4 min, 29 seconds
It used to take +days at +$150/hour
This is 3Bits & Change, an email about building a service and retail business. This one was written to the sound of my own keyboard and a few birds through the window.
Generative.
Check your prior beliefs of the static, slow, world.
Code is on the fly now.
//no.1 - Macro Tracker
I’ve been lifting regularly and “paying attention” to diet for a few years now. I decided I’d do some new tracking of macros. So, I opened Claude and like I’ve done many times before with Google, I typed “macro tracker” and expected it would give me back a list of “good ones” to choose from.
It was taking a while. Far longer than I thought it should to render a simple results page. I checked on my data connection. Afterall, I was on mobile in a rural area. Nope. The phone had data. I thought maybe Antropic was down. I set the phone aside.
When I picked it back up, Claude had built an entry level macro tracker and was asking me where I wanted to move it.
It built one… on the fly.
//no.2 - Hermes, play
Hermes is like an Open Claw. It’s an installable semi-autonomous agent. I have one running. A buddy and I were on the phone this week and he’d just installed an instance. I remembered I had heard someone talking about being able to ask an agent installed on a machine on your network to see if it could get into Sonos. I suggested the idea.
A few minutes later… sonos was connected to his Hermes.
Then we tried the sauna, also on the network. A few minutes later it was also connected. What temp would you like it at? At what time? On what days?
The agent saw network friends. Then it looked up and wrote a way to talk to them. And, reached out to them to start a conversation.
Hermes, play coldplay in the den. Thanks.
//no.3 - Give me a front end
I’ve been building software again. Software for lots of business and personal interests. And now it does not require the capital of the old model, nor the former process friction. It’s amazing.
On one project I had spent a few days on databases, a server on the east coast, Claude Code constraints, the whole bit… and I had it all strung together and running. But this time I conceived of and built the project from the database side first. Not the front end, like I’ve nearly always done before.
It was time for a user interface.
I prompted something like “Now, I’d like a front end. Make it modern, clean, just blacks, grays and whites. I’d like a map, a simple circle on locations and a fly out of detail about each dot on the right of the screen if selected. Chat on the left. In standard map view, make a summary of all the data points in the map. Thanks.”
Time crunching: 4 min, 29 seconds
I did not spec the map provider, the font, the sizes of the flyouts, the circles, the ui kit, or build a series of cards, host a sprint planning mtg and wait days to weeks to see it running. It just gave me back a url and I loaded it.
Just astonishing. 4 min, 29 seconds. I then added a new prompt and made the product even more usable in just a few more minutes.
Sum
What I’m able to accomplish as a solo founder in a given week is expanding each week. It’s really amazing. I’m working to catch up. At this compounding rate I suspect noticeable new revenue impact on the business inside 3 months. I’m starting to see hints of it now.
Standby.
Now I just need more time sitting with my laptop.
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