Blog
Thinking Out Loud
Notes on building, moving, thinking, and everything in between.
WhispCal is live
After months of building, debugging, and surviving Apple review — WhispCal is officially available on both iOS and Android. Now the real work begins.
Choosing the right tech stack for Whispcal
After weeks of research and prototyping, I settled on a stack that balances speed, flexibility, and long-term maintainability.
The prompt is the product
In an AI-powered app, your prompt isn't a technical detail — it's your most important product decision. I've rewritten WhispCal's prompts more times than any component.
The long way around
There's a quiet power in taking the unconventional path. It teaches you things the straight road never could.
Making it feel instant
The difference between a good app and a great app is often just perceived speed. Here's how I made WhispCal feel faster than it actually is.
The Apple review gauntlet
Apple rejected my app multiple times over AI consent and privacy. Each rejection taught me something about building responsible AI features — and about patience.
Why I rebranded my app before anyone used it
The app was originally called DuoCal. Five weeks in, with zero users, I burned a week renaming everything. It was the right call.
Plugging into Apple Health without losing my mind
Syncing with Apple Health and Google Fit sounds like a checkbox feature. It turned into a week of library-hopping, permission debugging, and platform quirks.
Keyboard hell and other React Native nightmares
The keyboard is the final boss of React Native development. I fought it for weeks. It won most rounds.
Teaching an AI to understand what you ate
Integrating generative AI into a nutrition app sounds straightforward until you realize people describe food in wildly inconsistent ways.
From zero to meal logging in 72 hours
I gave myself a weekend to go from an empty repo to a working nutrition tracker. Here's what happened when ambition met a deadline.