Butter-Smooth Maps and a 3D Car That Won't Cooperate
I wanted a map that panned like butter and a 3D car that followed the road. A week later I had learned which one was lying to me.
Ben Northmore · Journals
Engineering manager building useful things, automating the boring stuff, and sharing what I learn.
Latest posts
A Game About Laundry (That's Not Really About Laundry)
A laundrette game about the lives people leave in their pockets, and revisiting the game dev spark I thought I'd lost.
Build Localisation Before You Need It
Seek added Russian in an afternoon. Ascend added a bunch of languages after one Greek request and it hurt.
Import Plans Before the App Opens
A GPT mini model on the web, deep links into the app, and the same pipe reused for Couch to 5K.
The Stories I Tell Myself
The facts of my life don't change with my mood. The meaning I attach to them does.
Onboarding Before Onboarding
The motivated moment happens before someone installs your app. Ascend doesn't save the plan until the user decides to stay.
Why I'm Optimistic About Junior Engineers
AI didn't replace the junior engineer. It changed what learning and shipping look like for one.
Treat Demos Like Unit Tests
We automate tests, builds and deployments. So why are screenshots and GIFs still manual?
The Age of Suspicion: Why AI Made Authenticity Expensive
AI didn't just make content cheap. It made authenticity expensive.
Stop Giving AI More Context. Give It Better Examples.
I varied how much code an LLM could see. Token count barely changed. What changed was whether it copied or invented.
The Death of Code Reviews (As We Know Them)
AI made writing code cheap. Review is where the time goes now.