Now: What am I doing?

This is my "now page" – inspired by Derek Sivers’ idea that we should all have a simple page answering "What are you focused on right now?" Think of it as what you’d tell a friend you hadn’t seen in a year.

No algorithms, no character limits, no social media noise. Just an honest snapshot of where I am right now, updated whenever something significant changes. Check out nownownow.com if you want to see what others are up to.

The Big Leap

I’m currently living in that weird liminal space between "employee" and "entrepreneur." I handed in my resignation a few months back, and my last day at the corporate grind is August 28th, 2025. After that? It’s just me, my laptop, and whatever I can build.

You know that feeling when you’re standing at the edge of a diving board? That stomach-flip moment where you’ve committed to the jump but haven’t actually jumped yet? That’s pretty much my entire existence right now. I wake up some mornings feeling like a genius who’s finally taking control of their destiny. Other mornings, I wonder if I’ve completely lost my mind.

The strangest part is how different everything feels when you know there’s an end date. Suddenly, every boring meeting feels like borrowed time. Every corporate process that used to frustrate me now just seems... temporary. Like I’m watching someone else’s life from the outside. My colleagues don’t know yet – I’m keeping things quiet until closer to the date – but there’s this secret energy that comes with knowing you’re building your escape plan.

The practical side of my brain keeps running calculations: savings runway, health insurance, what happens if nothing works. But there’s this other part that’s just pure excitement about finally testing all those ideas I’ve been collecting in my notebook for years. No more "someday when I have time" – time is about to be all I have.

Scary? Absolutely. Exciting? Even more so. Necessary? Without a doubt

What I’m Building Right Now

I’ve got two small apps running that started as simple skill-building exercises as I wanted to get better with Pest testing, stan analysis, peck and rector packages. Rather tha waste them, I put them to some use, so have turned them into actual products:

joblet.app

A job application covering letter writer that doesn’t suck. Launched about 3 weeks ago. It’s not going to make me rich tomorrow, but it’s solving a real problem for people who hate writing cover letters as much as I do.

resignai.app

Because apparently I have a thing for career transition tools. This one helps you write resignation letters without burning bridges. Also launched a few weeks back. The irony of building this while planning my own exit wasn’t lost on me.

Both started tiny, but they’re live, they work and are 100% tested with full code coverage. It is still very early days, and I’m not expecting a flood of traffic and paid signups. If people use them, great. If they don’t, no problem - they take up little space on the server and a small cost of £20 a year for both domains.

Experiment: Content Machines

The last few weeks I’ve been thinking about AI generated content that is helpful and could potentially help drive traffic. Now I know the consensus is: don’t blindly use AI generated articles - review and edit them as needed. But I wonder. AI models have come a long way, even in the last 12 months. So why not try this out on the 2 apps I mentioned previously? Nothing to lose!

I spent a few weeks figuring this all out, building them systems and writing the tests for them. In the end, the process turned out beautifully ridiculous and looks like this:

  1. Idea Generation: Using a custom prompt I generate a batch of ideas storing each idea as a json file.
  2. Idea Processing: The json files are uploaded to a directory on a server which are processed via a scheduled command which stores each idea in the database. Once done, a job is queued to process the idea with Claude 3.7.
  3. Content Generation: When the job kicks in, Claude generates a ~2,500 word blog post with embedded YouTube videos and images. Along with the response, we have a featured image prompt and a prompt for each image injected into the content.
  4. Generating Images: Once Claude is finished, a new job is queued to process the images. This job connects to Open AI feeding it the prompts which in return generate the images. We run this for each required image.
  5. Finalizing content: Once all images are generated, we update the blog post content (which is stored in markdown) with the image ids we have just generated. While images are generated, the job also generates different sizes for use with the srcset or picture html element. The post is then marked as processed.
  6. Article Publishing: Each idea is scheduled to be published 2 days after the latest post. Every morning a scheduled job is run to publish any posts with a publish date of today.

It’s my attempt at experimenting in building an audience without getting sucked into the social media hamster wheel. Instead of posting hot takes on Twitter or spamming the crap out of Facebook feeds, I’m creating actual useful content that might help someone in six months or six years.

You might be asking, why didn’t I just use another service to do all this? Something like cuppa.ai ?

  • Because I wanted to test out the process
  • Become more familiar with AI content generation and prompt building
  • 3rd party services dont offer solid integration into custom platforms.
  • Because I could? Save some needed cash in the process!

Learning Mode Activated

I recently took the plunge on Pat Walsh’s Starter Story lifetime deal. His videos have been genuinely inspiring – seeing real people build real businesses without venture capital or fancy degrees. To be frank, the prices I saw were a little eye-watering and made me wince a few times.

I did some research on Starter Story to find reviews from others who had used it. Reddit was mostly negative experiences with some responses from Pat (or a member of staff of SS) here and there. The more positive experiences I came across were mainly from blog posts. Paid promotion or usage of affiliate links? I didn’t check.

With a mix of negative (albeit a year or more ago) and positive reviews, I sat on the fence for a few weeks. I just couldn’t make up my mind. I’d prefer to have a lifetime package rather than pay for a full year, but I couldn’t justify the price. Then an email dropped. Something about that Memorial Weekend discount felt like a sign. So I took that plunge.

I’ve not dug deep into all the resources yet, but I’m excited to see what tools and community insights are waiting for me in there. I’ll keep you posted whether it was worth shelling out for.

Experiment: No Social Media

This whole journey is also an experiment in attempting to build profitable businesses without relying on social media. Not because I’m anti-technology, but because I’m tired of algorithms deciding who sees my work.

I’d like to see if its even possible to build something sustainable through:

  • Direct value creation
  • Genuine content that helps people
  • Good old-fashioned problem-solving
  • Community building that doesn’t depend on engagement metrics

That’s not to say that I won’t use social media (much). Perhaps, for some I will, for others I won’t. It would be interesting to see how each of them performs against the other. I’m not fully decided yet on this is all going to work. I’ll explore more and figure this out. When I do I’ll be sure to let you my approach.

What’s Coming Next

Immediate focus is getting this devlog site finished, so I can document everything properly. I need to figure out how I’m going to monitor and show you income and expenses - transparency is key. I’ll be upfront, open, honest and laid bare for the world to see.

After that , I’ve got another web app idea brewing that is going to be a longer term effort than a week, but I’m not sharing details until I start planning and building. Too many brilliant ideas die in the "talking about it" phase. Rest assured, when I make a start, they’ll be a post about it!

The bigger picture starts in September. From 1st September I’ll be all-in on this. No safety net, no monthly salary, just whatever I can create and make a living from. The plan is to build multiple small, profitable projects rather than betting everything on one "unicorn" idea.

Why I’m Doing This

Honestly? Because I’m tired of building other people’s dreams while my own ideas collect dust in a notebook. I’ve spent years helping companies grow while wondering what I could accomplish if I directed that same energy toward my own projects. I’m sure every developer has this thought at least twice during their employed state.

This isn’t about getting rich quick or becoming the next startup success story. It’s about proving to myself that I can create something valuable, sustainable, and entirely mine. No investment capital, no loans, grants or anything remotely similar.

Plus, someone needs to document what it’s really like to make this transition without the usual Silicon Valley mythology. The real story – with all the boring parts, the small wins, and the inevitable moments of "what the hell am I doing?" - of which I’m sure there are going to be many of!

My aim is to update this page every 1-2 months, but sometimes life will get in the way and it’ll be delayed. That being said any recent activity will always be in post somewhere on the start page. This page will mainly be updated whenever something significant happens or when I realize I haven’t updated it in a while.

If you’re on a similar journey or thinking about making the leap, drop me a line .

Let’s figure this out together.