What My Side Projects Are Really About

Thu, 18 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There is a particular kind of silence that arrives after a long day of architecture reviews and compliance checkpoints. The laptop is still warm. The room is dark. And somewhere in the back of my mind, a question starts tapping like a finger on glass: what would it feel like if this were simpler, sharper, more human?

That is usually when a side project begins.

I do not build these tools to pad a portfolio. In my view, they are something closer to field notes — small, honest experiments in how software can support the way people actually think, focus, perceive, and play. Some are practical. Some are strange. All of them teach me something I bring back to the serious work.

Building in Public on Jamal Yusuf

What My Side Projects Are Really About