Since about November 2025, my work has shifted radically from implementation toward ideation. Agent loops, workflows, and software factories have taken over software development. We’re all still experimenting with them and, in theory, should be shipping more than ever. I’ve been through spinning too many plates at once and watching them come crashing down. I’ve had to reset, refocus, and learn that slowing down makes me go faster. Yet again, this is the case.
I’m re-learning what productivity and impact mean in the agentic era. What works for me is understanding the problem I’m solving deeply. That means listening to customer feedback, keeping up with the shifting landscape of software products, and, most of all, surrounding myself with things that enrich my taste and judgment: books, products, and experiences that indirectly teach me something about myself and the world around me. My toolbox used to be filled mostly with functions, design patterns, and architectural paradigms, so there wasn’t much room left for other, arguably more important skills. Now that those tools are a thing of the past, it’s time to learn quickly what it takes to deliver quality, and how we can use AI not to deliver 10 times more stuff, but stuff that’s 10 times better than before.
All of this brings me to the one thing that propels me forward: a principled, diligent thinking process, which I support through writing. Getting my thoughts out means they don’t “clog the pipes,” so I can let them go and form new ones. That’s how I picture it, anyway. What’s more important is looking back on what I’ve written. It’s surprising how often I write down a question, come back to it later, and find the answer as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
To make this easier, I wanted to start a side project I’d use every day. I thought of a text editor that works the way I work and gives me all the comforts I need to do my best work, in one place. Making Collie wouldn’t have been possible without agents. It took a couple of weekends of maxing out my personal Claude and ChatGPT subscriptions. I learned a ton along the way and had lots of fun! I showed it to friends, who wanted to try Collie too, and they liked it. Thanks to Adam, Davey, and Kai for trying it and giving me feedback. There are parts of this product that wouldn’t be what they are without them.
I’m releasing Collie to a wider audience today. Can it be vibe coded? Surely. Can you do it better, dear reader? Possibly, yes. It might still be worth a try, though. If nothing else, come check out the cool wallpapers I generated programmatically, and get in touch if you’d like to chat.
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