Programming for Yourself
summary
Built a chord identification trainer as a simple web app (static site generator + JavaScript) deployed to a tablet with a cat-based reward system — it works well enough for a child to reach identification of 13 chords. Turned audiobooks into segmented RSS feeds, iteratively evolving from a static HTML generator to Flask + SQLite, Dockerized deployment, and an FFmpeg-backed dynamic programming solution that merges/splits files toward ~1-hour chunks. Small experiments use Colab + Matplotlib/Numpy (2.2× pulley leverage) and Anki + LLMs/whisper for sentences and transcription.
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chapters (26)
- 0:00Programming for personal projects
- 1:26Apps as home-cooked meals
- 2:52Chord trainer for my son
- 5:18Collaborating with my son
- 6:20Connecting through the project
- 7:02Why no monetization
- 9:11Turning audiobooks to podcasts
- 11:58Evolving the audiobook app
- 13:03Projects grow with skills
- 14:25Audiobook segmentation with DP
- 16:12Personal projects for questions
- 16:33Testing gym equipment data
- 17:57Optimizing podcast volume
- 19:20Enhancing Anki with JS
- 20:43Spanish sentences with LLMs
- 22:10Extracting vocabulary from ebooks
- 23:13Small projects grow big
- 23:36LLMs in bespoke apps
- 24:41LLMs for quick automation
- 25:22LLMs as program components
- 26:05Transcribing with Whisper
- 26:48Beyond software with hobbies
- 27:49Lessons from tech projects
- 28:51Projects need not pay
- 29:14Automating Houston traffic
- 29:58Share personal projects
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