I’m not a developer. I say this upfront because it matters.
I can’t write production code. I don’t have a CS degree. I wouldn’t pass a technical interview. But I can read documentation, follow a thread, and—critically—I know when something is broken and roughly where to look.
That’s apparently enough to ship things now.
My GitHub is a graveyard of small, weird, functional projects. Some built with AI assistance. Some cobbled together from tutorials. All of them scratching an itch that nothing else quite reached.
The Practical Ones
where-when (TypeScript) — Hybrid working tracking. My employer wanted 50% office attendance. I wanted to know if I was hitting that without counting on my fingers every week. Built a little web app. Shared it with colleagues. Problem solved.
where-hosted (Python) — A microsite that traces where a website or email server is physically hosted. Useful for work. Useful for curiosity. Useful for winning arguments about whether something is actually “hosted in the UK.”
The Family Ones
the-things (TypeScript) — Built with Bolt for families and polycules to track shared tasks. The description says “Things” because sometimes you just need to know who’s handling The Thing without a twelve-step project management flow.
speed-countdown (JavaScript) — “Strongly vibe-coded” is right there in the repo description. My dad was waiting for his racecar to be delivered. I made him a countdown. That’s it. That’s the whole project.
The Hobby Ones
dirt-plugin (PHP) — A WordPress plugin for off-road racing administration. Built for Escape Goat Racing. Still functional. The scene it was built for is gone, but the code remains.
courser-calc (JavaScript) — A breeding calculator for Dungeon Coursers. If you don’t know what those are: they’re horses in a tabletop RPG with specific hereditary traits. I needed to figure out what foals two parents might produce. So I built a tool. Advanced search and everything.
About three people will ever use it. I’m one of them. That’s fine.
The Point
None of these are impressive by developer standards. They’re not elegant. They’re not scalable. They’re not going to get me hired as an engineer.
But they work. They solve the specific problem they were built for. And they exist because I wanted them to exist, not because anyone asked.
That’s the sidequest energy. Build the thing. Ship the thing. Move on.
The GitHub bio says “A dog with thumbs.” That’s about right.