February Notes: Building Disposable Software, Buying Box Sets, and Post-Nursery Debriefs
On building tools for myself, choosing tangible things again, and translating work into toddler-scale language
I’m probably the fastest typist you know. And I’m not exaggerating. People used to gather to watch me type whenever my dad took me to cybercafes in the early 2000s to type his correspondence. (If you’re wondering why anyone would find that interesting, let’s just say you don’t know Ibadan people.)
I’m also probably the most reluctant typist you know. I’ve always thought it was unnecessary to type a lot, especially when you already know what you want to say (as opposed to when you’re thinking through writing). Wouldn’t it be quicker to just dictate to a computer and let it transcribe your words?
I write A LOT at work, so this is a thought I’ve returned to often. I’ve tried several voice-to-text tools over the past few years and none of them were good enough, until I tried dictating to ChatGPT last year. It worked so well that it felt like magic. It cleaned up my fillers and handled it properly when I backtracked to fix something I’d said.
So, when I started experimenting with vibe coding, I decided to build the tool I’d always wanted. Something simple that let me dictate properly. I could have paid for Wispr Flow, but then I’d have missed the chance to learn by building something I actually cared about.
It’s deliberately minimal. A single-page web app records audio in my browser and sends it to a Cloudflare Worker. The Worker passes it to OpenAI’s Whisper for transcription, and can optionally run a light edit or a fuller rewrite. My dictation history and personal fixes stay in local storage on my devices. It gets better as I provide feedback on niche words, such as my actual first-name. The server keeps anonymous daily usage counts.
Whisper does the heavy lifting and the app works exactly as I’d always imagined voice-to-text should work for me. And even though I type really quickly, it’s saved me about four hours this past month. But most importantly, it gave me a practical way to try vibe coding, from defining my requirements to building a working tool and improving the design over time.
Regarding the time saving, I wish I could say that I got the four hours back to do non-work stuff with, but I didn’t. I simply spent those four hours doing more things. I’m very involved in our various pilots to improve productivity through AI, and what I’m finding so far is that people are just doing more with the time they’re saving. It reminds me of the famous economist who once predicted that people would eventually have 15-hour work-weeks. We’re not there yet, and probably never will, because society and people simply found more things to do.
Like me, there are many people building software just for themselves, and that’s fine. In The Case for Disposable Software, Gautham argues that sometimes the best product you can make is one you build quickly for a single user or single use, solving your own problem without worrying about longevity, scale, or traditional product expectations.
The Big Bang Theory left Netflix in the UK this month and I was devastated. The show has seen me through life’s ups and downs for the past fifteen years. It’s like visual comfort food – my TV equivalent of Domino’s Pizza. I’ve reached for The Big Bang Theory when I’ve needed to calm my mind before a big day, like the night before my wedding, or to unwind after a long one. At home, we sometimes joke about how I’ll be old and grey and still watching it.
I was upset when it disappeared from Netflix. So, I’ve decided to buy the physical box set. Box sets are inefficient, clunky, and they take up space in your living room. You have to own a disc player and get up from your chair to swap discs when you want to watch something else. That’s all true. But box sets are also tangibly mine in a way that a digital rental or purchase cannot be.
This decision signposts a recent increase in my preference for tangible things. After many years of being digital-first, I’m going into book shops to buy hard copy books again. I’m printing pictures and photobooks after trips rather than keeping them on my phone. And I’m increasingly doing things with my hands again – drawing, painting, assembling.
I’m not about to move to a farm and give up the internet. But I’m re-discovering the pleasure of doing things I enjoy in a tactile and disconnected way. I highly recommend it.
OG has recently started asking us about our days. I was genuinely surprised the first time she said, “tell me about your day too,” after recounting hers at nursery. Since then, it’s become part of our early evenings, alongside her current obsession with the PJ Masks audio album.
Answering this question in a way that a 3+ year old might even begin to understand has given me a new lens through which to notice my days, both as they’re unfolding and afterwards. It turns out most workdays sound very different once you strip them down to what a three-year-old might care about, and I’ve sometimes found myself noticing, mid-afternoon, whether something I’m doing will be simple enough to report back later.
Reading:
I’m currently re-reading my Achebe favourites and finished The Education of a British-Protected Child, Things Fall Apart, and Arrow of God all in February. I’m now onto No Longer at Ease.
Re-reading Achebe has given me a longing for books that describe pre-colonial Yoruba experiences, but I don’t enjoy reading plays so most of Soyinka’s work is out. I’ve just found The Yoruba: A New History, a sweeping history of the Yorubas from 300 BC until 1840 and the first chapter has me hooked.
I’ve been more conscious about expanding my Operator toolkit, so I just finished Matt Mochary’s The Great CEO Within: The Tactical Guide to Company Building. There’s a lot of basic stuff in there but I found some new things to try too and it’s a good reference book for “operator stuff” like cadences, OKRs, staffing, and so on.
For fiction, this month I read Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shroud but didn’t quite like it compared to his previous work. I don’t think anything is going to come close to his Children of Time and the series that followed.
Listening to:
I’ve really enjoyed Damilola Onwah’s Zero Gen Podcast over the past several weeks, and I felt a bit sad that this season was over when I listened to the season finale this morning. In ZGP, Damilola speaks to people who left Nigeria as adults (and one person who stayed). Of course, my favourite episode is the one with Kemi Onabanjo about why she stayed in Nigeria (it is aptly titled The Audacity to Stay), because Kemi. But I also really liked finally hearing what Myne Whitman sounded like and Derrick Oigiagbe’s thoughts on the Black Tax reminds me of something I wrote in 2021 about black taxes.
My obsession with EmmaOMG continues and I was very glad to discover a few days ago that I was on video from his latest London concert!
Cheers to the new month <3
I think most of us at some point will go back to owning physical items. Bookshops are now more an experience rather just buying the book
Lovely read!
I need to try your audio-to-text hacks!
Getting the “Great CEO Within….