Seven years ago, a doctor gave me a timeline. My condition was degenerative, progressive, and incurable. I was told I had roughly five years before I would lose basic abilities like walking, speaking, and feeding myself.
I started building with that deadline in mind. I launched a company, expanded internationally, and moved quickly because I thought there were things I wouldn’t get to finish if I waited.
Then the timeline passed, and I was still here.
I was using a wheelchair. My speech was slower, and ordinary actions took more effort. The condition hadn’t gone away. But I had more life ahead of me than I’d prepared to think about.
What was I supposed to build around now?
The old way stopped fitting
I stepped away from the company I’d put so much into. The next venture left me with a different problem. We had built something that, to me, felt like a casino: good at keeping people engaged, further from the kind of impact I wanted to have.
I needed to reset, but I couldn’t simply repeat the way I’d worked before. Travel, constant physical presence, and pushing harder were becoming less available to me.
I still wanted to build something that mattered. I needed to work out a way of doing it that fit my physical reality.
Starting from what I know
I use zero-shot as a way to think about that situation. I have experience I can draw on, but I haven’t done this particular thing before. The circumstances have changed enough that I can’t assume the old approach will work.
That is where this notebook begins. I want to think through the constraints, try things, and write about what I learn.
I’m interested in AI, systems, and ways of working that give me more room to act. I don’t yet know how those pieces will fit together. I am convinced there is another way to build, and I want to find out what it requires.
For now, I’m writing while I work it out.