Hello everyone.

Today, rather than writing a scientific article, I want to talk about a habit I have recently noticed in myself.

Everyone has their own way of working. Usually, when we face a problem, we make a plan, think calmly, and then apply the solution. Most of the time, problems also come to us from the outside: “Can you solve this?”, “Could you take a look at this?”, “How can we do this?” and so on.

My case is a little different. I often create the problem myself from my daily life.

For example, sometimes doing a task that would take only 5 minutes but needs to be repeated regularly feels like torture to me. Let me give an example: Every year, I have the problem of randomly distributing students in a class into different sections. Excel already has a function that can randomize the order. After that, what I need to do is actually very simple: divide the list according to the number of instructors, create the groups, prepare the file, and that is it.

A 5-minute task in total.

But I feel too lazy to spend those 5 minutes on it. Because to me, that does not feel like a solution; it feels like a list of instructions that needs to be repeated every time.

So what do I do?

I spend 5 hours writing a program that runs on my local server, lets me upload the list from OBS, click on the instructors’ names, and then gives me an Excel output with the students already distributed into sections.

If we think about it logically, maybe even if I did this manually for 12 years, I would not spend a total of 5 hours on it. But if I went back in time, I would still spend those 5 hours on it again. Because after that, the task no longer takes even 5 minutes; it drops to 10 seconds.

What I enjoy most is exactly this process. Even when I say, “Come on, just work already!” I cannot stop myself from smiling. The more I struggle, the more I stay up late, the more stubborn I become, the more I enjoy the project.

Sometimes the problem I create comes from a natural need. But then, as I start saying “What if I add this too?” or “What if I also do that?”, those problems turn into a game for me.

As you know, the original purpose behind my CheckMate project was quite simple: to create a fairer attendance system where no one could sign in on behalf of someone else.

For that purpose, I went as far as printing QR codes on label sheets as physical proof. I even bought a printer just for this. Then I realized that in some courses, the number of students was lower than the number of labels on a sheet, and the leftover labels started to bother me.

While looking at those labels, I remembered the stickers my mother used to happily put on my notebooks when I was a child. I also remembered that simple but beautiful feeling of hearing “well done” after achieving something. Then I thought, “What if I gave students stickers when they made a meaningful contribution?”

That is how the leftover labels turned into randomly generated pixel art stickers that I could control. At first, it felt a little strange to students, but over time they got used to it; even students who were not taking my course started asking for stickers.

Then other problems appeared. Stickers could get lost, some students started accumulating them, and some students had many stickers from different courses. So I said, “Then let’s keep a digital record of them.” After that, I thought, “If these stickers represent effort and contribution, they should also have some meaning inside the system.”

From there came theme features, customizations, a sticker spending system, certificates, explorer badges, and many other side features.

So, in the beginning, my only goal was to build a fair attendance system. But every small problem that appeared during the process felt like a new step. Every obstacle turned into a task that moved me to the next stage.

Another example is when I get annoyed by something and say, “I can do this better.” Like getting angry at the ordering system of a Halk Ekmek kiosk and building my own version. Or seeing the vehicle recognition system at school and thinking, “This could be done better,” then starting to work on something similar.

You may ask: What is the point of spending so much effort on things that nobody uses or even sees?

Actually, it gives me this: when I need to do something similar again, I no longer have to think about it. Because making something work again after I have already succeeded once feels great.

Recently, I was saying, “The only things I haven’t connected yet are a POS system and SMS.” Then my curiosity took me to the question, “I wonder how sending messages through WhatsApp works?” Suddenly, I found myself in the hell of Meta’s approval codes, panels inside other panels, and endless settings.

After hours of effort, I actually managed to send a message. I cannot describe the relief I felt at that moment. Of course, when I saw that one message costs between 0.01 and 0.005 dollars, I also had the feeling of, “Damn, I should have just used SMS with my dignity intact instead of dealing with all these panels.”

But anyway.

From there, I wondered, “Can I also add login with Facebook?” I did that too. Then I said, “What about connecting X, formerly Twitter?” I did that as well. Since I had already started, I thought I might as well connect Microsoft too. Suddenly, while trying to add one feature to one project, I had added multiple login methods to all of my sites.

It took me two days to learn. But if I had to do the same thing today, I could do it in 10 minutes. So that investment does not feel wasted.

At first, I was going to talk about a habit of mine in this article, but I think it turned into something more about development, effort, and the habit of creating things.

I do not know how many people will read this far, but for those who do, I want to say this:

In this era, some people may tell you things like “vibe coders do not really do anything,” “the AI writes the code,” or “these are not real developers.” They may look down on people who try. But if you do not listen to those people too much, even if you lose time, even if you make mistakes, you can eventually create many projects.

Believe me, when I started, there was no one teaching me these things. Tools like Claude Code, Antigravity, Cursor, and Codex did not exist yet. I did not consult people; I consulted my own artificial intelligence council — tools like Claude, GPT, and Gemini — and I learned by trying, failing, and struggling.

This platform you are reading today was also built by me file by file, wrestling with PHP files one by one, often without fully understanding everything at first. I made patches, tried to add security, asked models what my mistakes were, tested again, broke things again, and fixed them again.

What I mean is this: becoming a system architect is one of the best opportunities this era offers you.

You do not have to write every single line of code yourself. But you do have to know what you want, describe the system, notice the errors, make the tools read the documentation, say “Give me the link, what exactly should I click?”, take screenshots, and ask “Where is this tab you said should be here?”

All of this is part of the process.

And in the end, when you succeed, it is worth it.

In short, my wish is this: I hope you move from being the person who says “Make me a website” to being the person who can say, “Build me a system with these features, working in this way, capable of doing these things.”

Of course, if I were a student, this would not be as easy. Right now, I have subscriptions to several different artificial intelligence tools, and in total I spend around 40–60 dollars per month. At first glance, this may seem high, but I see it as an investment in learning and production. Today, many people subscribe to similar amounts just for chatting. If you can bring the projects you develop with these tools to a usable or sellable point, this expense can eventually reach a level where it pays for itself. Still, such a budget is not required to start; small projects can also be developed with free tools, trial credits, or a single subscription.

This became a little long, but what I want to say briefly is this:

Try. Tinker. Break things. Fix them. Struggle. Spend hours if necessary. Because sometimes turning a 5-minute task into a 5-hour adventure gives you not only a program, but also a new way of thinking.

If you have any questions, I am always happy to hear them.

Until the next article, take care and stay well.