Thoughts on iOS development, tech, and building apps
I show up every day with warmth, optimism, and curiosity driven to create, discover, and grow. I value my time above all else and am dedicated to the people I love in the pursuit of meaningful progress.
I earn my place through effort and creating value. I embrace failure as a teacher and expand my capacity at the edge of understanding. Humor connects, reflection deepens, and action shapes evolution.
Life is a miracle and I believe in a pattern of chaos, progress, perfection, and kindness as my foundation. Above all, I aim to build a legacy of growth, impact, and love one day at a time.
November 20, 2025
Today was an interesting day. I've been so busy with life recently—getting a house last Wednesday has been a whirlwind. It's only been a week, but the amount of progress I've made is satisfying, even though it's been a lot of effort: fixing the sewer line, taking out trees, demoing the bathroom, prepping for construction and remodeling. The house has been a lot of work.
The post I wanted to write about today centers on something I've been thinking about: giving myself enough time every day to reflect on my experience, my situation, my mood, my energy, my outlook, my perspective—just taking a moment for myself where I can process what's happening.
I've always wanted to do something meaningful and impactful with my life, and I've recently found a passion for development because it's an avenue to express myself and the ideas that I think are cool. So much of my ambition comes from arguably not the best place, and I'm trying to figure that out. I want success in the way that I want respect and money, but the more that I learn about how things work, the more I realize that creating value in very specific, niche ways is how people end up gaining a position of status and wealth.
The more I learn about people in those positions, the more I see that they weren't ever doing it for the status or the wealth—they were doing it because they loved it. I feel like I'm at a unique crossroads where I'm still trying to figure out what I'm passionate about, and I don't feel like society or culture makes that easy. They don't allow people the time and energy that it takes to be something great.
I find myself getting distracted. I find myself struggling to focus on tasks at work. I find all kinds of distractions that lead me away from my goals and ambition. I get immensely frustrated with the realization of this dilemma, and when I don't feel like I have an avenue to express this frustration, it ends up bottling up in me and coming out in bad habits—whether it's drinking or nicotine or being a grouchy person.
I think these moments of reflection allow you to really see where you're at and what needs to change. They provide clarity in the chaos and help you recognize patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Some life updates: Emma is in Vegas with her good friend Greta. They're seeing the F1 race. Las Vegas has been having some unique flooding issues late in the season, which is very rare.
The concerns of an AI bubble are starting to feel really real as the amount of debt that these giant companies are carrying just increases every day. I'm not wanting to live in fear—I hope that they're smart people, smarter than me, making decisions to avoid a really gnarly recession.
Work has been a struggle this year professionally with the job that pays me. It felt a lot like work. There's been a lot of hardship. There's been a lot of baggage that I've carried that I've come to realize is not my baggage to carry. I somewhat feel stifled in my growth at work and stifled in not feeling like there is growth that is going to happen or will be allowed to happen.
My blood sugar is confusing to manage. I am now finding myself going low after eating about eight cookies, which confuses me. One of the hardest things about managing diabetes as a very health-conscious person is that, at least in my position and my experience with insulin management and exercise, a lot of the times for my blood sugar levels to be stable or in range throughout the day, I have to ride this line of taking enough long-acting insulin to cover the meals that I eat throughout the day with minimal short-acting insulin.
When you mix exercise into that, like a lot of the times I'll take long-acting insulin, and if I'm not active that day, I will take one or two units for a meal, and that insulin will keep me in range all day. When I'm exercising, I really just have to take long-acting insulin, and that usually has quite an impact on keeping me in range all day with exercise. But nine times out of ten for me, if I have any insulin in my system, I will end up going low and having low blood sugar and have to supplement sugar—more sugar than I would like—into my diet.
It's really frustrating because, one, it makes sugar less enjoyable and less occasional, which is how it should be, and two, I feel very restricted in the amount of effort that I can put into an activity. It takes constant vigilance to make sure that I'm not going low whilst exercising.
A caveat to that situation, which was very liberating and happened this last weekend: Saturday morning, I was planning on working on my house all day, and I had some pretty extraneous activities that I needed to get done. So I had a keto breakfast that day. I didn't take any insulin. There hadn't been any long or short-acting insulin in my body for 24 hours, and my blood sugar levels were right around 70 to 120 that whole day, which was really interesting. There's some effect where my pancreas either starts working when I'm exercising, or the sugar in my blood gets absorbed into my muscles and is getting used enough that the minimal insulin that my pancreas is outputting is still enough.
It's a very tricky situation to manage. I think that this honeymoon phase that they talk about for diabetics—it is nice in theory to know that your pancreas somewhat works, but it makes insulin management more inconsistent because sometimes your pancreas decides to work and sometimes it doesn't. It's this double-edged sword of, hey, your pancreas is still working a little bit, good for you—it just makes things more inconsistent and hard to manage, in my opinion.
I think today I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel of all the work that needs to get done in my house, and I think there's a pathway to move in at the end of December, especially with a week or two off work. There can be a lot of progress that takes place in those two weeks. Tree removal is scheduled for December 15, I believe. As long as the weather withholds, this weekend we're gonna fill up my dumpster, get that thing called off, and I don't think I'll have another one of those back for a while.
Life is very interesting. Relationships are interesting. Your network is your net worth, and I need to put more effort into my network and relationships and growing my circle, especially professionally. I do see a path where development can provide some resources for me, and I do really enjoy development as an avenue for expressing myself, as I mentioned earlier, and also as an avenue for creating tools that I use in my professional life.
I think the whole reason why I wanted to talk about this blog post was in reference to a YouTube video I watched that was talking about different technologies that emerged and got adopted, and these companies that are changing the world—the Waymos, the Ubers, the Airbnbs, the ChatGPTs. They're all these brilliant ideas that have come from a massive amount of collaboration and building.
The thing that's interesting, or I guess a unique thought on these technologies and companies that are changing the world, is there is this moment of an initial user base, and then the entire market adopted at some point. Like Uber, for example—you can, instead of calling a taxi and spending that much more time scheduling it, you can just hop on your phone, get on an app, click a button or two, and a car will come pick you up. Those are the ideas that are worth studying and worth learning about.
These ideas take true unique perspective and thought from really intelligent people. So food for thought—something to think about. One thing I've always kind of wondered is, when is that thought gonna come to me? And I don't think that something of that scale just comes to someone without effort, without network, without capital, without building, without collaboration.
The areas that I need to focus on are the areas that are in my control. Amazing things don't happen overnight—they take time. So I'm dedicated to the pursuit of something great, and I've yet to figure out what that is. I think I'm getting closer to figuring out my life's work. I know that my life's work I don't want to be for someone else's benefit. I know that I like to enjoy life. I know that I am extremely hard-working at things that I'm interested in. I know that life is a game in a way, and I want to play an interesting game.
One thought that did occur to me this week was, as I was listening to the third Foundation book after completing the first two, I thought that it might be a fun avenue to explore more creative writing and story building, as that has always been a skill that I've wanted to develop more—the ability to tell a really good story. But there's a million and a half other things going on. There are things that require more of my attention that I think are a little bit more worthwhile—whether that's my relationships, my work, the apps I'm building, my family, my friends, enjoying life.
I think right now, I just need to clean up my place and calm Nimbus down a little bit.
Thanks for tuning in. See you next time.
Written on Wednesday, November 20, 2025
November 19, 2025
I've been listening to a lot of The Prof G Markets podcast with Ed Elson and Scott Galloway. They were talking about college, which made me reflect a lot on my own college experience. I wish I had taken a gap year and decided that college was what I wanted to do on my own terms. I think it would have been a much different experience if that was something I had decided to go through with on my own terms.
One unique thing about my experience here in Utah that I'm nervous about when raising a family here one day is that when I graduated high school, my entire friend group left on a mission. There were one or two friends that I had who did not go on a mission that I stayed in touch with and are still my good friends today. That experience is really weird for someone who is trying to figure out what to do with their life. Suddenly your entire network is uprooted and transplanted for two years, only to come back totally different than the people they were before they left.
I would recommend to anyone in Utah who is going through a similar experience to make friends with more diverse groups. Don't have all your friends be in one basket. It's hard when the high school is 90% LDS and the hierarchies are all intertwined with religion and you are on the outskirts. Super interesting—I was just thinking about how my college experience would have been different if it was something that I was more prepared for.
In the episode, something that stuck with me from The Markets episode with Morgan Housel and Scott Galloway was that if you on your own can't fill out the application process for college on your own, you are not ready for college. There are positive and negative elements to getting too much or too little help, but if you decide that college is something that you want to do on your own terms as an individual, I think people would have a much better experience with it. That makes sense to me.
I've been working a lot on my house. I got the keys last Wednesday and have been in full remodel preparation mode. We've done quite a bit of work already: the sewer line is replaced, some of the trees have been removed, the front yard has been zeroed and is blank ready for grass, and the back yard—the pergolas are down, some of the trees are down, and there has been a lot of help along the way.
Shoutout to all the people that have helped on the house: Mom, Paps, Hayd, Emma, Holly—you know who you are and I am very grateful for the help. I've got my work cut out for me this week with another dumpster that was delivered and lots of trees that need to get moved into the dumpster. Hayden has been taking before and after pics for me, the bathroom is getting gutted right now, I used Legacy Pest Control to do a spray of the exterior, the crawl space, and the interior, so the yellow jackets are finally gone. Also, the tree removal I got scheduled and that will be a fun adventure.
This weekend is demo time. I'm going to recruit Emit and Hayden and any others to see if they want to come help move stuff into the dumpster and maybe chop some more trees down. We shall see.
On a different note, I got my ass kicked by a gnarly virus this week. Whatever cold is going around flattened me this week. I definitely learned some things—this being the first time I have really been sick since I have had diabetes. It is what they say about getting sick with diabetes: it is worse. The pain is worse, the aches, the reaction that the body has to the illness feels worse. I'm just today on the uphill of this thing, but it has lingered for about two days longer than it normally does. Not fun, but glad to get that out of the way for this season. Hopefully that is all there is this year.
Last weekend Ruby and Collin were in town, which was super fun. Lots of good times with the family and some good food—dad's tortilla soup, Kathmandu of course, amongst some other hitters. Fun to see Ruby and Collin, excited for this winter break and to get some more time to work on the house, etc. They were excited to see the place and it was great to see that Milburn dog of theirs. Her and Zuma had quite the experience the first night that they got there. Zuma was screaming her head off. It was comical.
Nimbus is doing great. Nimbus is my cat—he thinks that he owns the house though and won't stay off the counter. Love that guy. We went to a Mammoths game while they were in town and they beat the hockey team from Buffalo 4-2, which was great. The Mammoths started the season great then had kind of a losing streak, so it was good to see them get a win again. Bumped into Zach at the game as well, which was fun.
As far as development goes, I have not had much time to work on the apps as of lately, but am excited to give Gemini 3 a go and see how that compares. Also, OpenAI launched an updated model and Grok as well launched something recently, so excited to try those out.
I have had a sort of falling out with ChatGPT. They have been leading the way for so long, but I feel like the app should be more advanced than it is and have more capacity than it does. I tried uploading a PDF the other day to have the model pull out the text or thought that there would be some sort of Python text extraction function that would be built into the app, and it just kept getting an error. It was really off-putting and more of a reason that I have just been using Cursor more and more.
Cursor is where it's at in my opinion. They have been killing it with updates and new features. I can't wait for the browsing to get a bit better. I see it becoming the environment where I run my computer and don't need to leave Cursor—honestly, file management, file creation, all that. So interesting. Technology is advancing so fast it is exciting.
It is interesting to see all these large tech companies going into massive amounts of debt betting on AI and technology—so much debt that it is somewhat concerning and reminiscent of the amount of debt that the country was in before the Great Depression. Hopefully it doesn't come to that, but we are at an interesting time in history where hopefully the technology gets more advanced and useful and makes our lives better, and doesn't bankrupt our country. Michael Burry (the guy from The Big Short) is betting against NVIDIA and big AI. Will be interesting to see how that pans out.
That's all for this week. Thanks for tuning in. See you next time.
Written on Tuesday, November 19, 2025
November 8, 2025
I'm writing from my parents' kitchen table after a hell of a week. The last update had me in the thick of buying my first place—now I'm set to close on Monday the 10th. Paperwork is locked, cash is packed, and I'm equal parts excited and terrified to hand over the down payment. Mostly excited, though. It's a cute spot in a great part of Millcreek, and Emma will be moving in with me—the first time I've lived with a partner. Big moment.
Once the keys are in hand, the renovation sprint begins. The immediate five pillars look like this:
Ambitious plan: tackle all of it in a month or two. We'll see. It's a heavy lift, but I'm ready for it.
Construction Takeoff has been my main focus again. Version 2 is already massive—hundreds of files and north of 36,000 lines of code—which makes navigation and collaboration with language models a puzzle. I'm carving out an overlay layer and building a blank canvas mode so users can drag in screenshots or PDFs, stack layers, and sketch markups directly on top. Mapping integration is on the wish list: pick an area, auto-detect scale, and start drawing.
The complexity is real, but so is the demand. Sales are approaching $700 on the App Store. I experimented with a $50 Google ad this week—six clicks, zero conversions—so that campaign died fast. Lesson learned: tighter targeting or bust. The plan is to refine the pitch, keep the Reddit marketing going, and double down once Version 2 lands.
The construction documents tool is also shaping up. You can generate proposals, purchase orders, and schedules, all exported to professional PDFs with hyperlinks and dropdowns that clients can fill out. It's already useful at Tempest, which tells me there's potential beyond our shop. Right now it's listed for $13 in the App Store; feels like there's room to grow that audience.
This week was chaos—family stuff, work fires, house logistics—but I'm proud of how I handled it. I stayed sober all week, cooked eight meals at home (record for me), and leaned hard on the new Trader Joe's in Holladay. That store is dangerous in the best way: one good option per category and decent prices, so there's no decision fatigue or checkout shock.
Ruby and Collin just drove in from Denver. We're throwing them a family celebration tomorrow, and I can't wait to show them the house before the renovations kick off. As I type, Nimbus is prowling the counters at my parents' place. Mom, if you read this, I'm grabbing him—I promise.
I needed a breather from nonstop business books, so I picked up Foundation by Isaac Asimov. The premise is wild: a galactic emperor drags in a mathematician who claims he can predict the future through “psychohistory.” It's vintage sci-fi (pretty sure most of it was written in the 1940s) and supposedly one of Elon Musk's favorites. I'm only at the beginning, but I'm hooked.
Movie night recommendation: Guillermo del Toro's new Frankenstein. People are calling it his magnum opus, and I get why. It's a gorgeous, empathetic take that flips who the real monster is—Del Toro firing on all cylinders alongside Pan's Labyrinth.
Next week will be a blur of closing documents, celebrations with Ruby and Collin, and kicking off the renovation punch list. I'll report back once the house is officially ours and the first round of demo dust settles. Thanks for reading and following along.
Written on Saturday, November 8, 2025
November 3, 2025
It's been a while since my last update on October 19th, so I'm doing a big catch-up here. A lot has happened in the past couple weeks—some exciting developments on the app side, and some even bigger personal news that I'm thrilled to share.
I've been grinding away on the Simple Takeoff app, and Version 2 is in review as of today. This has been very challenging—maintaining and growing software as it scales is no joke. We ran into a lot more sync issues as the complexity of the app has been growing with more tools, and figuring out the layering issues was very challenging.
I'm happy to say that we have a pretty rock solid software that has been vigorously tested over the past two weeks by me. I can see a huge market for this tool for Mac users in construction, and I think that Version 2 is going to be a lot more useful for people. Excited to do some more marketing and grow the product more.
I've listed the app for $35 instead of $25 to see if people are still willing to spend that for a takeoff software. The fact that it is a one-time purchase still makes it a good deal in my opinion, especially for the early adopters before we come up with a better payment strategy.
My philosophy that I have adopted with apps is I would much rather pay for the app than have a subscription that is snuck into the deal. Get your money's worth right off the bat—fuck this subscription-based model that every company has adopted. I get it, the margins are probably much better and that recurring revenue is probably required to stay afloat for these teams. But I am running a one-man show over here, and the more people I can get to use this tool for a one-time fee and move over to Mac, the better.
Super excited for this opportunity. I hope launch goes well. You'll see the post on LinkedIn soon, and I will dive more into Reddit to market this thing a bit more.
As lovely as it is to think that my apps could be getting hundreds of thousands of downloads, or tens of thousands, I am more focused on selling this tool to a specific audience because the opportunity to actually make money there is a lot better. So that is where I am with Construction Takeoff—stoked for Version 2. I lost a couple weekends and many many weeknights building this thing out. Pumped for you to see it.
I did a bit of marketing on my Simple Takeoff app on Reddit that seemed to bring in like 8 or so sales, which has been nice to make that money. It's validating to see that marketing efforts are actually working and that people are finding value in what I'm building.
I haven't done much with the diabetes app, although Emit and I have been having discussions to see what we want to do there and what our growth plan and strategy are. Although Emit needs to update his damn phone to test the app—haha.
Work is going well. Some of the projects I have been running are making some turnarounds in the right way and moving into higher profitability. I don't care what anyone says—project managing and estimating jobs is hard. There is a lot of moving parts in both fields, and I do feel a bit stretched sometimes. The demands of PMing are intense—you are dealing with the hardest issues on the job and working with lots of different entities to find the balance of running a successful job.
Oh big news! I bought a house and am under contract. We are still negotiating the terms, but it is in a great area in Millcreek and needs a lot of work. I did not think that day was coming so soon—that is probably the most exciting news I have for this blog post.
It has been fun going through the process of buying a home and all the back and forth and inspections and dealing with getting a home loan, etc. But all has gone very smooth. Luckily I have a good friend who is one of the top guys in that field with the Perry Group—Spenny has been great to work with. Nice to work with someone that you trust and is motivated to make the deal happen. I have felt like I am in great hands through the whole process.
Halloween came and went—one of the most lowkey Halloweens I have ever had. Haha, I was a onesie skeleton on the night of Halloween, and for the family party Emma and I were Wybie and Coraline from the movie Coraline.
Nimbus my cat is doing great. He is growing and probably six pounds at this point.
My sister and her husband Collin are coming to town soon, which I am very excited for.
The Trader Joe's finally opened in Holladay, which is a dream location for me. So close, and I absolutely love Trader Joe's. Fun to see that join the community.
I have been loving the Founders podcast when I have a spare minute and mostly have been spending all my time working or developing on the side.
I'm probably spending way too much time on X, but hardly any time on other socials. The fact that AI content has taken over a lot of these platforms leaves kind of a bad taste in my mouth and has made social media way less interesting, which might be a good thing and how it should be.
That's all I have for this update. Between Simple Takeoff Version 2 launching, the house buying process, and keeping up with work and life, it's been a busy but exciting few weeks. Looking forward to seeing how Version 2 performs and continuing to grow these tools.
Thanks for reading.
Written on Sunday, November 3, 2025
October 26, 2025
This week has been one of those reflective periods where I've been thinking a lot about health, habits, and the direction I'm heading. Sometimes it's good to pause and examine the patterns in your life.
This week, I'm pivoting more toward marketing than building. After the next update gets pushed through, I'm thinking of running an ad for the Beer Club app in the App Store. However, I need to ensure that next update goes through smoothly first, and we might need to set up a better username creation system to make the app that much more professional.
I mentioned in last week's blog that I wanted to make some improvements to the Simple Takeoff software by adding polygon line tools so I can measure things a bit faster. That's still on the roadmap, but marketing is taking priority this week.
One area I want to explore is how to deal with health anxiety. Whenever anxiety hits me, it's usually always around something to do with my health. My mind catastrophizes the worst possible outcome, and it feels like death is right around the corner. In a weird way, telling myself that if death were to be the case, that wouldn't be the worst thing helps—although the very last thing I want is to die, especially at this stage in my life when there are so many opportunities and my curiosity makes living a fascinating experience.
Another area I want to talk about is my relationship with vices. After taking a year off drinking, it has been interesting finding a healthy balance with drinking again. It's fascinating how easily you can fall into a habit of social drinking, and there's always an event where having a beer just feels so natural.
The surprising thing after taking a year off and social drinking again is how bad it makes you feel—headaches, bloating, brain fog. The symptoms of drinking are interesting to observe. But the social elements of it are hard to ignore as well. It takes the edge off in a way that makes talking and engaging with people that much more interesting, or you're just that much more willing to say yes to things that you maybe wouldn't have sober, which can lead you to some really fun events and conversations.
I can empathize with anyone in Salt Lake City who is grinding and trying to get into their first house. I've been in the market for something for about the past year, and I cannot justify spending $500k on a remodel. It's a super competitive market here in Utah.
The numbers are sobering—the average home value in Utah is now around $517,550, with homes typically going under contract in about 25 days. While experts suggest we're not in a traditional housing bubble (thanks to Utah's strong economy and consistent population growth), the reality for first-time buyers remains challenging. Rising interest rates and limited inventory have created a perfect storm that makes entry-level homeownership feel increasingly out of reach.
What's particularly frustrating is seeing properties that need significant work still commanding premium prices. The market seems to reward investors and cash buyers while making it nearly impossible for young professionals to build equity through homeownership. It's a systemic issue that affects so many of us trying to establish roots in this community.
Speaking of saving for a house, I've been thinking about implementing a better method for tracking my finances. I want to build a habit of reviewing my transactions weekly and getting more intentional about my spending. I know I should just be going through my weekly statements, but it would be nice if there was a tool that could analyze my spending patterns and give me goal-oriented reminders—like "hey, you need to calm down on the DoorDash this week if you plan on getting into a house this year."
Speaking of financial tracking, I need to vent about something that's been driving me crazy: the predatory billing practices of major software companies. These companies have set up insane billing structures that make it so complicated to cancel subscriptions or figure out what's going on with billing that it should be illegal.
Adobe is one of the worst offenders. I would highly recommend avoiding Adobe at all costs if you can. They sneak yearly contracts into billing, which should also be illegal, and if you plan on canceling a plan, good luck—it will literally take days of work. It's insane.
The whole system is designed to trap you. They make it incredibly easy to sign up (one click!) but nearly impossible to cancel. You have to jump through hoops, wait on hold for hours, and sometimes even pay cancellation fees for services you don't want anymore. It's predatory and should be regulated.
I listened to a fascinating Prof G Markets podcast episode with Scott Galloway and Ed Elson that really opened my eyes to some concerning trends we're heading toward. They discussed how America's data center boom is driving up electricity bills in communities across the country.
The basic problem is this: data centers consume massive amounts of energy, and as we build more of them, there simply isn't enough power to go around. This creates a supply and demand issue that will drive up energy costs for everyone in those communities—not just the tech companies. It's a hidden cost of our AI-driven future that most people aren't thinking about.
It's looking like I'll hit 3,000 followers on LinkedIn in the next week or so, which is awesome. That's been a weekly grind for the past couple of months of finding people to connect with. It's fun to see progress there, even though sometimes I wonder if it's a waste of time building connections on LinkedIn.
The platform definitely feels flooded with AI-generated content lately, which isn't my favorite. It's getting harder to find authentic, valuable content among all the automated posts and generic advice. But despite the noise, LinkedIn is still a great place to network and build relationships—that's mostly where I plan lunches with future clients and maintain professional connections.
This week promises to be a blend of technical work, marketing efforts, and personal reflection. I'm curious to see how the balance between building and promoting plays out, and I'm looking forward to sharing more insights as the week progresses.
Thanks for reading this week!
Written on Sunday, October 26, 2025
October 19, 2025
This Sunday evening finds me reflecting on an eventful month. Hayden celebrated his 25th birthday in Jackson Hole, and we spent the weekend watching football at Max's place, followed by some excellent Thai food. The Utes unfortunately lost to BYU for the second year in a row—the team didn't look particularly inspired, but that's football for you.
I can't remember exactly where we left off from the last blog post, but I've been spending significant time developing a Beer Club app that finally got approved. I've been building in a cloud database, which has been super interesting—I haven't done much cloud development before.
The app now includes:
I'm pretty happy with where the app is now that the main structure is built and the bugs are ironed out. I'll probably start trying to market it more. It's free for now, and I think there's definitely a market for it—the other beer club apps I've seen in the App Store aren't as clean or user-friendly.
I've put decent work into Book Social this week. Originally called "Book Quizzes," I added forums and now have about 102 books in the library, each with a custom three-question quiz and an outline that covers the book's key points.
The elevator pitch: "Get more from your library." So often I struggle to recall a book I read three years ago, and this is a great refresher for remembering the key points and doing a little quiz to help retain that information better.
I'm using APIs to pull in book covers, and I'm selecting different covers that I think look good. Ideally, I'll do a big data collection day to gather higher quality JPEGs for all the book covers. When I get more time, I'd like to build more custom quizzes that go deeper—maybe offering 6 or 9-question quizzes as a premium feature if the app gains traction.
This week I'll probably focus on Simple Takeoff, enhancing the measurement tool and adding polygon measurements. Instead of having to click new measurements for separate lines, you'll be able to measure a continuous line with different angles and points just by clicking—which I think will be really cool.
Yesterday marked one year since my Type 1 diabetes diagnosis—quite the accomplishment. Management has gotten easier and more under control. There's definitely less anxiety connected to going low or high, and I think I know how to manage it better. I've dealt with the constant vigilance, and it's somewhat become second nature managing blood sugar levels with insulin therapy.
I don't know if I mentioned this in the last update, but I got a British Shorthair cat named Nimbus. He's been loving to lay on the counter lately and is obsessed with water and the sink, which is very funny. You can check out Nimbus in the Moments tab on my website.
I used the Proposal Generator at work this week, generating a proposal for Northrop Grman for Tyson, which was really cool. I've got a big work week coming up at Tempest Construction, prepping for the Thatcher job. There's a lot of permitting for the sewer line replacement that has to go in—setting up permits and fees with the City of Salt Lake to get that job going.
The Wasatch project is going well—we got the vault and manifold placed, the bench poured, and we're going to be trenching and taking out the rest of the trees and installing the water services now.
Ruby and Collin were at the Parcels concert this weekend and bumped into Max, Lily, and Freddie, which created a fun memory. It's been really enjoyable going into fall and getting together with Emma's family and my family, going to different events and connecting with people.
One interesting area we've been discussing is how easy it is now to build the tools you want—at least if you're someone like me. It can sometimes be hard to keep a balance in life between your relationships and connecting with people, as well as innovating and building tools and trying to make something happen. But it's always good to connect with people.
I'm still working through the books I mentioned in the last blog post from Stripe Press. Emma and I are getting through The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue—it's a great book. I think I'll have to update that in my book section of the website.
I'm also working through the Carl Sagan audiobook and reading The Art of Science and Engineering. I picked up Scaling People from Stripe Press, written by the COO of Stripe. She's brilliant and has really good insights into how to lead a team and build companies the right way, which is inspiring to read.
Can't believe my brother is 25 now. Can't wait to see how Nimbus grows up—he's turning into a big boy, my little cat. There's always more to build, more to learn, and more connections to make.
Thanks for reading, and here's to another year of growth, both personally and professionally.
Written on Sunday, October 19, 2025 at 8:42 PM
2025 has been nothing short of a whirlwind—a year of incredible growth, unexpected challenges, and discovering tools that have fundamentally changed how I build software.
Earlier this year, I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. While that's put an interesting filter on my perspective on growth, it's also pushed me into a hyper-growth mindset. When your life expectancy takes a hit, you start thinking differently about time. You want to make things happen faster, build more, create more impact. It's been challenging to work through, but it's also been a catalyst for some of the most productive months of my life.
But this isn't a blog about health—it's about the tools, apps, and insights from a year spent obsessively building software.
The tool that has fundamentally transformed my perspective on development is Cursor AI.
Eight years ago, I got a coding certificate from Dev Mountain bootcamp here in Utah. Back then, building even simple interfaces was a massive undertaking. Linking UI components to databases took tons of organization and countless hours of manual coding.
Now? Development with Cursor has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. It's not even coding anymore—it's development. You can build fully custom tools that make your life and work easier, and it's incredibly fun.
I pretty much run my life and work through Cursor. All my computer work gets documented through it. I can build tools, organize filing systems, create databases, and interact with them through various language models and agents—all within one interface. This technology is genuinely amazing.
Alongside Cursor, I got our Tempest construction team to start using Notion. It's been a massive upgrade for project tracking, project management, and team cooperation. Notion's recent updates include agent features that can interact with your databases and files—another example of AI making workflow management incredibly powerful.
My highest-performing app by revenue is Simple Takeoff, built for construction workers. You can set scale on construction prints, pull measurements, track counts, and categorize takeoffs by type (power, sewer, etc.). It's primarily for underground utility construction, and it's made nearly $500 in sales.
My most downloaded app is the Type 1 Diabetes Guide, built with my buddy Emit Meyer. It had a sudden spike in downloads during a trip to Maine for my sister's wedding. The app is designed for newly diagnosed diabetics—a handbook that says "here's what this disease is, here's how to manage it, and it's all going to be okay." We're working on building better support features into the app.
The Book Quizzes app features my personal library with quizzes on book contents. I'm currently adding a forum where users can create profiles, comment on books, and see book outlines. It's been tricky navigating App Store requirements for community features (reporting, blocking, profile deletion), but we've built comprehensive features to meet Apple's standards.
The Beer Club app lets you join or create clubs, chat, and track beers consumed by individuals and the whole club. It's mostly for fun with friends, but there's good opportunity if it takes off. Getting chat features approved through App Store Connect has been an interesting challenge.
This app lets you upload bid schedules in simple text format and generate professional construction proposals. It's a feature that adds serious professionalism to the bidding process. We're planning to expand it for other types of proposals, invoices, and construction documents.
The Tasks.md app syncs with your iCloud and lets you interact with markdown files as databases. You can update tasks, add tasks, all from your phone—something that wasn't really available before. It's live in the App Store and fills a real need.
This app teaches people about mind mapping and memory recall techniques. It's also live in the App Store and helps users improve their learning and retention.
Big Loop is essentially a souped-up clipboard manager with Apple Continuity sync. Copy something on your computer, and it appears in the app on your phone. The coolest feature is customizable prompts—you can save prompts and apply them to your notes.
For example:
The newest version includes OpenAI API integration for voice mode, so you can listen to your notes with high-quality voice synthesis.
This year in construction has taught me valuable skills: estimating, project management, working hard, being part of a team, dealing with people, meeting deadlines, operating equipment, managing crews, and keeping customers happy. I've learned what not to do and that the customer is always the boss.
It's been challenging, but I'm focusing on doing the best job I can while developing these iOS and macOS skills to see where they lead.
I've discovered Stripe Press—Stripe's publishing company with expertly designed covers and incredible content. I've bought all their books and am tearing through "Scaling People" right now. I'm also working through "The Art of Doing Science and Engineering" and Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World," which offers fascinating perspective on living in a world of misinformation.
Life is good. I'm building a lot of tools, learning constantly, and excited about where this development journey leads. The intersection of AI tools, custom app development, and real-world problem-solving has created an incredible foundation for growth.
The tools are getting better, the possibilities are expanding, and I'm just getting started.
This is my first blog post sharing insights into what I'm building and how I'm building it. More to come as I continue this journey of growth and development.