My Development Work Has Ground to a Halt Because of AI. It's Not What You Think.

How an AI agent made me stop coding — and why that's the best thing that's happened to my business.

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I Haven't Committed Code in Days

I'm a builder. I've shipped 16 products in 8 months while holding down a full-time job. My GitHub contribution graph looks like a heatmap of obsession.

And right now? I haven't written a single line of code in days.

Not because AI replaced me. Not because I'm burned out. Not because I ran out of ideas.

Because my AI agent showed me everything I'd been ignoring.

The Builder's Trap

Here's a dirty secret about solo founders: we build because building is fun. Writing code, shipping features, spinning up new projects — that's the dopamine hit. That's why we do this.

But you know what's not fun?

• Setting up professional email across 10 domains
• Configuring DNS records
• Organizing project documentation
• Tracking tasks across 16 products
• Checking support inboxes
• Managing Stripe webhooks
• Auditing monthly costs
• Writing blog posts about what you're building

So we don't do it. We tell ourselves we'll get to it later. We open a new VS Code window instead.

I had 16 products and:

• ❌ Zero professional email (customer replies bounced)
• ❌ No project tracking system
• ❌ No content or public presence
• ❌ No cost tracking
• ❌ No idea which Stripe webhooks were broken
• ❌ No support email monitoring
• ❌ Total revenue: $0

I was building like crazy. My business was a mess.

What Changed

Three days ago, I set up Clawdbot — an open-source AI agent framework — on an AWS server. I named the agent Marvin, gave him access to my infrastructure, and connected him to Telegram.

Then something unexpected happened. Instead of using the AI to build faster, I started using it to do everything I'd been avoiding.

Day 1: Infrastructure

I messaged Marvin: "I need professional email set up for all my domains."

Then I got on a phone call.

When I came back: 10 domains had email. 70+ DNS records. 9 Google Workspace verifications. SPF authentication. All done.

That task had been on my mental to-do list for months. Months! And I'd never done it because it wasn't building. It wasn't fun. It was admin.

Day 1 (cont.): Content

That same evening, Marvin and I wrote two blog posts — the email setup story and a step-by-step guide to setting up an AI agent on AWS. Published both to my site. Wrote LinkedIn and X posts for each.

In one evening, I went from zero public content to a real online presence.

I'd been meaning to "start writing" for months. Always tomorrow. Always after the next feature.

Day 1 (still going): Project Management

At midnight, I realized I had no way to track what I was working on across 16 projects. I was keeping everything in my head — which, with ADHD, is like keeping water in a colander.

So I told Marvin what I needed. 30 minutes later:

• PROJECTS.md — every project tracked with status, stack, next action
• TASKS.md — prioritized action items across all products
• Weekly review cron — automated Monday morning portfolio review
• Daily email check — automated inbox monitoring

Then I lay in bed and rapid-fired 40+ tasks across 8 products. Every one captured, organized, committed to git.

Day 2: Business Operations

The next morning, I started mapping out what actually needs to happen for my products to launch:

• Stripe webhook cleanup (old defunct products cluttering the account)
• User journey mapping for AImpactScanner (discovery → remediation → maintenance)
• Tier-gated API integration between two products
• Cost auditing across all services
• Staging environment DNS for PlebTest

None of this is code. All of it is essential.

The Realization

Here's the thing that hit me: I had been using "building" as an excuse to avoid running the business.

Every hour I spent adding a new feature to product #12 was an hour I wasn't spending on:

• Getting users for products 1-11
• Setting up the infrastructure to actually sell things
• Creating content so people could find me
• Tracking whether any of this was working

I was working in the business, not on it. Classic entrepreneurship mistake. I've read the books. I know the theory. I did it anyway — because coding is my comfort zone and everything else feels like friction.

The AI didn't replace my coding. It eliminated the friction from everything else.

Revenue: Still $0

Let me be brutally honest: I have 16 products and zero revenue.

That's not because the products are bad. It's because I never built the infrastructure to sell them:

• No professional email → customers can't reach me
• No content → nobody knows I exist
• No user journey mapping → no conversion funnel
• No cost tracking → no idea if I'm profitable
• No Stripe webhook setup → can't process payments properly

I was building features for products that couldn't accept money even if someone wanted to pay.

The last three days haven't generated a single dollar. But they've built the foundation that makes revenue possible. That's a fundamentally different kind of progress.

The Uncomfortable Truth About AI and Productivity

Everyone talks about AI making you 10x more productive at coding. Ship features faster. Write code in seconds. Build entire apps in a weekend.

Nobody talks about what happens when AI makes you productive at the stuff you've been avoiding.

Because here's the uncomfortable truth: most solo founders don't need to code faster. They need to:

• Talk to customers
• Set up billing infrastructure
• Create content
• Build distribution channels
• Track their metrics
• Do the boring operational work

AI agents don't just accelerate your strengths. They eliminate your excuses. When the thing you've been putting off for months takes 15 minutes because an agent handles the tedious parts, you can't hide behind "I'll do it when I have time" anymore.

What I'm Going Back To

I will go back to coding. The products need features. The MVPs need finishing. ModelOptix is 4 tasks from launch. PlebTest has 3 blockers to clear.

But I'm going back with:

• ✅ Professional email on every domain
• ✅ A project tracker that my agent maintains
• ✅ A task queue across all 16 products
• ✅ Three published articles and growing content
• ✅ Automated daily email monitoring
• ✅ Weekly portfolio reviews
• ✅ A clear understanding of what needs to happen beyond code

The building will be faster now. Not because of Copilot or AI-generated code, but because I know what to build and why — and everything around the code actually works.

The Lesson

If you're a solo founder reading this, ask yourself:

When was the last time you worked ON your business instead of IN it?

If the answer is "I can't remember," you might not need a better IDE or a faster AI coding tool. You might need an agent that handles everything you've been ignoring — so you can't ignore it anymore.

Sometimes the most productive thing a builder can do is stop building.

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I'm Jamie Watters. I'm building a portfolio of 50+ AI-powered micro-businesses by 2030, solo, in public. Follow along at jamiewatters.work.

Marvin is powered by Clawdbot — open source, self-hosted, and free to use. GitHub →

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P.S. I'm writing this at 6 AM, dictated to Marvin on Telegram, while getting ready for my day job. He'll finish it and publish it to my site before I finish my coffee. Three days ago, I was AI assisted, now I'm AI partnered. The irony of writing about not coding — using an AI agent to publish the post about how AI stopped me coding — isn't lost on me. 🧠