Personal Personal Computing

I’m building my own personal AI operating system.

I’ve worked as a UX designer for emerging tech for more than 10 years. I’ve been fortunate to work on many creative products, from 3D printing to VR and games. Unfortunately, I’ve also seen how the incentives of the tech industry lead to consumer technologies made to extract our attention and lock us in to a corporate platform.

AI is different. I think the best thing about AI is that it has created a turning point where anyone can build technology for themselves. Finally we can make personal personal computing and free our attention from misaligned algorithms and the notifications nudging us to use features we don’t want.

This summer, I’m replacing all my daily consumer apps and devices with self-built versions, and will use and iterate on them over several months. Many will be exceedingly minimal, since I only need to include features that I use. Some will have unusual forms or materials, since I seek to get away from the industrial utility of plastic and metal, and craft forms are more personal and malleable. I will incorporate AI with intention and low distraction. I will document extensively both as an act of self-reflection and to bridge the communities of open-source and DIY.

This is a research project to explore my own mental space and express it with the aid of computing. It’s also a rebellion against a tech culture that espouses domination and scale.

My plan is simple. Whenever I find myself frustrated with doing a computer thing and can imagine it better, I’ll build myself a little app that does exactly what I want, and maybe add a bit of a spin for experimentation. I’ve already made a few. With Claude Code, it’s possible to make a little personal app in less than a day, and that’s exactly the point. It is sometimes faster to build the thing you want rather than searching online and installing different apps from the App Store.

I’ve got a list of ideas but I’m trying not to plan so much. Build in the moment and don’t extrapolate. So far I’m going to keep my Mac and iPhone since I already own those, but I do want to try more open source hardware and seeing how much that can handle.