WritingNotes from building it.

What went in, what came out, what it is not for, and the occasional guide. Written by the person building it rather than by somebody hired to make it sound good.

Latest

Story28 August 20265 min read

Why Vera Has No Romance Mode

It is the most requested feature that will never be built, and the reason is not squeamishness. It is that the two products cannot be the same product.

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Guide6 min read

What You Should Not Trust an AI Assistant With

Including this one. A short and specific list of the things it gets wrong, written by the person who built it and reads the complaints.

21 August 2026Read
Feature5 min read

The Chore Roster Problem

Every share house solves it with a whiteboard, and every whiteboard fails the same way. What actually goes wrong, and what a shared space does about it.

14 August 2026Read
Story5 min read

The Features That Got Taken Out

A list of things that were built, shipped or half shipped, and then removed. Every app has one of these lists. Most of them are not published.

7 August 2026Read
Story7 min read

What One Person Shipped This Year

No team, no funding, no office. An honest account of what actually gets done, what does not, and what it costs.

31 July 2026Read
Comparison6 min read

Vera vs ChatGPT: Two Different Jobs

ChatGPT is better than Vera at nearly everything Vera is not for. Here is the line between them, written without pretending one of them wins every row.

24 July 2026Read
Comparison5 min read

Vera and Apple Intelligence Are Not Competitors

One is a better hand on the controls of your phone. The other is a place your life sits. Most people who use Vera have both switched on.

17 July 2026Read
Guide6 min read

Should You Replace Five Apps With One?

The honest version, including when the answer is no. A dedicated budgeting app budgets harder than Vera does, and sometimes that is what you want.

10 July 2026Read
Guide5 min read

Why There Is a Cast Instead of One Assistant

The same sentence lands completely differently depending on who appears to be saying it. That is not decoration, it is the reason people keep opening the app.

3 July 2026Read
Feature5 min read

Shared Spaces: One Place for the Whole House

Lists, chores, bills and a calendar for the people you actually live with, plus a character who knows what the house has already agreed to.

26 June 2026Read
Guide4 min read

The Best Time to Use Voice Is When Your Hands Are Full

Practical moments where talking beats typing, and the one place it still does not work well.

19 June 2026Read
Guide6 min read

Meet the Cast

Who each of them is, what they are good at, and how to pick one for the day you are actually having.

12 June 2026Read
Guide4 min read

Why the Free Plan Does Not Run Out

Most free plans are a countdown with better manners. This one is not, and the reasoning is more selfish than it sounds.

5 June 2026Read
Feature5 min read

Your Habit Tracker Does Not Know Why You Skipped

A checkbox records that a day was missed. It has no idea the week was brutal, which is the only interesting part.

29 May 2026Read
Story6 min read

Why Vera Exists

It started with being annoyed at explaining myself to something that had already forgotten. The rest followed from that.

22 May 2026Read
Update3 min read

What Changed Recently

Dark mode, a rebuilt cast, and a website that no longer claims things the app cannot do. Plus what is being worked on now.

15 May 2026Read

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