I’m a dad of three who found his way into software by following the urge to build useful things.
I studied marine engineering and graduated with a diploma, but I decided not to sail. Around that time, I was already getting interested in mobile apps and games. I taught myself Java, but quickly realized that building apps or games was much bigger than just learning one language.
I completely messed up my first tech interview, but somehow I still got the offer. I took the chance, and since then my love for coding and building has only grown.
From my early years in tech, I’ve believed that almost anyone can build software. I was a big fan of low-code and no-code tools long before AI became the default answer for everything. I enjoyed hacking software together - using Google Sheets as a database, automating things with tools like n8n before ChatGPT existed, and generally trying to make useful things out of whatever was available.
These days, I think the barrier to building your own apps is lower than ever. Not just because of AI or LLMs, but because there are so many SaaS products, APIs, and open source tools available now. A lot of the work is really about knowing how to piece them together in a useful way.
I genuinely enjoy building, and I enjoy it even more when I can get surprisingly far with free tiers or self-hosted tools. A lot of the time I eventually outgrow them and happily pay, but I still love the feeling of making something real with limited resources.
This blog exists because I want to share that joy. I want to document what I’m building, what I’m learning, and hopefully help more people realize that they can build things too.