Someone I recently had a call with had been on this mailing list since around 2021, but never said hello. One day, one email made him finally do it, and I just had to talk to him.

We had a great little chat, and it turns out that even though you feel like you’re writing into the void most days with a newsletter, you are helping: inspiring people, teaching people, guiding people.

So I wanted to change things up and send you an update. No big announcement, just a roundup of what I’ve been doing in between client work and writing.

Projjector

I got tired of the options for freelancers and consultants to share client-facing project task lists. Every tool out there either does too much, costs too much, or asks your client to sign up for yet another account before they can see a simple status update.

So I built Projjector for myself. It’s a lightweight front-end that sits on top of a Google Sheet. That’s it. No back end. I update a spreadsheet, they see the live progress in a way that doesn’t need interpreting. No accounts, no bloat, no explaining what Notion is, or what Column 3 means.

Building something for yourself like this hits different. You know exactly what the problem is, you know when it’s solved, and there’s nobody to sign it off but you.

I’m not making this a public product just yet – I’m taking it for a test drive myself for a while. Loving it so far.

Sparkstation

Tech fatigue is real, people are struggling to keep up and feel burned out. So a big part of the coming future is going to be about IRL – events, communities, touching grass, interacting with fellow humans.

But here’s the twist I’m betting on. That doesn’t need to be 100% non-tech. We just need to find a better balance.

Sparkstation is a prototype events concept I’ve been quietly building out for a while. AI-powered, slightly retro installations, designed to give people something to interact with and remember at events. Think small, live games, memorable keepsakes, quizzes – that kind of thing. AI isn’t in-your-face, it acts like an always-ready referee, MC, or quizmaster in the background.

I’ve been adding new demos and polishing what’s already built. I haven’t done an event yet, but I now have an offer to install it at the Create With conference next month.

I had a fun weekend building a dedicated DIY console (USB mouse) for it from arcade game parts. Partly so I don’t have to put a laptop in front of strangers, partly because it just feels right. When you’re building something playful, it should look the part.

FullyFed

My simple Chrome extension for Typefully has hit 3,000 Weekly Active Users. It went from about 20 to 3K in a week. WAU means high usage, not just curious-types installing and forgetting about it.

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No big point to make, just: making things, seeing some signal, finding what works, and occasionally hearing from someone that it meant something.