The Stress of Building an App the Guesswork Way (#2)


🎯 Keeping the Goal Simple

My expectations weren’t high.
My previous UI was so ugly it burned my eyes, and I figured,

“Well, I guess this is just what happens when you let ChatGPT build an app.”
So this time, I set my sights on just three simple things:

  1. Track driver ball flight + putts
  2. Work entirely offline (no internet, no GPS)
  3. Be my own lifelong golf logbook

I didn’t care if other players exaggerated their scores or if a caddie “generously” shaved a few strokes off—
I just wanted my own accurate record for post-round analysis,
and cold, hard evidence to cry over during lessons.

πŸ“Š The Nightmare That Was the Score Input Screen


The start was promising:
Just put “Enter Score” and “View Previous Rounds” on the home screen…
Then, I’d just need the score input screen, right?
(Yeah… no.)


The data fields I wanted were simple enough:

  • Par
  • Driver ball flight
  • Number of putts
  • Score

“Like other log apps — let's just use dropdown menus. Easy!”
NaΓ―ve.


Here’s the problem:

  • I wanted FOUR separate fields on a narrow vertical screen
  • I still wanted everything visible at once, even with driver flight included
  • Dropdown for score? That’s 7 options (-2 to +5)—already annoying to scroll through
  • Even worse, after clicking a value, it sometimes wouldn’t show at all (no space in the table)
  • Adding ball flight (Straight, Draw, etc.) made the table too wide
  • Make it wider so values show → table gets pushed off-screen → now I’m scrolling both ways just to enter data (aka hell)

That’s when my long war with GPT began.


πŸ₯Š Endless Rounds with GPT


It took two full days. (Dear real developers: please look away... eyesore warning)

My pattern never changed:

  1. Ask GPT for a feature → get code
  2. Test in Expo → something’s wrong
  3. Take screenshots as proof (otherwise it “interprets creatively” and ruins the whole thing)
  4. GPT pretends to understand → sends more code
  5. Still broken → complain again
  6. Ask, “Is there another way?” → meanwhile, Google like crazy
  7. Demand an explanation for the failure →
  8. Back to step 1

Repeat until sanity wears thin.


Finally, we ended up with a dropdown-style popup for selections,
reduced the “Hole” column width, shrank the font (yes, I literally sat there lowering font sizes and previewing each time),
and after endless tweaks and arguments… it worked.



πŸŒ™ The Weekend I’ll Never Get Back


I started Saturday thinking, “This will be light work.”
By Sunday night, my entire weekend was gone.


The worst part? I still don’t know how it succeeded.
Somewhere in that mess of demands and half-broken fixes, it just… started working.
I have no idea which part of my request actually made it happen.


But hey—it works, so I’ll take it.

πŸ“· Home Screen + Scorecard View

When I finally saw my chosen numbers perfectly sitting inside their cells on the scorecard…
That (brief) moment of joy was unforgettable.

⏳ But the Nightmare Wasn’t Over Yet…

Next boss fight: Save function and printing the scorecard.

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