Personal R&D Projects

Sometimes, I get hooked on an idea, mostly some annoyances with the current state of affairs in technology. Then I get cracking to see whether there is a way to improve the status quo.

Active

SpecPrompt
Can we improve the output of AI models by using a less ambiguous spec language instead of natural language without constraints as an input?
Napkin Sketch
Markdoc Everywhere
I’m a fan of the format. Unfortunately the reference implementation has some “quirks”, both in implementation and in stewardship that affect the wider adoption negatively. Reimplementation in the UnifiedJS ecosystem should allow less restrictions for easier migration from Markdown to Markdoc. Elixir and Swift to follow.
Research Prototype
Growing Without Growing Apart
No technology involved. Research on why even successful companies struggle with growth-related issues and why there are several thresholds in a company's life, where things break down. Turned into the backbone of the consulting at BackstageWorks.
Product

Hibernated

Websentials
My (never-ending?) search for the simplest web stack for writing and documents in general. It became a bit philosophical when I realized that simple can take different interpretations.
Research Prototype
Shareable Markdown
What would a Markdown variant look like that includes all attachments? Taking cues from “bundle” formats, where the file is actually a folder or renamed zip, to make complex Markdown documents easier to move around and share. Will probably be subsumed in Markdoc Everywhere.
Research Prototype
Micro-Monoliths
Going super-private on the server. What if every user or limited group of collaborators had their own service environment? Thinking about scaling differently by focusing on privacy and security. How does it affect development and operations tools?
Research Prototype

Concluded

Annotated Markdown as DB (frontend)
TL;DR: Markdown + Frontmatter == DB / frontend for DB. Several projects & products are already making this a reality. I’m working on my own thing, while trying hard not to get distracted by the adjacent Markdoc Everywhere, which is highly tempting.
Product