I spent Thursday at the Middlesbrough Front End Conference. I wasn’t speaking. I was there to listen and learn at what was my only second time at a development related conference. I felt confident enough to understand, appreciate and learn some new things.

The nicest thing for me were new and old friends coming to chat about what I’ve been building and writing around AI and agentic coding.

Some shared about their own journey and some wanted to hear more firsthand what it had been like.

Here’s what stood out most from those conversations:

1. Agentic coding is a massive confidence builder

So many people told me they’ve always wanted to build something. And I shared that with AI (not just agentic coding) it is absolutely possible. The confidence of bringing an idea to life cannot be underestimated.

Agentic coding and AI changes that. It gives people a way in. It removes the weight of “I need to know everything first” and replaces it with “I can learn as I go”, especially for people like me.

Confidence builds when you try something, see it take shape and realise you did that. It’s not perfect but it’s yours. That’s powerful.

2. Getting from 0 to 1 is the hard part

Everyone gets stuck at the start. The blank screen. The idea that’s too big. The fear of wasting time. And as I’ve said before in my post about getting into agentic coding, having the wrong stack or not understanding which stack you should use can make it far harder. Here’s a few helpers:

Codefa.st is designed for those with entrepreneurial spirit, it’s an accelerated learning path to build your SaaS or online business even if you have no coding experience. It teaches the essentials and helps you launch fast using AI to assist with development. Its three-part structure gives you everything from the basics to launching a product. The frontend, backend and business stack are all handled with just enough support and flexibility.

ShipFast is a Next.js boilerplate built for speed. It gives you authentication, payments, email integration and SEO setup out of the box. You don’t have to spend hours wiring things up just to see if an idea has legs. You can build the core, test it, get feedback and iterate.

Zero to Shipped is an interactive video course that walks you through the full-stack dev journey. It introduces a practical tech stack—Next.js, Blitz.js, Prisma, Mantine UI, TypeScript and Zod. It’s built for people like me who don’t need more complexity. Just a clear path from idea to working product. It covers databases, authentication, hosting and more, making it easy to get going fast with the right foundation.

But once you ship something, anything, you break the seal. You realise it’s not about getting it right the first time. You’ll refactor. You’ll rebuild. You’ll bin it if you need to. You’ll ask for help if it grows.

But you’ve made the thing. That’s the shift.

3. Success is unpredictable

I don’t expect any of the things I’m building to be a success. That’s not false humility. It’s just honest.

I might have to build 20 things for one of them to be half decent. I’m fine with that. Because I’m not doing this to hit a home run. I’m doing it because I want to make things. Learn things. Try things.

The outcome is unknown. The process is the point.

4. It has to be fun

If you’re not learning, you’re not living. If you’re not enjoying it, why are you doing it?

This space is moving fast. New models. Smarter agents. More capability packed into a single prompt. But all of that only matters if you’re actually using it. Testing it. Seeing what it can do.

The conversations I had at the conference weren’t about replacing anyone. They were about unlocking something. Confidence. Curiosity. Creativity.

And that’s where the real potential sits.

If you’re thinking about getting into this space, don’t wait for it to be perfect. Try something. Build something. Share it.

You don’t have to know what will work. You just have to be willing to find out.