Part 3: From Prototype to Production

The OpenAI Staffer Who Fixed His Airbnb Photos

A 5-Part Series on How Regular People Are Building Their Way Out of Daily Frustrations

OpenAI gave him a week off. He built an app. Not because he could, but because his Airbnb photos were terrible.

Joe Butler's story stopped me in my tracks.

Not because he works at OpenAI. Not because he built something in 10 days.

But because of why he built it.

"Updating my Airbnb listing photos made me realise a painful truth. My photography skills are terrible."

That's it. That's the origin story.

Bad photos. Frustrated host. Week off work.

10 days and 60 PR merges later, he had a working app.

The last time Joe built a production app was 2018. His words:

"janky combo of Angular front end and PHP back end."

This time? Tools he'd never touched before. Stack he'd never used. Language models that didn't exist when he last coded.

And it worked.

Not "worked eventually." Not "worked after debugging." Worked. Full stop.

turtledit.com if you want to see it.

Joe didn't set out to revolutionise photography. He didn't pitch investors. He didn't write a business plan.

He just had terrible Airbnb photos.

"Could AI make them look pro? Turns out yes, but it needed careful prompting to avoid that fake AI look."

Challenge accepted.

This is what's breaking my brain about vibe coding:

We spent decades believing you needed:

• A computer science degree

• Years of experience

• A team

• A budget

• A timeline

Turns out you need:

• A specific frustration

• A week off

• The audacity to try

Working at LinkedIn, I've watched how products traditionally get built.

Sprint planning. Story points. Retrospectives. Months of development for features people might use.

Meanwhile, Joe's out here solving his actual problem in the time it takes us to schedule the kickoff meeting.

The shift isn't technical. It's psychological.

From "I need to hire someone" to "Give me a few days." From "That would be nice" to "Actually, I'll just build it." From "I'm not a developer" to "My photos suck, let me fix that."

And maybe that's the revolution:

When the barrier to building drops low enough, we stop accepting broken things.

Bad photos? Build a fixer. Annoying process? Automate it. Missing feature? Add it yourself.

The future isn't about everyone becoming a developer.

It's about no one needing permission to solve their own problems.

What's your terrible Airbnb photos?

That thing that bugs you every single time?

Because apparently, a week off and some frustration is all you need now.

(Though I'd probably still use my week off for sleep. Two kids. You understand.)

This is part of a 5-Part Series on How Regular People Are Building Their Way Out of Daily Frustrations. Follow along by subscribing to find out more!