Writing.
Essays and notes on building things.
Not every passage should be the same length
Scroll Books had 210 passages too long for the reader card. Fixing them taught me that a reading app's text is product work, not an import job.
5 min read
product · engineering
Your product is defined by unhappy paths
Shipping When Is Bin taught me that error states, timeouts and failed lookups aren't edge cases to tidy up later. They're the core product.
5 min read
product
Thirteen years sober: what I've learned
Today I'm 13 years sober. On habits, the people around you, why the day-counter eventually stops, and the loops that never fully leave.
3 min read
opinion · life
AI is a collaborator, not a vending machine
From the UK Government's first AI fraud engine to an EdTech product used by 400k+ teachers: why I treat AI as a collaborator, not a vending machine.
3 min read
ai · product · opinion
The first few weeks of Scroll Books
What I shipped in Scroll Books' first weeks live in the stores: the compliance grind, a dependency reckoning, humbling retention data, and why I killed streaks.
5 min read
engineering · opinion · product
Hello, world. And why I'm writing here
Kicking off the Jess Builds Tech blog: what I'll write about, why I build in public, and what to expect from these posts.
1 min read
product · opinion