I started this project with the idea of creating a basic calculator to determine an hourly rate for tattooing. I had come across simple equations for calculating hourly rates and decided to use that as a starting point. With this in mind, I decided to transform my idea into a simple web app. However, I must admit that I wasn’t entirely sure what a web app entailed or how to create one. It then occurred to me that I had seen an hourly rate calculator for tattoo artists before. After searching online, I found the one from Tattoo Smart, which served as a shining example of how my calculator should function. Nevertheless, the idea was there, and I chose to dedicate the next hour to working on it instead of getting to bed at a decent hour.
My first step was to jump onto ChatGPT and give it some instructions.
ChatGPT spit out a bunch of jargon that I had no hopes of understanding. It did however show examples of some input values. So I defined the inputs that I needed.
Simple, right? No, we’ve only just begun…
I was asked to save three different code snippets into a directory and open the index file to run the app. It didn’t seem too complicated at first, but things got more complex after making adjustments and having ChatGPT edit the code. As a result, I had to go back and edit the code in each document.
I searched online to find an easy way to test these codes and the simplest thing I could find was a way to test html from w3schools. So after a few adjustments, I changed my approach for this project.
Now we’re getting somewhere. There’s now only one long snippet of code to copy, paste, and test.
By now I had lost the idea of making the calculator it’s own app. But I was determined to get it to work properly.
This was it! It looked good and simple numbers would add up! I’ll finish it another day.
Days later, I started throwing real world values at it. The more I would test, the more I had to troubleshoot with ChatGPT. Though it was doing well at finding the issues and getting them fixed. After that it was just a bit of fine tuning.
And that brings us to the current calculator. Unfortunately, it’s not the standalone app that I set out to accomplish. But it does accomplish the task of giving an idea of what you should charge for your time.
This may not have been the most insightful or informative blog post, but hopefully someone at least gains a bit of insight as to what ChatGPT or any other AI language model can do for you and your business.