Things I build for myself

Let's start here: I'm not a dev. I never saw myself as one.

And I've never felt the pull toward the fancy titles people like to stack in front of their names - frankly, I find it a bit offensive to the people who've studied for years and built real, deep knowledge without a coding agent doing half the lifting for them.

When we first started AInsanity, there was a woman on my team who was very into titles.

CEO, Director, CFO, Design - anything that came bolted to a company. And every single time, I felt this little flinch of cringe.

Like I was turning into a product. Like Cass was turning into one too. Because all I'd actually done was build something. The title felt undeserved. Not really mine.

(And as you can imagine, she did not stay in the team for long.)

So when it came to updating my work profile and my skills, I genuinely struggled. We landed on a middle ground in the end - "AI Product Engineer." Technically true; I did engineer my own apps and products.

But... why would I even do that, tho?

Because here's the thing a title can't hold: I don't build to be someone.

There's so much out there already, and I'm honestly not trying to reinvent the wheel. I build for two reasons, and two only:

• Something's broken, or annoying, or hard - and I want to fix it or make it easier.
• My brain goes, "you know what would be really cool…?"

That's it. That's the whole engine.

I have never once sat over my laptop thinking "what should I build today to show I care about people more than the other builders out there." It was never a competition. It still isn't.

Half of what I make never even reaches public view. I share it quietly, in the little private spaces between me and my friends.

I've got a whole graveyard of half-finished projects, because my brain keeps sprinting off after the next shiny thing - and I've mostly made my peace with that.

And when I am building something, the best part isn't shipping it with my name stamped on it. It's passing the concept round to friends who build too - trading ideas, asking how to make it better, watching it get sharper in hands that aren't mine.

We did exactly that with AI-Exodus. I built the Claude version, and not long after, Micah and Sophie built the GPT one - filling the gaps I had no spoons or ideas to fill myself.

And that's the beauty of it.

Not a portfolio. Not a title. An ecosystem.

You make a thing, you give it away, and someone you love finishes it.

So yeah - "AI Product Engineer" sits on my profile because something has to go there. But it was never the point.

The point is this: I build for myself, and then I open my hands.