I Made 3 Sets of Evolving Avatars in One Weekend for $60
How I used Claude, Gemini, and an agent to generate about 90 avatars with tiered evolutions, without hiring a designer.
fresh off the desk
The blog
Build logs, essays and book notes. Everything I’ve written, newest first. 40 posts so far.
BUILD LOG
BUILD LOG
Instagram Went Quiet. Someone Asked Where the Cake Was.
Three Instagram videos got 95, 47 and 27 views in a week where the previous three got about 2,000 each. What I checked before blaming myself, what Instagram has actually changed about AI content, and the one comment that turned into a page people really used.
BUILD LOG
The Brand DMs I Haven't Answered
People keep DMing me to make content about their products, and I keep not answering. I went looking for whether that's just me being precious, and the numbers on trust made it more complicated, not less.
BUILD LOG
Here's Why All My Resources Are Free
Someone DMed asking about my paid offerings. Here's what I told them, and what changed once I stopped chasing the algorithm and started just documenting what I'm building instead.
BUILD LOG
Your Creative Life Needs More Than a Posting Schedule
How to use the internet to support a side project: join conversations, ask for feedback, and find creative input worth making time for.
BUILD LOG
What Happens to a Project When You Stop for Three Weeks?
I took almost three weeks off from building anything. Here's what I noticed when I came back, and why I think that matters more than daily output does.
BUILD LOG
A Simple 3-Question Reset for a Stuck Project
When a project stalls, the instinct is to build a bigger plan. Three questions work better: what is making finishing harder, what small thing could you start this week, and what is already working that you should leave alone.
SYSTEMS
Learn to See Your Work as Systems
The cheapest way to understand what LLMs are actually for: stop taking courses, pick one repetitive thing you do every week, and map the trail of little jobs around the part you love. Three worked examples from three very different jobs.
SYSTEMS
I Shelved a Whole Novel to Find Where My Line With AI Is
Hank Green paused three channels this week over how much he had been leaning on ChatGPT. I found my own line the expensive way, by shelving a novel I let five agents write, and it turns out code and prose sit on opposite sides of it.
BUILD LOG
I'm Writing a Fantasy Novel Using the System I Used for Business Books
The story bible, chapter beats and check-back loop I used for business books transfer almost completely to fantasy, and the research turned out to be the part nobody warns you about.
BUILD LOG
Think, Make and Learn
Ten days of daily video in, and what's actually holding the habit together: a camera setting, a mindset flip on low views, and a demo filmed off a TV screen because the perfect setup never came.
BUILD LOG
Two Weeks of Daily Video: What I'm Learning
Transitioning from silent carousels to daily videos, navigating the different expectations of Instagram and TikTok, and coping with the psychology of posting to crickets.
BUILD LOG
The Friction of Starting
Why beginning a new creative routine feels so difficult, why we overestimate the embarrassment of our mistakes, and why things start to flow around month three.
BUILD LOG
How to Run a Project Build Day
How I organize and run a single focused day of building, end to end
BUILD LOG
How to make your vibe-coded app not look vibe-coded
Your app doesn't look off because of the code. It looks off because of the defaults you never changed. Here's the checklist.
BUILD LOG
How to Stop Chasing Every New AI Tool (And Actually Keep the Ones That Earn It)
I tried about fifteen to twenty AI tools over the past year. Six are still in my weekly rotation. Here's the three-question framework I use to decide whether a new tool earns a permanent place.
BUILD LOG
Playing the Visibility Game
Algorithmic platforms reward signals that have little to do with whether your product is any good. So I stopped trying to become a content creator and built a pipeline instead.
BUILD LOG
Nobody's Waiting for You
I posted polished content and it flopped. Then I posted a voice note transcript in a teacher subreddit and got 87k impressions. Here's what that taught me about the difference between broadcasting and actually going to people.
Empire of AI: Reading About a Machine You're Already Inside
Karen Hao's account of OpenAI's rise reads differently when you're actively building with their tools. Some parts were uncomfortable to sit with.
BUILD LOG
From manuscript to moving characters: in a few hours, for almost nothing
The pipeline to turn your creative work into video just got short enough for a solo builder. Not because the AI got smarter. Because the right tools finally fit a weekend.
ESSAY
The Hype Cycle Is Older Than the Internet
The AI-expert wave looks new because the tools are new. The shape under it is ancient, and recognising the shape doesn't make you immune, it just gives you somewhere to stand.
SYSTEMS
The Forests Are Always Thinning
A podcast about the Maya collapse on a weekend run, and the familiar shape of it: the way discipline quietly unspends itself once the pressure eases.
ESSAY
Rejuvenate With Moon Joy
Watching Artemis orbit the Moon with thousands of strangers online, and finding that same wonder showing up in my AI work.
The Work of Giants and the Living Wiki
On the gap between seeing the ruins and understanding how they were built, and what that eighth-century anonymous poet has to do with how we're using AI right now.
What Do You Do When the Ground Keeps Moving?
Every great civilisation adapted to change. But adaptation has real costs and real losers. The Khmer Empire and the AI moment we're living through have more in common than you'd think.
The Bottleneck Moved: What Karpathy's Agent Workflow Means for People Who Build Things Solo
Unpacking Andrej Karpathy's No Priors conversation on coding agents, AGENTS.md files, AutoResearch, and what the shift to declarative workflows means for solo builders.
Book Review: SPQR by Mary Beard
A thousand years of Roman history that feels uncomfortably relevant to the present. Dense start, brilliant payoff.
Two Months Later: What Happened After Zero Signups
In December, I launched to zero signups. Two months later, here's what the pause taught me and what's different now.
I Built a Product, Got Zero Signups, and Learned More Than I Expected
60 visitors, 0 signups. What my first product launch attempt taught me about positioning, landing pages, and iteration.
No Rules Rules: The Book That Reframed My Leadership Past
A book review that became a reckoning. How Netflix's culture philosophy helped me understand that my past leadership struggles weren't about competence. They were about culture.
How to Pass the PMP in 3 Months: A Practical Study Guide
If you're consistent and study smart, three months is genuinely enough time. Here's exactly how to do it: what to use, how to structure your time, and the mindset shift that makes the biggest difference.
Progress Over Polish
Most people wait to share until everything's perfect. But perfect never comes.
What Coca-Cola's Turnaround Taught Me About Building Small Projects
Lessons from Inside Coca-Cola that apply to building apps, teaching, and making things work better.
October Build Log
Quick update on what I've been building and learning this month.
Building a Thinking Studio in the Age of Noise
What does it mean to think deeply when everything moves too fast to remember? Welcome to the studio.
Skim Culture: We're Consuming More, Understanding Less
I feel like I read everything… but remember nothing. A digital reality check on skim culture and how to reclaim deep thinking.
Book Review: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
This review of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee explores the emotional weight, historical significance, and why every history-lover should read it (even when it hurts).
Book Review: Thinking, Fast and Slow
Daniel Kahneman's groundbreaking exploration of the two systems that drive our thoughts and decisions, and why we make irrational choices without realizing it.
Book Review: Creativity, Inc. - Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration
A comprehensive guide to managing creativity in business from Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios. Essential reading for leaders and creatives.
Book Review: Creative Acts for Curious People
A transformative workbook filled with over eighty engaging exercises designed to unlock your creative potential, from Stanford's d.school.