AI tech blog and practical software

Building useful apps in the age of coding agents.

QOL Apps is now a working journal for AI-assisted product building: how to find app ideas, use coding agents without losing judgment, keep infrastructure cheap at the start, and ship tools that respect user privacy.

Latest essays

Useful AI writing for people actually building things.

Product strategy

Use AI to Find Your Next App Idea Without Fooling Yourself

A practical way to turn AI into a research partner for pain points, distribution, pricing, and early product judgment.

Coding agents

Why Most People Use Coding Agents the Wrong Way

The common failure mode is treating agents as magic interns instead of opinionated collaborators that need context, taste, and tests.

AI thinking

The Right Way to Think About AI Is as Leverage, Not Replacement

A grounded mental model for using AI to extend attention, accelerate drafts, and challenge weak plans without outsourcing your judgment.

Vibe coding

The Truth About Vibe Coding

Vibe coding can be fast, fun, and surprisingly productive, but only when you know where the vibes end and engineering begins.

Workflow design

Make Your AI Adapt to You While Staying Critical of Your Work

Personalization is powerful. Agreement is dangerous. Here is how to build a working relationship with AI that keeps both in balance.

Claude and Codex

How to Work With Skills in Claude and Codex

Skills are not prompt decorations. They are reusable operating procedures for repeatable work across code, documents, images, and research.

Infrastructure

Zero-Cost at Zero Users Infrastructure Matters

Why early products should avoid fixed monthly burn until usage, revenue, or learning justifies the operational weight.

Remote workflow

How to Work With Coding Agents When You Switch Devices

A practical workflow for keeping context, branches, tasks, and verification intact when you move between laptop, desktop, tablet, and phone.

Apps and tools

Products still stay visible while the site grows into a real publication.

Existing product URLs and privacy URLs are preserved for users, app stores, search engines, and platform review.

PL
iOS privacy

PrivaLens

Inspect and remove hidden photo metadata locally on iPhone and iPad before sharing images.

SS
SMS safety

ScamSieve

Privacy-first iPhone SMS filtering using local classification for scam, spam, OTP, finance, and delivery messages.

ROI
Web tool

B2B SaaS ROI Auditor

Estimate unused seats, overlapping subscriptions, payback period, and renewal risk before procurement decisions.

FF
Media utility

FrameForge

Convert and trim video in the browser for GIFs, audio extracts, screenshots, and lightweight clips.

ID
Privacy utility

BurnerID Hub

Generate short-lived signup identities, strong passwords, alias patterns, and encrypted scratch notes.

MBA
Learning

MBA Basics

Plain-English business lessons for strategy, finance, marketing, operations, analytics, and decision-making.