I wanted to share an approach to rapid prototyping that has been working really well for me.
Each Cloud provider has some kind of service like this, but my experience so far has been with AWS Amplify. There's also Google Firebase, Microsoft Azure App Service, and Supabase (Open Source Firebase Alternative).
Here's some wins I've seen using Amplify:
Much higher level abstraction: I can define DynamoDB, its tables, its authorization structure, and generate GraphQL CRUD API's all in a couple of simple Typescript files.
Pre-built Auth Component, and a whole UI Library: So many folks underestimate how much work it takes to build a fully featured authorization UI. You get it for free here. Pro-tip: There is a 'hidden' pub-sub utility that you can listen to for Auth events, makes keeping track of the state of the Sign In / Sign Out button easier. Not only that, but you get a whole UI library to help you build UI's fast. I recommend checking out Grid for reactive UI's.
Functions live in the same Repo: Want your Lambda functions in the same Repo as your React or Flutter frontend code? Easy! It's incredibly straightforward to use Lambda functions via Amplify.
No more dev environment woes: Everyone on the team can get their own Sandbox dev environment complete with production-identical cloud resources. You use Typescript as a sort of Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and it doubles as a definition of your dev environment. The worst I've had to do is npm install. Want to setup a dedicated Sandbox with some test data? You can do that too and share the client file with folks. When done or if you find that they've become dysfunctional, Sandboxes are clean & easy to restart.
Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) from day one: I LOVE being able to have Staging & Production as well as the ability to commit to a branch and have it automatically deploy setup within like... 30 minutes.
Figma-to-React: Get some Components for free from your Figma Designs.
Yes, it works with manually configured AWS Cloud resources: I was able to connect to it resources that were configured manually by devs in AWS Console as well.
It abstracts a lot, so be sure to learn: Just a tip to make sure you learn the fundamentals of AWS as you build so that you understand what is going on beneath the surface.
Increasing support for AI: They are connecting it to AWS Bedrock. Cool! AI stuff. If you want to use SageMaker, you can as well, just need some Lambdas.
"This is why it pays to be curious, and ask yourself 'Am I solving a problem that has already been solved" -Sage, upon gleefully spinning up another cloud sandbox.
I hope AWS keeps up this effort, as well as the other major players. I don't care which tool I use, as long as it works hard.
As a reward, have a comic from MonkeyUser (linking to them to try to encourage more fun tech comics): Natural Language Instructions
Sage's Bookshelf
This is the grab bag of cool things.
AI: You probably heard already because of all the pots and pans LinkedIn Influencers have been banging together, but Anthropic setup a method for Claude to control your Computer (I think it might be neat for QA Testing apps, and not at all related to world domination)
Open Source AI: I love that folks are thinking of an alternative to proprietary Nuclear Powered ML Training (I really hope stuff like this inspires more equity around AI, both for individuals and for Startups competing)
Design: The User Design Workbook for the Individual Contributor (If Engineering is 'How', Design is 'Why')
Startup: How Incumbents Sabotage Newcomers (Sobering read for any Startup Founder)
Startup: The Founder Playlist: Startup Templates (VALUE)
List: A big List of Manufacturing, Robotics, and more Companies in Minneapolis (Might be useful for folks applying to jobs locally, was from a fair)
Feel free to leave me feedback in the comments, suggest a change, or share your own really cool thing! Your link could show up in the bookshelf, and I'll credit you as an honorary bookshelf contributor. 🙏
Interested in help building Software? Check out Rosenblatt AI via Website, or check out the Upwork.