Small Batch Apps
“I designed an app and asked the AI to write the entire thing.”
What’s Inside
01.00 - Software for Saturday Night
Software for Saturday Night
A couple’s frustration with recommendation apps becomes the spark for building their own — small, personal, and designed for exactly two people.
02.00 - Building the Machine
Building the Machine
Nine years of dining data meets a boring stack and an AI contractor that builds cathedrals when you need sheds.
03.00 - Taste Is Personal
Taste Is Personal
A recommendation engine small enough to fit on an index card, built on the conviction that one trusted opinion outweighs ten thousand anonymous reviews.
04.00 - The Network of Two
The Network of Two
Friends want in — not as users on your platform, but as owners of their own instance. The desktop becomes a server. Trust propagates through social bonds.
05.00 - After the Code
After the Code
The pattern generalizes beyond restaurants. If code is free, what would you build for yourself?
06.00 - Specifications
Specifications
The blueprint — a human reads the essays, an AI reads the specs.
About the Book
You’re holding something new. This book is software — it becomes a working application the moment you hand it to an AI and say “build this.”
My wife and I wanted a restaurant recommendation app. Two people, one question: Where should we eat? I designed an app and asked the AI to write the entire thing. The app worked.
Then I wrote about an article about the app — and the writing improved the software. So I wrote the book and full fledged spec. Every table, every endpoint, every component. Any AI reading these pages can build the entire application.
For fifty years, software has had two models: sell it or give it away. This book shows a third way. You buy a book. Your AI reads it and builds the software. No subscription. No platform. No terms of service. The code is open source and free. The book costs money, so I get paid. Everyone is happy.