I built a writing tool that gives teachers proof a student wrote an essay themselves, without an AI detector. The teacher sends a link. The student writes in the browser, and the app records the process. It watches keystrokes, pauses, edits, paste attempts, tab switches. Those become a visual replay of the session, and a set of signals that reveal whether the typing looks human or not.

The AI wrote nearly all of the code and the tests, and the app went from an empty folder to a live product able to take card payments in about a week.

The AI couldn't do many critical parts of the process. Most importantly, it couldn't decide what to build. The call to prove the process rather than judge the text was also mine. I developed the "threat model", all the ways a student could trick my system, and found ways to mitigate each of them. I typed real essays through it to calibrate the "humanness" signals and find additional creature comforts that were necessary to give the students and teachers the best possible experience.

The AI made building fast, but deciding what was worth building and what was good enough to ship was me.

I’ve been making things on the web since 1997, and I began working with PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, and CSS in 2002 when I started working at Apple. (I was with Apple basically from iPod to iPhone, working on macOS.) I've been working in WordPress since 2014 and Laravel since 2015. I’ve done everything from front-end UI to back-end scalability improvements and APIs. Since February of 2020, I’ve been a full-time freelancer. I love making things on the web. Absolutely love it!

Take a look at my LinkedIn, where you can see recommendations from coworkers and managers throughout my career. You don't have to take my word for it. Listen to them.