# Writing

> Essays by Matthew Blode on AI-assisted engineering, product craft, zero-to-one building, and developer tooling.

## [Seventy people in a group chat](https://blode.co/writing/seventy-people-in-a-group-chat)

*Product & craft*

Published Mar 26th, 2026

Updated Jul 30th, 2026

Luca Bonelli started a WhatsApp group and pulled Ryan Hendler and me in as co-founders. We wanted to share how we actually build day to day, not track AI headlines. It grew to 70 people and thousands of messages. Then Greg Brockman tweeted about us.

[Read more](https://blode.co/writing/seventy-people-in-a-group-chat)

## [Ship fast or die](https://blode.co/writing/ship-fast-or-die)

*Shipping & execution*

Published Jun 28th, 2026

Updated Jul 30th, 2026

Two startups, two acquisitions, one lesson: speed is a small team’s biggest advantage. Not reckless. Think to 80 percent, ship, watch, and close the loop.

[Read more](https://blode.co/writing/ship-fast-or-die)

## [Skills are the new packages](https://blode.co/writing/skills-are-the-new-packages)

*AI-assisted engineering*

Published Feb 23rd, 2026

Updated Aug 21st, 2026

I made a skill that creates skills, then allmd to turn the universe into a skill. Then the pattern clicked: agent skills are composable units of capability the way npm packages are composable units of code.

[Read more](https://blode.co/writing/skills-are-the-new-packages)

## [Your statics do not interpolate and never will](https://blode.co/writing/static-fonts-to-one-variable-font)

*Product & craft*

Published Jul 28th, 2026

Updated Sep 5th, 2026

Going from a variable font to statics is one command in a loop. Going the other way means making hundreds of glyphs match across every weight before anything can merge, and almost everything written about variable fonts answers the easy direction.

[Read more](https://blode.co/writing/static-fonts-to-one-variable-font)

## [You can sense carelessness](https://blode.co/writing/you-can-sense-carelessness)

*Product & craft*

Published Feb 2nd, 2026

Updated Aug 21st, 2026

The floor for shipping something competent has never been lower. The work that decides quality moved to editing, and editing is where most teams stop.

[Read more](https://blode.co/writing/you-can-sense-carelessness)

## [You don’t have to make AI slop](https://blode.co/writing/you-dont-have-to-make-ai-slop)

*AI-assisted engineering*

Published Apr 30th, 2026

Updated Aug 21st, 2026

Everyone can tell when you vibe coded your app. Default shadcn, Lucide icons, Inter, glowing gradient borders. It screams that you shipped the first thing the prompt gave you. It doesn’t have to be that way.

[Read more](https://blode.co/writing/you-dont-have-to-make-ai-slop)

## [Your career compounds](https://blode.co/writing/your-career-compounds)

*Founding & investing*

Published Jun 16th, 2026

Updated Jul 30th, 2026

I started working the day after high school. No plan, just a want to learn. Every role since got picked the same way: learning velocity over comfort. Careers compound like interest, but only if you keep reinvesting.

[Read more](https://blode.co/writing/your-career-compounds)