I'm a gardener who loves growing code and writing stories about it. Online, I'm known by the motto “HARD IN SOFT OUT” — I believe that good technical writing should either teach something, or make the reader feel less alone in the chaos of a dystopia. Ideally, both.
🌱 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.
“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:
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
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.
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
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
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.”
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.
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
- 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.