Progress Over Perfection
What we learnt for the past year
A year ago, I started an "AI Camp" with just 9 students. None of us were experts—in fact, we were all complete beginners (myself included!).
Fast forward to today, and our camp has grown to 33 students. But that's not the amazing part. The amazing part is what these students have built.
It started with Aurora and Eileen, two freshmen who wanted to help our overworked teachers. They decided to build an "AI Teaching Partner" to automate tedious prep work. They had zero SDE experience. Two months later, they were on stage at the Google Gemma Developer Competition finals—the first high school team ever to do so—and won fourth place.
Their success opened the floodgates. Our students went on to create:
"Vision Guardian": A myopia prediction app (WeChat Mini Program Global Challenge, 2nd Prize).
"AI Shanghai City Walker": A smart city-tour guide (3rd Prize).
"CarbonTrace": A gamified app to track your carbon footprint (3rd Prize).
"Mazu": An offline AI assistant for disaster relief (currently in the Google DeepMind Challenge).
People ask me how we did it. It comes down to three simple steps.
1. Solve a Problem You Know.
Indie hacker Pieter Levels says it best: "Solve your own problems." You are the world's foremost expert on the challenges you face daily. Aurora and Eileen saw their teachers' struggles and knew the problem was real. That's the best place to find an idea.
2. Learn by Replicating.
The fastest way to learn is by doing. We started by having every student follow a 15-minute tutorial to build their own professional website. This small win gave them the confidence and the foundational skills to tackle bigger things.
Start by copying, then innovate.
3. Treat AI as Your Co-founder.
We let AI do the heavy lifting—about 90% of it. The key is to integrate it into every part of your workflow.
Our go-to stack includes:
General Use: Gemini 2.5 Pro, Claude Opus
Coding & Development: Claude Code, Windsurf, Cursor
Image & Video: Midjourney, Kling, ImageFX
But beyond the methods, what truly mattered was the mindset:
Be Ambitious. Aim higher than you think you can reach.
Choose Progress Over Perfection. The best way to kill an idea is to try to make it perfect from day one. Ship it, then improve it.
Share Everything. Share your work, your process, and your learnings. On LinkedIn, Twitter, everywhere. The feedback is invaluable, and you'll learn more by teaching.
Master English. It's the language of global innovation.
The barrier to entry for creators is officially gone. With AI, anyone with courage and creativity can build something amazing. To all the young minds out there: this is your moment.
Your first project could be the one that changes everything.
Just start. The rest will follow.