journals
Get to know my thoughts, notes on AI, engineering, and building things.
You Don't Get to Take It Offline
There's an easy way to rebuild a product. Take it down, throw up a "we'll be back soon" page, unveil the new thing to applause. We didn't get that version. The app we're rebuilding has paying members on it right now — logging in, posting, watching — on the old thing we're replacing underneath them. You don't get to take it offline. So you get good at rebuilding while it's still running.
The Spec Is the Strategy
Most people use AI the wrong way. They jump straight in. Broad prompt. Vague instruction. Half-broken output. Then they blame the AI. The AI isn't the problem. The absence of a plan is. A spec isn't paperwork. It's the difference between a build that ships clean and one that unravels every time you add something new. Plan first. Then let Claude build.
The Market Didn't Ask Me. It Told Me.
I didn't plan any of this. No five-year roadmap. No mentor who handed me the cheat code. I just paid attention to what the market was doing — and moved when it moved. CS graduate. Junior developer. No-code builder. Full-stack AI-assisted engineer. Four titles. One thread: the market changed, and I didn't fight it. That's not a lack of direction. That's the whole strategy.