex for building.

I’ve found this workflow gives Codex better results and saves a lot of tokens.

Anyone else doing this?

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

AI is making coding faster and faster.

But I’m starting to realize that the hardest part isn’t building — it’s finding a problem people are actually willing to pay to solve.

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

Found this interesting machine today 😂

It cleans the balls from kids’ ball pits.

As a developer, I would probably never think about this problem sitting in front of my computer.

There are so many real-world problems you only discover by stepping outside your own industry.

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

One thing I’ve realized as a developer:

It’s very easy for technical people to get trapped in our own bubble.

We build things that seem useful to us, but real customers may not need them at all.

As AI makes building software easier, I think finding the right problem becomes even more important than building the solution.

Talk to people outside tech.
Learn how different businesses actually work.
Find the repetitive, frustrating things they deal with every day.

That’s where good product ideas often come from.

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

I used to think mature software categories had little room left for small developers.

But I was wrong.

Take PDF tools as an example — there are already countless powerful products out there.

Yet some users still prefer much simpler tools built around exactly what they need.

They don’t care about having 100 features.

They care about getting one job done with as little effort as possible.

AI makes building these small, focused tools much cheaper.

Maybe the opportunity isn’t always inventing something new.

Sometimes it’s making an existing thing dramatically simpler.

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

I had a wrong assumption about AI.

AI has become so powerful that I thought fewer clients would need custom apps or mini programs.

But recently, clients are still coming to me asking for exactly that.

Then I realized:

Developers care about AI.
Clients care about solving their problems.

They don’t really care whether I use AI, PHP, or anything else behind the scenes.

AI didn’t remove the demand.

It just made building the solution much faster.

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

Any tips for making AI-built products look less… AI-built? 😅

I’m using Codex for development. It’s great at building features fast, but the UI often ends up with that recognizable “AI-generated” look.

How do you get AI coding tools to produce cleaner, more polished, human-designed interfaces?

Better prompts? Design systems? Reference screenshots? Figma?

Would love to hear what actually works.

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

For anyone curious about Webman:

https://t.co/Rlp2jVPyAl

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

Been using Webman in production for a few years now, and honestly, it makes PHP backend development surprisingly simple.

High performance, built-in queues and async tasks, and it works well with many existing PHP packages.

For coroutines, you can use Swoole or Swow when needed.

It’s been stable in production for us for years.

Sometimes PHP is all you need. 😄

#PHP #Webman #Backend #OpenSource

[China Dev Notes @basil99258105]

@itsalicesoul I built a small SaaS tool with vibe coding. One customer has been using it and paying for it consistently for almost 6 months now.

Not crazy, but solving a real problem and getting paid for it feels pretty useful 😂