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Become more valuable, not less, as AI accelerates.

I build with AI, test what's real, kill what isn't, and share the whole lot in public. Open code, real numbers, the failures before the wins.

Who this is for

For anyone embracing AI to build a better life and stay relevant as the world changes. That's the builder or founder trying to make sense of it without drowning in hype, the career professional wondering what survives, the late starter, and the solo operator who's never written code.

I'm not an AI guru selling a course of recycled ideas, and I'm not a consultant who's never shipped anything. I'm the man in the water: building things with these tools, finding out what actually holds up, and telling you the truth about it before you spend your own time finding out.

There's a quieter thread here too. As AI gets better at thinking for you, the skill that matters most is thinking for yourself: keeping your own judgement instead of handing it over. I'm working that out in public alongside everything else.

I build to learn, not to sell.

Every product is a test of what's real at the frontier. I run the test in the open, give the code away, and write up what worked, what didn't, and why. When something stops earning its place, I kill it in public and tell you what it cost me.

The value was never the software. It's the judgement and the trust, and those only compound if I show my working.

Why it matters

Hundreds of millions of people now get their understanding of the world from a handful of similarly-trained AI models. The answers come back confident, reasonable, and identical for everyone. When the machine hands the whole crowd the same play, the play stops paying.

So the scarce thing, the only defensible thing, is the ability to keep your own mind: real judgement, grounded in real depth, from someone actually doing the work. That's what I'm building here. Not another feed of AI takes. A field report you can verify.

Why you might believe me

  • 4 published books, including the best-selling book on business continuity in the world for its first few years
  • 20 products built with AI, across search, trading, monitoring, and estate tooling
  • 38 years in technology, including complex systems in global banking
  • Creator of Efformism, and innovations on The Headless Way
  • Code open for anyone to inspect; products killed in public when they don't work

The field report

What's working, what isn't, and what it cost me. Open numbers, written as I go.

Conference-thumbnail style graphic: a bordered jamiewatters.work badge, an orange markdown-logo square with the word Markdown, and giant white text reading Go find the customers
Essay

Garry Tan Just Described My Setup. Then I Noticed What He Left Out.

July 21, 2026
7 min read

The YC president gave a talk describing, almost item for item, the AI system I already run. The validation lasted about ten minutes. Then I noticed the word neither of us was saying.

Read More
A padlock icon sitting inside a stream of code, half open, on a dark terminal background
Essay

I Leaked an API Key and It Turned My Own Domain Into a Phishing Weapon

July 21, 2026
6 min read

I got phished from my own verified domain, using an API key I'd leaked myself: what actually leaked, how fast it happened, and what I changed.

Read More
On a Deep Space navy background, a gold-edged card labelled ENCRYPTED REGISTER lists accounts, assets, liabilities and instructions, standing solid in front of three faint dashed cards labelled a service, a vault app and a startup that are fading away. Kicker: DIGITAL ESTATE. Headline: The map is a file. It outlasts every company that might have owned it.
Essay

A friend said it was a business. I decided it was not, and built it anyway.

July 19, 2026
3 min read

A friend said it should be a business. I spent forty years around operations and resilience, so I assessed it honestly, decided it was not, and built it anyway, for free. Here is the reasoning, and why the map of your estate should be a file no company owns.

Read More

The products

Built with AI, open to inspect, and killed in public when they stop earning their place.

Executor File

Everything your executor will need, in one encrypted file.

Beta

Everything your executor will need, in one encrypted file. A self-hosted register of accounts, assets and liabilities, with no credentials stored and no service to die.

Bash/POSIX shawkage (encryption)ssss (Shamir)+2

AI Search Arena

AI Search Arena evaluates GEO/AEO tools against 50+ standardized metrics across dimensions like AI visibility, content optimization, and technical implementation.

Live

AI Search Arena evaluates GEO/AEO tools against 50+ standardized metrics across dimensions like AI visibility, content optimization, and technical implementation. Every score is derived from 6 independent AI model evaluations with median-based synthesis to eliminate bias. Full methodology published, SHA-256 audit packages, and vendor review windows ensure transparency. Market segment filters let users find the best tools for their specific use case: from enterprise SEO to SMB marketing.

Next.js 15React 19TypeScriptTailwind CSS+10

Aisearchmastery.com

Learn how to optimize your content for AI-powered search engines.

Live

Learn how to optimize your content for AI-powered search engines. Courses, guides, and templates for content creators and marketers.

Next.jsMDXTailwind CSS

The deal

If I recommend it, I'm using it.

If it failed, you'll hear about the failure before the win.

My code is open for you to check.

Every product I kill gets a public post-mortem.

That's the whole deal. No funnel, no secret sauce, no "DM me to scale."

I'm in the water, riding this wave in real time, in code and in writing.

If you'd rather learn from someone actually doing the work than someone selling theory from the beach, stay a while. I'll tell you what's working before you waste the time finding out yourself.

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I build with AI in the open and write up what held and what didn't. Real numbers, the failures before the wins.