# nem035.com

> Personal site of Nemanja Stojanovic (nem035) — software engineer, builder, and writer. Thoughts on AI, software engineering, learning, and product development.

For the full-content version of this file, see: https://nem035.com/llms-full.txt
For structured profile data: https://nem035.com/.well-known/brand-facts.json

## About

Nemanja Stojanovic (nem035) is a software engineer focused on AI, education technology, and startups.

Currently building an AI-first LMS for schools at FlintK12 (https://flintk12.com).

Previously at Enki (https://enki.com) where he built an AI coach for tech skills with 2M+ users and an AI coaching platform for enterprise teams at companies like Verizon and PwC.

## Projects

- [Lound](https://lound.ai): Voice-first AI journaling app for mental clarity. Live transcription, AI chat, emotional pattern recognition, semantic search.
- [Bertle](https://bertle.app): AI-powered idea management tool that works through email. Capture and organize ideas by emailing them in.

## Areas of Expertise

- AI-powered product development
- Education technology and personalized learning
- Full-stack development (web, mobile, backend)
- Product strategy and startup building

## Thoughts

- [AI-Generated Code Should Come With Evidence](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-generated-code-should-come-with-evidence.md): Demo artifacts can replace some code reading by showing that AI-generated changes satisfy the behavior they were meant to produce.
- [How the AI Bubble Crash Could Happen](https://nem035.com/thoughts/how-the-ai-bubble-crash-could-happen.md): AI model labs can become very large companies and still disappoint public markets if valuation runs ahead of adoption.
- [How Claude Code Works, Part 2: Context, Control, Configuration](https://nem035.com/thoughts/how-claude-code-works-part-2.md): How three agent codebases converged on the same patterns for context engineering, skills, hooks, custom subagents, and the Agent SDK.
- [How Claude Code Works, From Tokens to Agents](https://nem035.com/thoughts/how-claude-code-works.md): A visual walkthrough of what happens inside AI coding tools, built up layer by layer from a basic prompt to a full agent loop.
- [Value Decides, Design Differentiates](https://nem035.com/thoughts/value-decides-design-differentiates.md): For things we don't buy for their looks, people choose based on perceived value, and design only tips the scale when that value is roughly equal between options.
- [The comprehension debt](https://nem035.com/thoughts/the-comprehension-debt.md): AI makes you faster but you might understand less of what you build. The long-term cost of that gap is still unclear.
- [Keeping Taste Alive](https://nem035.com/thoughts/keeping-taste-alive.md): Taste depends on regular contact with work that challenges your standards and attempts that expose your limits.
- [LLMs Are Not Conscious](https://nem035.com/thoughts/llms-are-not-conscious.md): LLMs reproduce a narrow slice of what minds do. They don't learn, remember, or act on their own.
- [The Real Barrier to Fully Automated Software](https://nem035.com/thoughts/the-real-barrier-to-fully-automated-software.md): Software creation stays heavily assisted, not fully automated, as long as a human carries responsibility for the outcome.
- [The Real Bottleneck Is Not Review, It Is Reliability](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-code-review-reliability-bottleneck.md): AI code reviewers do not solve the core problem. Reliability and earned trust are what actually matter.
- [You Can't Fix AI Reliability With More AI](https://nem035.com/thoughts/you-cant-fix-ai-reliability-with-more-ai.md): Having one AI review another AI's work just pushes the problem further down without solving it.
- [Software Engineering Can't Be Solved](https://nem035.com/thoughts/software-engineering-cant-be-solved.md): Every solution creates new problems. The idea that software development will be "solved" misunderstands the nature of problems themselves.
- [CLAUDE.md Is Not the Problem](https://nem035.com/thoughts/claude-md-is-not-the-problem.md): The problem with CLAUDE.md is the same problem code comments have. Most of them are noise.
- [LLMs can't introspect](https://nem035.com/thoughts/llm-introspection-illusion.md): Every LLM self-explanation is drawn from training data and prior tokens, same as everything else it says.
- [Agent-First Development and the Cloud Shift](https://nem035.com/thoughts/agent-first-development-cloud-shift.md): When agents become the primary interface for building software, local machines become the bottleneck.
- [AI gave us a faster brush](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-faster-brush-same-canvas.md): The joy of coding was never in writing code itself, but in solving problems and creating on an infinite canvas of bits.
- [The Biggest Misconception About LLMs](https://nem035.com/thoughts/the-biggest-misconception-about-llms.md): The simplest way to understand a large language model is this - it works like an extremely smart printer
- [The Illusion of Software Automation](https://nem035.com/thoughts/the-illusion-of-software-automation.md): Productivity and output does not scale with token budgets as the bottleneck is (and remains) human comprehension.
- [Learn to Code](https://nem035.com/thoughts/learn-to-code.md): Coders will take everyone else's jobs long before anyone takes theirs. AI amplifies software literacy more than it replaces it.
- [The Comprehension Bottleneck](https://nem035.com/thoughts/the-comprehension-bottleneck.md): Generation has a clear target. Comprehension does not. That difference explains why AI accelerates one and barely touches the other.
- [Why AI Won't Kill SaaS](https://nem035.com/thoughts/saas-in-the-age-of-ai.md): AI makes building easier. That is exactly why you should not build.
- [The Attention Trap](https://nem035.com/thoughts/the-attention-trap.md): Organizations fail not from lack of effort, but from systematically focusing on what's easy to measure instead of what matters.
- [Why Technical Skills Matter More in the Age of AI](https://nem035.com/thoughts/why-technical-people-with-ai-are-unstoppable.md): AI amplifies vibe coders, but production reliability still belongs to engineers who know how things actually work.
- [Two-stage AI calls for structured output](https://nem035.com/thoughts/two-stage-ai-calls-for-structured-output.md): Unless latency is critical, use 2 AI calls to generate structured output.
- [A major edge human coders have over AI is short-term memory in the form of intuition](https://nem035.com/thoughts/human-coders-short-term-memory.md): Human developers build an intuitive cache for codebases that AI lacks, creating a significant advantage in development speed and understanding.
- [Perceived Intelligence Is The Lowest Common Denominator](https://nem035.com/thoughts/perceived-inteligence.md): We may not see a big jump in perceived model intelligence from here.
- [Perfection is the precursor to automation](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-experties.md): You can’t disrupt a field by automating expertise because judging the automation also requires expertise.
- [AI LLMs think out loud](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-llms-think-out-loud.md): If you don't see its thoughts, it isn't thinking. It's just recalling information.
- [AI Honeymoon Phase](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-honeymoon-phase.md): AI is undeniably a productivity boost, but there's many more bottlenecks to overcome
- [AI gives devs more leverage](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-gives-devs-leverage.md): There's never been a better time to get into software engineering.
- [Why Now is the Best Time to Learn to Code](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-swe-open-doors.md): AI turbocharges SWEs, but it's not a replacement for human developers
- [How to Talk to GenAI](https://nem035.com/thoughts/how-to-talk-to-gen-ai.md): Great prompting is just good communication. Be clear, give context, and treat AI like a smart assistant, not a mind reader.
- [There's never been a better time to learn to code](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-software-jobs.md): AI will unlock more dev jobs than ever before
- [AI doesn't have to make you lazy](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-does-not-make-you-lazy.md): AI is a tool. It's up to you to use it to be lazy or not.
- [AI Might Like 🍝 Code](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-might-like-spaghetti-code.md): Why AI systems might prefer what humans call "spaghetti code"
- [AI is a tool, not a human](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-is-a-tool-not-a-human.md): You need the same skills to use AI as you do to write code.
- [AI tools will create more coders, not less](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-tools-will-create-more-coders.md): AI assistants do not displace coders, they amplify them.
- [Hands-off Leadership Transition](https://nem035.com/thoughts/leadership-transition.md): The struggle of stepping back and trusting your team.
- [AI and Knowledge Work](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-knowledge-work.md): AI will not replace knowledge work, it will increase output / time.
- [Learning to code is like learning a human language](https://nem035.com/thoughts/learning-to-code-human-language.md): Understanding the parallels between programming and human languages makes coding more approachable.
- [How does an LLM perform actions?](https://nem035.com/thoughts/how-does-llm-perform-actions.md): The LLM doesn't perform actions itself; it facilitates the actions through textual commands.
- [Why AI Won't Replace Developers](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-replaces-all-jobs-when-replacing-coders.md): Focusing on AI replacing software engineering jobs is like focusing on the fact that a flood in your city will damage your house while ignoring the effect on the city as a whole.
- [Threads vs Insta](https://nem035.com/thoughts/threads-vs-insta.md): How Threads improved upon Twitter's social dynamics by removing the following count from profiles.
- [Network Effect vs Trend](https://nem035.com/thoughts/network-effect-vs-trend.md): Network effects participants increase utility, trend participants increase growth.
- [You love what you become good at (even though you suck at it at first)](https://nem035.com/thoughts/all-skills-take-time.md): The path to our calling is far less obvious for most of us.
- [Every output of an LLM is a hallucination](https://nem035.com/thoughts/llm-always-hallucinates.md): LLMs don't do anything different when they "make up" information because they always "make it up".
- [Work Life Balance](https://nem035.com/thoughts/work-life-balance.md): Extraordinary results do require extraordinary effort but a happy life comes in many forms.
- [Mastery](https://nem035.com/thoughts/mastery.md): Success means ignoring your brain's persistent attempts to provide comfort in failure.
- [Reading code like a human](https://nem035.com/thoughts/javascript-story.md): One unique aspect of JavaScript I personally appreciate is its flexibility in function declarations.
- [Everything humans do is natural](https://nem035.com/thoughts/everything-humans-do-is-natural.md): It's a silly, self-centered mind trick to call anything we do as "natural" or "unnatural".
- [Coding skills will be more useful with AI, not less](https://nem035.com/thoughts/learning-to-code-is-more-useful-with-ai.md): Learning to code and becoming technical is more important in the age of AI, not less.
- [LLMs are dreamers.](https://nem035.com/thoughts/llm-dreamer.md): There's little relation between what an LLM says it can do and its actual capabilities.
- [Art of Negotiation](https://nem035.com/thoughts/art-of-negotiation.md): Essential negotiation techniques to master
- [Psychology of Manipulation](https://nem035.com/thoughts/psychology-of-manipulation.md): Key manipulation strategies to be aware of
- [Learn the boring fundamentals](https://nem035.com/thoughts/learn-the-boring-fundamentals.md): Understanding the fundamentals is key to mastering any subject.
- [Coding jobs are safest from AI](https://nem035.com/thoughts/coding-jobs-are-safest-from-ai.md): If AI can replace coders, it can replace anyone.
- [An issue with the AI paperclip optimizer theory](https://nem035.com/thoughts/issue-with-ai-doomsday-paperclip-squiggle-optimizer-scenario.md): It's unlikely we'll give a monkey access to an AK47
- [2023 is start of AI augmentation, not replacement](https://nem035.com/thoughts/cusp-of-ai-augmentation-era.md): In the near future, most jobs will get better and few will get replaced.
- [Why can AI chatbots produce scary outputs?](https://nem035.com/thoughts/ai-chatbot-scary.md): Most written content about AI focuses on doomsday scenarios, and that's what the models learned from.
- [ChatGPT in School](https://nem035.com/thoughts/chatgpt-in-schools.md): With the right mindset, ChatGPT gives you a superpower.
- [Most ideas are recycled](https://nem035.com/thoughts/original-thought-is-a-unicorn.md): Original thought is a unicorn.
- [Short term happy is long term unhappy](https://nem035.com/thoughts/short-term-unhappy-longterm-happy.md): Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.
- [ChatGPT](https://nem035.com/thoughts/chatgpt.md): If you can write English and think systematically, you can be a junior dev.
- [A real verdict by an imaginary jury](https://nem035.com/thoughts/self-worth.md): What we imagine people think of us guides our self-esteem.
- [Product Builder Perspective](https://nem035.com/thoughts/product-builder-perspective.md): Opinions on product building I've formed over the years
- [There's no Us and Them](https://nem035.com/thoughts/all-opinions-are-worthy-of-consideration.md): Ignoring or brushing over the opposing view creates a mental dishonesty.
- [Neural Networks work but we don't know why](https://nem035.com/thoughts/neural-networks-mistery.md): They work but we don't know why
- [Following through](https://nem035.com/thoughts/following-through.md): Action overcomes inertia. Consistent action compounds.
- [Over-communication is far cheaper than the wrong direction.](https://nem035.com/thoughts/over-communication.md): As a default, it's better to repeat yourself when unnecessary than to risk not saying something that should be heard.
- [Knowledge Checkpoints](https://nem035.com/thoughts/knowledge-checkpoints.md): Breadth is achievable through sequential units of depth.
- [Coding principles](https://nem035.com/thoughts/coding-principles.md): Some coding lessons I've learned over the years
- [There're many ways to software craftsmanship](https://nem035.com/thoughts/software-craftmanship.md): The path to competency is made up of many roads.
- [Admire the distance, not the destination](https://nem035.com/thoughts/distance-over-destination.md): The starting point, not the finish line, determines the level of success
- [Learning by doing](https://nem035.com/thoughts/learning-by-doing.md): True learning comes from understanding the journey taken towards an insight, not from the insight's factual existence.
- [Random Remote Work Thoughts](https://nem035.com/thoughts/remote-work.md): Working remotely doesn't mean moving the same work habits out of the office. It's a fundamental shift in habits.
- [Developing Async Sense in JavaScript](https://nem035.com/thoughts/developing-async-sense-i.md): Part I - Sync vs Async, Threads and the Event Loop
- [Anyone can learn anything](https://nem035.com/thoughts/anyone-can-learn-anything.md): Anyone can learn anything and it's difficult for most of us.

## Notes

- [7 Powers by Hamilton Helmer](https://nem035.com/notes/hamilton-helmers-7-powers.md): How companies achieve persistent differential returns against their competitors, and do so sustainably.
- [How To Live An Asymmetric Life](https://nem035.com/notes/graham-weaver-asymmetric-life.md): Graham Weaver, Lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Founder of Alpine Investors, shares four ways to live an asymmetric life as part of the GSB 2023 Last Lecture Series.
- [Layne Norton on fiber, cholesterol, creatine... | Huberman Lab Podcast](https://nem035.com/notes/huberman-podcast-layne-norton.md): Notes from the HubermanLab podcast episode with Layne Norton @biolayne
- [How To Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets](https://nem035.com/notes/how-to-get-rich-felix-dennis.md): Book notes from Felix Dennis
- [Morgan Housel - Psychology of Money](https://nem035.com/notes/morgan-housel-psychology-of-money.md): Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness
- [Nir Eyal - Hooked](https://nem035.com/notes/nir-eyal-hooked.md): Use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses
- [Steve Jobs 1990 Interview](https://nem035.com/notes/steve-jobs-interview-1990.md): Steve jobs recognizing 30+ years of computing evolution
- [How To Lie With Statistics](https://nem035.com/notes/how-to-lie-with-statistics.md): A concise guide on common techniques for distorting statistics.
- [Happiness hypothesis](https://nem035.com/notes/happiness-hypothesis-jonathan-haidt.md): Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
- [ADHD & How Anyone Can Improve Their Focus | Huberman Lab Podcast](https://nem035.com/notes/huberman-podcast-adhd.md): Notes from Huberman Lab Podcast
- [How to Increase Motivation & Drive | Huberman Lab Podcast](https://nem035.com/notes/huberman-podcast-motivation-and-drive.md): The chemistry of motivation is tightly wound in with the neurochemistry of movement. The same single molecule, dopamine, is responsible both for our sense of motivation and for movement.
- [The Almanack of Naval Ravikant](https://nem035.com/notes/almanack-of-naval-ravikant.md): A guide to wealth and happiness
- [Finite vs. Infinite Games](https://nem035.com/notes/infinite-games-simon-sinek.md): Those aiming to play outdo those aiming to win.
- [How Your Brain Works | Huberman Lab Podcast](https://nem035.com/notes/huberman-podcast-how-your-brain-works.md): Everything you think, remember, feel and imagine from the day you're born to the day you die is a continuous loop of communication within your brain.
- [How Your Brain Changes: Neuroplasticity | Huberman Lab Podcast](https://nem035.com/notes/huberman-podcast-neuroplasticity.md): Our brains have the ability to change their internal circuitry in response to experiences.
- [Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order by Ray Dalio](https://nem035.com/notes/principles-world-order-ray-dalio.md): Ray Dalio explains the big cycle of economic order of empires and how to deal with the changing world order.
- [How The Economic Machine Works by Ray Dalio](https://nem035.com/notes/how-the-economic-machine-works-ray-dalio.md): Ray Dalio explains how the economy works
- [Mental Models #1: Address "Important"; Ignore "Urgent"](https://nem035.com/notes/peter-hollins-mental-models-1.md): Separate priorities from impostors
- [Mental Models #10: What Would Bayes Do](https://nem035.com/notes/peter-hollins-mental-models-10.md): Calculate probabilities and predict the future based on real events
- [Mental Models #11: Do It Like Darwin](https://nem035.com/notes/peter-hollins-mental-models-11.md): Seek real, honest truth in a situation
- [Mental Models #12: Think With System 2](https://nem035.com/notes/peter-hollins-mental-models-12.md): Think analytically instead of emotionally
- [Mental Models #13: Peer Review Your Perspectives](https://nem035.com/notes/peter-hollins-mental-models-13.md): Understand the consensus view and why you might differ
- [Mental Models #14: Find Your Own Flaws](https://nem035.com/notes/peter-hollins-mental-models-14.md): Scrutinize yourself before others can
- [Mental Models #15: Separate Correlation From Causation](https://nem035.com/notes/peter-hollins-mental-models-15.md): Understand what truly needs to be addressed to solve a problem
- [Mental Models #2: Visualize All the Dominoes](https://nem035.com/notes/peter-hollins-mental-models-2.md): Make decisions as informed as possible
- [Mental Models #3: Make Reversible Decisions](https://nem035.com/notes/peter-hollins-mental-models-3.md): Remove indecisions and have a bias to action
- [Mental Models #4: Seek "Satisfiction"](https://nem035.com/notes/peter-hollins-mental-models-4.md): Achieve your priorities and ignore what doesn't matter
- [Mental Models #5: Stay within 40% - 70%](https://nem035.com/notes/peter-hollins-mental-models-5.md): Balance information with action
- [Mental Models #6: Minimize Regret](https://nem035.com/notes/peter-hollins-mental-models-6.md): Consult the future you on decisions
- [Mental Models #7: Ignore "Black Swans"](https://nem035.com/notes/peter-hollins-mental-models-7.md): Understand how outliers shouldn't change your thinking
- [Mental Models #8: Look for Equilibrium Points](https://nem035.com/notes/peter-hollins-mental-models-8.md): Find real patterns in data and not be fooled
- [Mental Models #9: Wait for the Regression to the Mean](https://nem035.com/notes/peter-hollins-mental-models-9.md): Find real patterns in data and not be fooled
- [The Lean Startup](https://nem035.com/notes/erik-reis-lean-startup.md): Use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses

## Projects

- [sfeed.dev](https://nem035.com/projects/sfeed-dev.md): A CLI and MCP server for posting to Facebook Pages and Instagram from local files.
- [Bertle](https://nem035.com/projects/bertle.md): Email your ideas, AI organizes them into living documents with research and insights.
- [Lound.ai](https://nem035.com/projects/lound-ai.md): Voice journaling app that turns spoken thoughts into organized insights.
- [Tim Ferriss AI](https://nem035.com/projects/tim-ferriss-ai.md): Ask AI questions about Tim Ferriss or any of his guests and get human-like answers based on what was said in any episode.

## Challenges

- [200 pushups per day for 1 year](https://nem035.com/challenges/pushups.md): I did 200 pushups per day for 1 year. A few quick thoughts on what I learned.
- [Bike from Miami to Key Largo](https://nem035.com/challenges/bike-miami-to-key-largo.md): Biking 150 miles from Miami to Key Largo and back, over the course of 3 days, on and off road, rain or shine.

## Connect

- X (Twitter): https://x.com/nem035
- GitHub: https://github.com/nem035
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/nem035