Rob Shocks - Build With AI

AI App Building Tutorials -

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

I think here on X the majority of AI Builders are the generalists. One person fulfilling all roles. It's exciting, fast and great for the MVP phase. In reality and at scale I want specialists in each product discipline collaborating to bring the best possible product to market. You just can't be best of breed in multiple disciplines and if you are it's super rare and not the default.

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

@FlorinPop17 💯

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

@TTrimoreau Team Cursor and Pi, why would I rely on codex or claude alone. Swap models as I need?

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

There are many alternatives to coding agents but I’m not up to speed on business level alternatives to codex. I actually love Notion for my business workflows. It’s tried and tested, a knowledge base, integrated, and has agents that can use any model I like rather than one model lock in. Have you explores any others

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

@MikeAISales @rileybrown Still don't get why people flip flop between Codex and Claude when you can use Cursor, OpenCode or Pi to keep your harness and workflow and leverage the best model as needed

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

@rileybrown New Toys!

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

@ryancarson What's your thoughts on Cursor Ryan? I've been leaning on it as an anchor for over 2 years because of this reason

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

Stop treating AI agents like employees; they’re temps.
Every conversation is a new hire you have for one task (context window) In that light think of your agent temp in this way:

- Onboarding (Docs, Context, Knowledge)
- Tools (Skills, SOP, Search, MCP, API)
- New Hire Overload (Be aware of context window)
- Handover (What should they track so the next temp agent can pick it up)

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

I can appreciate this. I forget how deep I am. That being said the perspective of trying all the tools shows me that they are all identical in how you use them switching cost is low but lock in cost long term for an org might be big. Not so much for an individual builder though. Building anything fun?

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

AI Promiscuous - Am I the only one planning for the future in this way, or is everyone happy being Agent Monogamous?

The great thing about flexible development tools like @cursor_ai , Pi, @OpenCode : Changing models mid conversation when I'm not happy with the approach or opinion. Claude Code and Codex are great model suites but this is a strong reason why I don't want to get stuck in a single model ecosystem.

Not to mention the fact, the new best model could come from anywhere and the cost model could change over night as we have seen. I don't want to lock my entire development team to one provider for something so important. The switching cost is low now, but when you factor in memories, workflows and skills AI lock-in becomes a larger problem than any legacy migration issue.

Tell me I'm not the only one!?

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

@bilawalsidhu @demishassabis you have built something unreal here, I took your inspiration @bilawalsidhu and went one further with @cursor_ai and Gemini Omni

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

Try using @cursor_ai or Codex with GPT 5.5 to generate images for your slides, app, or landing page based on your DESIGN.md style guide. You’ll get on-brand, color-matched images that make your designs stand out. It’s great to see this feature integrated into the IDE for agents

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

2 weeks ago, I started doing something similar. And man do I feel better for it. We are not conditioned to consume an internet level of information every day. I even stopped listening to podcasts and music in the gym and driving. That extra mental space, has let me feel my day more and defrag my brain leading to more focus.

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

@icanvardar What do you mean by shipping? Marketing or prototype to production?

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

@robinebers I think some of this is the app. I used Claude Code Desktop yesterday for a few tasks and it just hangs with no response. It’s under cooked.

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

Playing with Pi from @badlogicgames the last while. It feels like the Agent version of the classic VIM ide. It’s not for beginners but if you put some effort in you can get a very powerful experience without the lock in of Anthropic or OpenAI. We’ll be flexing Pimped Pi setups in a few weeks all over X #pimpmypi

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

@xiaoyvLiu Seth Godin calls it the dip. We are so wired for dopamine these days if you can master attention and intention you have a super power, thanks for that insight

[Rob Shocks - Build With AI @robshocks]

You can build all your startup ideas with AI now, but here's why you probably shouldn't.

Every success I've had, whether it's a company exit or growing my AI Builder YouTube channel to 40k subs, has come from going deep on a niche I'm passionate about (that also pays) for long enough to find the entrance wedge.

AI helps us move faster, but going deep on a problem still matters more than ever.

I started Reverbeo as a Twitter AI translation tool. It was only after months of working with our target customers that we realised what they actually wanted was a simple website translation solution. We were being too clever for our own good, but thankfully we didn't stop iterating.

The lesson: pick a domain and iterate on ideas within it based on user feedback, rather than jumping to a completely different problem space every time something doesn't click.

Same story with my YouTube channel, Rob Shocks. I started out making videos on Augmented Reality. They did okay, but it wasn't until almost a year in, when I started playing with AI agents which were adjacent to the subject, that the channel really took off. That's when I hit creator-market fit, teaching people how to build apps with AI, something I already had years of experience with.

So in a nutshell: pick a problem space and domain you're genuinely passionate about (because staying motivated is harder than you think), start with your first idea, then iterate and pivot based on market response. Keep digging the same hole until you strike gold or rock.
(More on how to spot the rocks in a later post.)