Ask Stoic - My AI Stoic Helper App
A simple web app that gives you Stoic philosophy advice using AI
What This Is
A simple web app that gives you Stoic philosophy advice using AI. I built it with Claude (no coding needed!), proving that anyone can create cool stuff even without programming skills.
How It All Started
August 18 - The Birthday Idea
What happened: Got the idea on my birthday morning while reading
- Had this thought: “What if I made an app to help people see things from a Stoic perspective?”
- Started asking for feedback and looking into how to build it
- Found out about Claude’s no-code features
What I did:
- Created the basic idea
- Started a feedback thread
- Began building the first version
Problems I faced:
- Had no idea how to build an app without coding
- Needed to figure out which tools to use
August 19 - First Version is Live!
What happened: Actually finished and launched my first working app
- Built it completely using Claude - super easy and fast!
- Felt really proud that I could build something real
- Link: https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/f9d6a01a-f6bf-4169-863b-e37c5fe4fe10
What I did:
- Made a working app that actually gives Stoic advice
- Proved to myself I can build things
Next things to do:
- Make the AI responses better (tone, content, how it looks)
- Add privacy info so people know I can’t see their questions
- Make it work better on phones
August 20 - Making Responses Better
What happened: Spent the day improving how the AI responds
- Learned better ways to talk to AI from community tips
What I did:
- Worked on making the AI give better, more helpful answers
- Used better prompting techniques
Problems I faced:
- Still struggling with some work problems
August 21 - Making It Look Better
What happened: Kept working on it and felt more confident about AI
- Changed my attitude from worried to excited about using AI
What I did:
- Changed the design to simple black and white
- Added privacy information
- Made it look cleaner overall
Problems I faced:
- Trying to keep it simple but still useful
- Making sure people understand their privacy
August 23 - Latest Updates
What happened:
- Got a stable web address that doesn’t keep changing
- Made the app smarter about handling weird questions
What I did:
- Better responses: Made the AI sound less robotic (still working on this)
- Handles nonsense: If someone types gibberish, the AI asks them to clarify
- Self-reflection questions: Added questions at the end to help people think deeper
- Stable link: Now it’s at https://olekwrites.com/ask-stoic and won’t keep changing
Problems I faced:
- Every time I updated the app, the link would change (super annoying!)
- Still trying to make the AI responses sound more natural
- Balancing helpful automation with real human connection
How I Built It
- Used Claude AI with no coding required
- Proved that you don’t need to be a programmer to build useful apps
- Got help and feedback from the Purple Space community
What’s Next
People suggested I could:
- Improve the quality of the answers
- Train it on specific Stoic books and texts
- Make it work with social media platforms
- Compare ancient vs modern Stoic ideas
- Make it work even better on phones
The Big Lesson
You don’t need to know how to code to build something meaningful. With the right tools and a supportive community, anyone can create apps that actually help people!
I wrote this text in Difree, a text app with no distractions | Graphics thanks to #dalle
Thanks for reading! If you'd like to share your thoughts send me an email.