Still in the Code
I lead engineering at a Fortune 100 company, and I still ship my own software. Not because leaders need to prove they can code, but because AI is changing the work faster than secondhand models can keep up.
★tag · 6 essays
All essays tagged side-projects.
I lead engineering at a Fortune 100 company, and I still ship my own software. Not because leaders need to prove they can code, but because AI is changing the work faster than secondhand models can keep up.
★A decade-old side project, six major features, one week. How spec-driven AI-assisted development compressed months of work into a focused sprint on a real codebase with real constraints — and where the AI got it wrong.
Back in January I wrote about OpenClaw as a concept. That post was the theory. This one is the implementation. One month running a dedicated EC2 instance, a name, and an agent I genuinely rely on.
From 'users want commute alerts' to 1,800 lines of shipped, App Store-ready code in a single coding session. A deep dive into architecture, edge cases, and what AI-assisted iOS development actually looks like.
After testing every productivity app under the sun, I did what any reasonable engineer would do—I built my own. Two open-source, privacy-first task managers to help procrastinators like me get things done.
Reflecting on a decade of staying hands-on in tech, fueled by curiosity, side projects, and a desire to never stop learning.
browse other tags