Hey Reader, It's been two months since I updated the list, so let's quickly take a look at what's new. A little context: it has been significantly simplified. I really only use GPT-5.3 Codex High and Extra High (Fast if in Cursor) for almost everything. It requires you to be a little more aware of your prompting and your goals, and to ask the right questions. But it is the smartest AI model, and it is not even close. There's a huge shift in the industry right now, with people switching away...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, Last week I built a mobile app, a Mac desktop app, and a web app. From scratch. I still can't believe I'm typing this. But it happened. And it was WAY easier than any developer will ever admit. Here's what I built and what I learned. #1 - MacroPulse (Web App) I had this old project gathering dust. A daily financial tracker that gives you one "pulse" every day about what's happening in the markets. No doom-scrolling. No anxiety. Just the essentials. But the old version was a mess....
7 days ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, Two new AI models dropped this week. Everyone on X lost their minds. The hot takes were flying. "Claude Opus 4.6 s dead!""GPT-5.3-Codex is finished!" I ignored all of it. Instead, I spent 5 straight days building real apps with both Opus 4.6 and GPT-5.3 Codex. And I need to be honest with you about what I found. Because the truth is messier than anyone wants to admit. The 4 Biggest Complaints About Claude Opus Before this update, people had four main gripes with Claude's top...
11 days ago • 3 min read
Hey Reader You read the correctly. I built a mobile app in 4 hours. I was inspired by Jan, a student of my AI Builder's Blueprint, who did it two days ago himself. You can check out his app on this website. So last night around 9:30pm, I had one of those "what if" moments. I stared at one of my web apps (macropulse.ai) and thought: What would it take to turn this into a REAL mobile app? Not a wrapper. Not a web view pretending to be an app. But an actual native mobile app. So I did what any...
17 days ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, I need to get something off my chest. We're living in the era of AI slop. Everyone's obsessed with shipping fast. Nobody gives a shit about building something that actually works. What Has Changed I've been writing code for 20+ years. Led product teams. Ran a UI/UX agency. Built apps before "vibe coding" was a thing. But right now, I'm embarrassed by what I see. Buggy software everywhere. Companies ignoring their users. Zero testing. Zero quality control. Just ship it. Push it...
20 days ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader I've never told anyone this story. And if you think you're "too old" or "not technical enough"... This one's for you. Here's a confession: I haven't written a single line of code in 11 months. Not one. And yet I build apps every single day. Let me explain. The Backstory I started learning to code when I was 13. Windows 95. C++ and Pascal (dinosaur languages today). For 20 years I loved it. Made good money. Built a career. Then I started watching kids do in 2 hours what took me a...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, You know why building with AI feels so damn hard? It's not because you're not technical enough. It's not because the tools are too complicated. It's because everything changes every 48 hours. A new model drops. New tool launches. Someone on Twitter says Cursor is dead. Someone else says Claude Code is the future. Then Antigravity does something. Then Codex gets an update. And you're sitting there thinking... "What the hell am I supposed to use?" I Just Proved This (The Hard Way)...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, I need to tell you something. For the last 2+ weeks, I went all-in on Claude Code and Codex. Zero Cursor. Cold turkey. I even documented it publicly on Twitter. Then yesterday happened. Cursor Stole Everything I'm running Cursor's developer version (not public yet). And I almost spit out my coffee when I saw the new settings. Full support for Claude Code and Codex agent skills. There's even support for Claude Commands and Plugins. It's like they looked at everything that made...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Reader, I did something crazy this week. I built a macOS app from scratch. Doesn't sound that wild until I tell you: I've never built a macOS app before. I've never written a single line of Swift (that's Apple's programming language). I've never even touched an Apple developer account. And yet… 79 minutes later, it was done. This is NoteMac, a text editor for Mac (because I was tired of the included one). It's not "sorta working", it's actually... done. Shipped. This reminded me of one of my...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
