🌱 Where Can I Be Found?

• 📝 Writing: DEV Community — where I share thoughts on code, technology, and life as a developer.
• 🐦 Chattering: X (Twitter) — where I share dark humor and random opinions. Dark humor is my coping mechanism.
• 💻 Coding: GitHub — where I maintain code projects, including philosophical explorations of developer limitations and mental health.
• 🏆 Competing: Codeforces — where I hone my competitive programming skills, one problem at a time.

Education? Still learning — and I don't think I've found the end of it yet.

I'm a gardener, and this code garden is never finished.

If you're looking for someone to plant ideas and harvest code for your team, let me know.

🌿 Featured Projects

Here are some of the projects I'm currently maintaining on GitHub. I believe every project is a story, not just a collection of code.

🌿 metamorphosis-404

“What if you were an HTTP 404 page?”

This is my flagship project — a technical and philosophical exploration. More than just a Python script, this project is a deep dive into the concept of boundaries, the obsession with 100% uptime, and how it all impacts a developer's mental health.

This project is a reflection of the anxieties and questions I often think about.

🔗 View on GitHub

♟️ Play Chess Against The Machine

“I built an interactive chess game where you play against an AI that explains each move.”

This project is proof that technology can be a tool for learning. I built an interactive chess game where the AI is not just an opponent, but also a teacher — explaining why each move is good or bad. Perfect for beginners looking to learn chess tactics.

🔗 Read the Article on DEV (Replace with your actual article link)

To see all my other projects, visit my GitHub profile: github.com/setuju

✍️ Featured Writing

I write about code, technology, and sometimes about being human in a dystopian world. Here are some of my recent and notable articles on DEV Community:

🎮 Solstice Arcade: Festival of Light

June Solstice Game Jam 2026 Submission

An interactive web experience celebrating humanity's diversity under the light of the longest day. Serves as an anthology of 5 mini-games (Spectrum, Galveston, Sumo, ShadowChef, LongestSecond) honoring cultural, historical, and mathematical milestones — including Juneteenth, international sushi day, the World Cup, and Alan Turing's monumental contributions. Features a 4-layer security architecture with Brainfuck parser, Enigma simulator, server validation, and client countermeasures, plus a hidden Easter egg tribute to Turing.

Tech Stack: React 18 + TypeScript, Vite + Tailwind CSS, Firebase, Web Audio API, Canvas API, GitHub Actions

🤖 I Made Two AI Models Fight Each Other. They Agreed Way Too Much.

A deep dive into the surprising phenomenon where AI models, when pitted against each other, often converge on the same answers rather than debating. Explores the implications for multi-agent systems and the hidden biases in AI training distributions.

🌱 Building EcoSnap: An AI-Powered Plant Companion for a Greener Planet

DEV Weekend Challenge: Earth Day Submission

An AI-powered plant identifier and eco-garden advisor that helps anyone discover, care for, and garden with native plants to support local biodiversity. Privacy-first — images are sent directly to Gemini API with no data stored on any server.

Key Features: Instant plant ID with detailed info, eco-gardening tips with native companion plants, local history saving, and a beautiful glassmorphic UI.

Tech Stack: Vanilla HTML/CSS/JS, Google Gemini 2.5 Flash, LocalStorage, Vercel/Netlify

🌍 I Built a Carbon Footprint Tracker in 48 Hours — Here's How Copilot Saved Me

DEV Weekend Challenge: Earth Day Submission

EcoTrack Pro — a privacy-first carbon footprint calculator that asks 15+ lifestyle questions and provides personalized, quantified recommendations. Features real-time grid intensity by country, interactive charts, and anonymous cloud sync without login.

Tech Stack: Vanilla HTML/CSS/JS, Chart.js, Supabase (PostgreSQL), EPA/IPCC data sources

🪦 The Silicon Valley Database Graveyard: What 7 Dead Migrations Taught Me About The Illusion of “Modern”

A sobering reflection from fifteen years as a database architect and “last resort” firefighter. Charts the precise coordinates of technological shipwrecks — including an $8.9 million migration and 847 million corrupted records. The killer? Not bad code, but the seductive lie: “This database is newer, so it must be better.”

🚀 From “Hello World” to “Hello Agents”: The Developer Keynote That Rewired Software Engineering

A critical examination of how AI agents are reshaping software engineering — moving beyond the traditional “Hello World” paradigm into a new era of orchestration and intelligent automation.

📓 Now — July 2026

Here's what I'm working on and thinking about right now.

• 🌱 Writing: Currently drafting a follow-up essay on limitations in software development, inspired by the metamorphosis-404 project. Also occasionally writing a coding diary here at paperboat.
• 💻 Learning: Still on the long journey of finding the “end of education.” Currently exploring competitive programming on Codeforces — I've solved 14 problems and counting.
• 🍳 Cooking & Eating: As stated in my bio, cooking + eating is part of who I am. Recent kitchen experiments:
  • Meatballs
  • Arsik
  • Various dishes with eggs as the main ingredient
  • Many more ^_^
• 🎯 Focus: Finding a balance between coding, writing stories, and staying sane in this fast-paced world.

🛠️ My Tools

These are the tools I use daily for coding, writing, and surviving.

💻 Hardware

• Laptop: Potato Laptop T_T
• Keyboard: Logitech Keyboard
• Mouse: Logitech Mouse

🧑‍💻 Software & Editors

• Editor: VS Code / Neovim / Sublime Text
• Terminal: iTerm2 / Alacritty / Windows Terminal
• Browser: Arc / Brave / Firefox

📦 Favorite Stack & Tools

• Programming Languages: Python, Perl, TypeScript, Java, JavaScript, C++
• Version Control: Git & GitHub
• Blogging Platform: Paperboat (of course!) & DEV Community
• Competitive Programming: Codeforces

☕️ Miscellaneous

• Favorite Coding Snack: Black coffee, nuts, & chocolate
• Working Music: Lofi / Instrumental / White noise

“Good technical writing should either teach you something or make you feel less alone.” — HARD IN SOFT OUT

Note: This page will continue to evolve. This is a snapshot of who I am right now. Check back often to see how things develop.