Joe Fabisevich

“Apps genius” - Colleen. I used to work on making Twitter a bit healthier, then that all went to hell. Now I make puns, @plinky.app, and teach @ build.ms. Born and raised New Yorker, trying to do a little good and be the friend you made along the way. 🍕🐱⚾️

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Longform Stories

The Cost Of Intelligence Isn’t Going Up, Your Expectations Are

Models keep doing more with fewer tokens but our expectations have gone up — painting a messy picture about the true cost of intelligence.

5d ago·3 min read·412 words

Being A 1.5-10x Developer

Good code begets good results, so let's make a case for using coding agents to write better code, rather than just more code.

May 26·5 min read·876 words

The Teaching Computer

Many people are using AI to solve their problems when they could be leveraging AI to become better versions of who they want to be.

May 11·6 min read·1147 words

The Claude Code Leak

What the accidental Claude Code source code leak tells us about the real value of code, product market fit, and why integration is what actually makes software great.

Apr 1·7 min read·1233 words

Workslop

The bar for shipping quality work hasn‘t lowered just because AI can generate code in minutes — and if you‘re accepting AI output without reviewing it, you‘re part of the problem.

Mar 23·4 min read·686 words

Small Steps For Agent-Friendly Codebases

Updating an open source library taught me a valuable lesson for making your codebase agent-friendly — small steps can have a big payoff.

Mar 11·3 min read·571 words

The Hidden Cost Of Communication (A Case Against Big Companies)

Big companies are downsizing, not solely because of AI and corporate greed but because communication bottlenecks kill productivity and demoralize teams.

Feb 27·6 min read·1046 words

Automating Codex

You‘re one step away from turning Codex into a proactive assistant that tackles low-hanging fruit while you sleep.

Feb 12·9 min read·1621 words

Read The Code (Sometimes)

Should you read the code agentic systems write, or it all assembler in a world of AI-assisted coding?

Feb 9·5 min read·958 words

Supporting Markdown Search For LLMs

Learn a simple but effective technique that makes your blog more easily searchable for LLMs.

Feb 2·7 min read·1290 words

Updating Your Website For Generative Engine Optimization

Learn how to optimize your website for generative search engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to improve your search engine rankings.

Jan 29·3 min read·494 words

AI Agents Are Starting To Eat SaaS (Really)

AI is making it cheaper and easier for anyone to build custom software solutions. The changes from this shift will be drastic, especially for SaaS companies.

Jan 26·6 min read·1005 words

The One Skill Siri Needs

Siri doesn't just need a makeover, it needs a new vision for automation. And that's a job Skills can help with.

Jan 23·2 min read·353 words

The Democratization of AI

The barrier to building with AI has dropped thousands-fold. What happens when you give everyone the tools to implement their ideas?

Jan 21·3 min read·598 words

The Claude Code Moment

The sudden adoption of Claude Code by non-technical people represents an important moment in time — and one that will have a lasting impact on the way we work.

Jan 19·5 min read·857 words

Gemini × Foundation Models

What a partnership between Apple and Google could mean for AI on Apple‘s platforms.

Jan 12·3 min read·421 words

Claude Cowork

Anthropic‘s latest product brings Claude Code to everyone else — not just developers.

Jan 12·2 min read·381 words

The Economics of AI (Part I)

Stray thoughts about the economic contract we grew up with breaking down because of AI.

Jan 7·4 min read·709 words

Build.ms: Making Technology Accessible To Everyone

Learn how to think about technology in a fast-moving world — I‘ll show you what matters and filter out the rest.

Jan 6·4 min read·702 words

AI (Without the Hype)

I spoke at NSSpain this year and gave a wide-ranging talk AI, building from the fundamentals to real-world uses — with something for everyone.

Dec 24·10 min read·1850 words

Codex vs. Claude Code (Today)

Every AI tool has its strengths and weaknesses, and the only way to discover what they are is by using them.

Dec 22·6 min read·1088 words

Building Software From Blog Posts

Did you know you can just point AI at a blog post and have it build a piece of software? That‘s where we are now.

Dec 15·7 min read·1267 words

Scribblenauts For Software

AI lets people build any tool in minutes at practically zero cost. The result? An era of personalized, on-demand software.

Dec 1·5 min read·879 words

The Past, Present, and Future of AI Workshops with @mergesort

Six months teaching people to build with AI taught me one thing: most people are just a few questions away from learning so much.

Oct 30·10 min read·1831 words

Your First Claude (and ChatGPT) Skill

Learn a new and powerful way to build software on-demand, with little more than a simple description. No code required.

Oct 17·8 min read·1431 words

How I Used ChatGPT Over A Long Weekend

Real-world examples of how I used ChatGPT over a four-day weekend, providing practical insights for anyone curious about working with large language models.

Jan 1·9 min read·1770 words

The Rule of Small and Large

A personal framework for choosing projects: focus on either small projects for quick learning or large projects for meaningful impact, while avoiding the medium-sized trap.

Dec 16·5 min read·964 words

Empower Apps Podcast: Building Plinky as an Indie Developer

Leo Dion and I discuss building Plinky from scratch, the technical decisions behind using SwiftUI and Vapor, creating delightful user experiences, and the journey from working at Twitter to becoming a…

Nov 20·1 min read·185 words

A Mental Model For Prompting Large Language Models

A practical analogy for understanding and improving how you work with AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude, moving beyond tips and tricks to develop better judgment.

Nov 14·7 min read·1256 words

Monarch: Minimal, Manageable, Migrations 🦋

Introducing Monarch, a simple yet flexible migrations library for Swift that helps manage user data changes across app updates with minimal hassle.

Oct 23·5 min read·814 words

Building A Customizable Framer Component

A technical walkthrough of building a customizable Framer Code Component for Buttondown email signups, complete with Property Controls and open source code.

Oct 14·5 min read·854 words

Introducing Recap: What's Old Is What's New Again

Open sourcing Recap, a Swift library for creating beautiful What's New screens to highlight app updates and keep users informed about new features.

Oct 9·5 min read·947 words

Indie App Spotlight - Plinky Feature

Plinky was featured in Indie App Spotlight Issue 20, where we discussed the app's origin story, design philosophy, technical implementation, and the journey of building a successful indie app.

Sep 10·10 min read·1852 words

Compile Swift Podcast: Being Featured on the App Store

Peter Witham and I discuss the incredible experience of having Plinky featured on the App Store, the journey of indie app development, and how doing good work creates opportunities.

Aug 19·1 min read·162 words

Introducing Plinky: My Love Letter To Links

The story behind Plinky, my personal app for saving and organizing links that makes it incredibly easy to save links for later.

May 9·10 min read·1874 words

The Reasoning Computer

How will we solve problems in a new era of computation, where the very foundations of how a computer is expected to work are no longer deterministic?

Nov 10·8 min read·1453 words

Twitter Space: Making Data Storage Magical with Boutique

I joined the Github DevRel team to discuss building Boutique, my "magical" library for data persistence. We also dive into my journey from Twitter to indie development, and the harsher realities of op…

Sep 26·1 min read·152 words

Reflections On An Open Source Project

Personal reflections on building Boutique and Bodega open source projects, covering the ups and downs of creating something valuable for the Swift community.

Sep 6·9 min read·1707 words

Model View Controller Store: Reinventing MVC for SwiftUI with Boutique

Introducing Boutique, a new architecture that reimagines MVC for SwiftUI by adding a Store layer to handle state management and data flow in a familiar, approachable way.

Jun 22·9 min read·1735 words

Maximum Design For Minimal Effort

A 15-minute live coding talk covering design fundamentals - color, spacing, typography, and animation - to transform basic UI into beautiful interfaces.

Jun 15·1 min read·196 words

Coding As Creative Expression

Exploring whether coding is art or science, and how programming serves as a creative medium for solving problems and expressing ideas through code.

May 21·4 min read·612 words

Creating Slick Color Palette APIs

Building maintainable, flexible color palette systems for iOS and macOS apps using asset catalogs, semantic naming, and SwiftUI integration.

Aug 24·6 min read·1008 words

Putting the U in GraphQL

Learning how to make GraphQL requests from scratch without libraries like Apollo, exploring the fundamentals of GraphQL client-side implementation in Swift.

Mar 12·3 min read·554 words

Empower Apps Podcast: Large Scale Teams

Leo Dion and I discuss scaling app development to thousands of people and millions of users at Twitter, communication, documentation, and the complexity of holding moral frameworks at a global level.

Feb 12·1 min read·114 words

Context-Bound Types

Exploring API design patterns for balancing implementation exposure, using the example of creating view controllers with header views in four different approaches.

Sep 21·4 min read·624 words

Building Better Views (Part I)

Introducing ViewData, a declarative architecture pattern for transforming models into views that offers a maintainable alternative to MVVM for iOS development.

Dec 26·4 min read·701 words

Building Better Views (Part II), Next Steps

Continuing the ViewData architecture discussion, covering complex views, performance considerations, and practical implementation strategies.

Dec 26·3 min read·495 words

The Learn Swift Podcast: Episode 28

Join me on The Learn Swift Podcast where Steven Sherry and I discuss contracting, computing history, philosophy, Smalltalk, and even a little bit about Swift.

Jun 24·1 min read·84 words

Dev Chats - Joe Fabisevich

An interview with Sam Jarman covering my career journey, the NYC tech scene, consulting vs full-time work, and advice for building a successful software career.

Oct 24·9 min read·1655 words