About this journal

I'm fifty. I don't code. I've never worked in tech. And over the past year I've been quietly building real software — a trading tool, a nonprofit shop, a soccer trivia game, a physician credentialing platform, and a handful of others — using AI.

This journal is the honest record of what that's actually been like. Not the polished LinkedIn version. The real version. The first prompt that made me feel like a wizard. The next one that broke everything. The mornings I opened a project and had no idea what to do next. The times I quietly considered giving up.

I'm writing it because I think there are a lot of people my age who assume this stuff isn't for them, and I wanted to show — with all its ugliness — that it can be. And maybe, along the way, introduce you to the things I'm building.

If you're 50-something (or 60-something, or 70-something) and you've been watching the AI wave from the shore, this is your invitation to wade in. The water's fine. Mostly.