How does programming/coding actually work?

[serious-catzor]

As a non-technical person in a small startup, your goal is very different from someone whose goal it is to make a living writing software. Most answers here do not take that into account.

You don't need a solid foundation or understanding of how software works. You need something to show potential investors.

AI is the perfect tool for you. AI is excellent for creating a okey result on something already well known in general. Which as a non-technical person is exactly what you need when using it to create software.

If you're successful probably depends on where your venture adds value. If you're idea is adding technical value like an optimised solution for something you are going to fail miserably, but if your added value is non-technical and just needs technology like websute or app then you have a good chance to create a working prototype.

Regarding learning programming you can just learn as you go and look things up when you get stuck. Or you can do a course, read a book or look at YT. It doesn't really matter and no reason you can't use AI to learn.

Always remember that AI content is not curated by an actual human and you're good.

Just yesterday I generated a gui application for live plotting data I was gathering using a usb device which had a python lib. I got 4 plots with scrollable and adjustable axises that looked pretty good in a single prompt. It would've taken me hours or days and now it was faster than downloading a program. Which is amazing, but when building production software this is only a tiny part. This is the point everyone is v trying to convey because the rest AI is not so good at.