Now
In late 2025 my role was eliminated. I didn't pick that. What happens next, I do.
So I'm at a crossroads, and I've decided to walk two roads at once, on purpose. Plenty of people are looking me up right now, and I'd rather be straight about where I stand.
Build with a team
Some things are best built with other people. I've been the first engineer and the one who leads them, and I'm still in the code. If a team is building something real and wants decades of hands-on judgment in the room, that's a road I'd take gladly. I can lead the people and run the agents. Most engineers are set up for one or the other. I'll do both.
Build my own
The other road is to build my own income, and I think of it as being prepared. The world is changing this fast, with AI reshaping the ground under everyone daily, and it is no longer safe to put all your chips in one lane and wait to be chosen. The prudent response to an uncertain situation is to prepare for more than one version of it.
For me, being prepared has two halves. Figure out what services I can offer to people who need them. Figure out what products I can build for sale or subscription. Somewhere between the two, pay the bills and save for retirement.
The services are on Work With Me. The products and explorations are on Projects. All of it is built to stay controllable: I pace it up or down with my own capacity, or hand it to operators and partners. None of it is a competing loyalty.
Why both
I have bills and a family to support, and that doesn't pause while I wait to be picked. Companies lay off without warning, and owning nothing of your own is the real gamble.
And it doesn't stop mattering the day I land somewhere. I could be laid off again. It happens to good people at good companies, out of nowhere, and now I've felt it firsthand. If that day comes and I have nothing of my own in place to soften the landing, I will regret it. So I'm building those assets now, while I can.
Put yourself in my shoes for a second. Say your paycheck is the only thing between you and the drop, and one call from someone above you can end it. Would you sit still and hope? I couldn't. Doing nothing is not an option.
If joining a team is the road, I take it fully. What I'm building is a backup and an asset. Either way, I'd rather you know exactly who I am before we talk.
This is a now page, an idea I borrowed from Derek Sivers.