Notes for people who build
Writing about vibe coding, AI dev tools, and turning ideas into products.
All posts
- The Startup Prince · 6On the Risk of Dominating Instead of Leading — Obedience Reaches Only as Far as the Order; Understanding Goes Beyond ItThe second post in Part Two of The Startup Prince. Extracting obedience through the power of the office is not the same as leading people. We look at why an organization that runs on compelled obedience alone moves only while the founder is watching, borrowing Machiavelli's distinction between two kinds of power.
- The Startup Prince · 5On the Risk of Fighting on a Battlefield You Cannot Win — Courage Charges In, Strategy Chooses the GroundThe first post in Part Two of The Startup Prince. Which battlefield you end up on is largely a matter of luck; how you fight once you're on it is a matter of skill. We look at the risk of grinding it out on a losing battlefield, borrowing the way Machiavelli saw the Romans wage war and the half of life he assigned to fortuna.
- Vibe Coding for Everyone · 10When You Hit a Bug — Finding the Root Cause with AILearn how to find the root cause of a production bug together with AI and fix it.
- The UX Design Manifesto · 9Emotion Is the Temperature of the River — The Third Parameter of UX DesignThis post addresses the layer of emotion that usability and conveniency alone cannot explain. Through Donald Norman's three levels of emotional response, we examine the role emotion plays in UX design and the traps that emotional design tends to fall into.
- Vibe Coding for Everyone · 9Cleaning Up Your Code After Launch — How to Refactor with AILearn how to handle the refactoring that every vibe-coded project eventually needs, working alongside AI.
- React — Web Development from Start to Deploy · 8Context — a Path to Hand Values to Distant ComponentsHow Context solves the fatigue of drilling Props down step by step. The three stages of createContext, Provider, and useContext — and when to use it versus when to hold back.
- The UX Design Manifesto · 8Behavior Is the Whirlpool of Cognition — How to Observe the InvisibleA user's cognition can never be observed directly. But wherever cognition goes astray, the user is bound to show behavior that differs from the norm. Through the shopping mall elevator and convenience store milk examples, we look at why observing behavior is the starting point of UX design.
- The Startup Prince · 4On the Risk of Scaling by Fortune Alone — Luck Opens the Door, Skill Holds the RoomThe final post in Part One of The Startup Prince. We examine the risk of mistaking growth carried by market tailwinds for one's own capability, borrowing Machiavelli's distinction between virtù and fortuna.
- React — Web Development from Start to Deploy · 7useRef — Remembering a Value Without Touching the ScreenA look at useRef, which unlike State doesn't trigger a re-render when it changes. How it differs from a plain variable and a module-level let, why you shouldn't read or write it during render, and its most common use — reaching into the DOM.
- React — Web Development from Start to Deploy · 6The useEffect Cleanup Function — the Art of Undoing What You Turned OnWhen and why useEffect's cleanup function runs, laid out as a lifecycle. Including the real reason behind the commonly-misunderstood 'double run in development' (StrictMode).
- React — Web Development from Start to Deploy · 5useEffect — Handling the Work Outside RenderingA look at React's useEffect, starting from the concept of a 'side effect.' How it differs from rendering, when each of the three dependency-array forms runs, and the common misunderstandings.
- React — Web Development from Start to Deploy · 4State and useState — the Value a Component Remembers on Its OwnA look at React's State in contrast to Props. Why a plain variable won't do, why you receive useState as a const, and why you must always change the value through the setter.
- React — Web Development from Start to Deploy · 3Props — the Attributes a Parent Hands to a ChildA look at React's Props framed against HTML attributes. How they act like function arguments, destructuring, children, and why the rule 'Props are read-only' exists at all.
- React — Web Development from Start to Deploy · 2JSX — It Looks Like HTML, but It's Actually JavaScriptA close look at JSX, the syntax React uses to describe the screen. Why it resembles HTML yet differs, what the curly braces do, and why you write className instead of class — framed against your web experience.
- React — Web Development from Start to Deploy · 1What Is React? — Declarative UI and the Idea of ComponentsWhat problem did React set out to solve, and why does the shift 'from imperative to declarative' matter so much? A look at React's core idea, framed against your web-development experience.