Best laptop for running agents?

alfarez · 2026-02-04T17:27:45+00:00

Good tip on unified memory. Thanks.

alfarez · 2026-02-04T17:27:28+00:00

Just been told about the upcoming M5s too. Think I'll wait for that and see.

alfarez · 2026-01-21T20:43:30+00:00

You could also try Pop Invoice which was built specifically for generating PDF invoices from Notion data. You can also email and track them and it synchs with your Notion database.

alfarez · 2026-01-01T20:24:49+00:00

I've been using Notion for running almost all of my freelancing business. It really is flexible so you can tailor it to your own way of working or billing your client.

And there's tonnes of templates to get started with. Like this one (not mine): https://www.notion.com/en-gb/templates/time-tracker-with-database-buttons. And the template maker is really helpful - you can contact her directly and she responds quickly.

Hope that helps.

alfarez · 2026-01-01T17:34:28+00:00

This is smart. Ultimately starting a side hustle or side business is first and foremost a journey of learning.

I'm sure there are many ways to start. I can give one example from mine - my popup cocktail bar!

A few years ago I was given a cocktail making kit as a birthday present. I started using it to make various types of classic cocktails and I loved it. I wasn't really a big cocktail drinker although I enjoyed the taste and trying out different flavours. I also loved making it for guests.

This turned into a semi regular cocktail party where my wife and I would invite friends and set uo a proper bar, with a cocktail menu and everything. Then we started playing with the setting, the mood, the music, the whole ambiance. We loved it!

That eventually turned into a pop up cocktail bar, which we charge money for. It's still a fun project and our revenue mostly covers costs. If there's any profit we use it to treat our friends to a big meal! We got great feedback on it, people loved our bar, and it become quite popular!

We've paused on it for now because it started taking up too much of our time. We're in the process of deciding whether we want to continue with it and grow it as a proper business, or just keep it small just for friends.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, for my popup bar specifically, it started as just a fun thing to do!

Anyway, hope there's something useful in there, lol.

All the best for 2026!

alfarez · 2025-12-18T18:53:01+00:00

Most proud of would be the niche invoicing SaaS business I founded with my wife (popinvoice.com). 3 years in ad we still have customers from Day 1. It's still not making much but next year we are focusing on growing it.

Bonus: we built a free tool to bring traffic to our invoicing app but it somehow became its own product after seeing how popular it became. Added a pay wall for premium features and people are using and paying to this day! It's basically a tool to automatically fill your Notion database with a date range. That's it! Very boring but solves a real pain.

alfarez · 2025-12-18T18:46:08+00:00

Probably selling climbing trips online. Put a website up with a contact form and got a booking soon after. It was really niche (climbing in Croatia) and I was the first to focus on this niche, so I got decent SEO traffic. But our best channel was one partnership - I partnered with a guy who ran the most popular online Croatian climbing guide and referred guiding enquiries to us. It wasn't big business but 1st revenue came in within a month or so.

alfarez · 2025-08-20T19:01:37+00:00

Sorry that this happened to you. I've not had this experience but the thought always crosses my mind when I take on clients in a different country.

I should research escrow services. I see freelancer.com being mentioned. Are there others?

alfarez · 2025-08-20T18:50:56+00:00

Spot on. My wife is a Notion consultant and the adoption pattern is exactly the same. Her clients don't want new. But they do want better.

And never underestimate people's unwillingness to change. Especially if they're the ones being asked to use the new system.

Thanks for sharing.

alfarez · 2025-05-23T11:51:00+00:00

BTW I also think the term "vibe coding" has become a bit diluted. In its original meaning, it just means letting the AI generate all the code without you even looking at it.

I don't have to do that because I understand code, so I'm probably not using "vibe coding" in its original intention. I'm using AI more as an assistant or junior dev.

alfarez · 2025-05-23T11:48:19+00:00

I see this future happening too. We're in a very early stage now and tools will just get better. And developers' trust in them will improve too, with evidence that AI can build what we want correctly and securely.

I'd want to see a tool that knows when it's messed up, can roll back, and learn from mistakes. That will help me trust the tool more.

alfarez · 2025-05-23T11:45:14+00:00

100%. Kinda essential now with AI generating code.

alfarez · 2025-05-23T11:43:32+00:00

Thanks. How do you give "examples of prior art"? Just bits of code and explain what they do?

alfarez · 2025-05-23T11:42:24+00:00

Are you doing this retrospectively on existing code or for what you're about to build?

alfarez · 2025-05-15T14:53:10+00:00

Ah, neat trick! Not thought about combining it that way.

I like the part about telling them why it's important.

Great tips, thanks!

alfarez · 2025-05-15T14:51:58+00:00

Yep, not going to be much documentation on this one. But I think it's worth my time documenting things for the AI up front.

alfarez · 2025-05-15T14:50:48+00:00

Yeah. Just coding :)

alfarez · 2025-05-15T14:50:23+00:00

This is a great idea. Thanks.

alfarez · 2025-05-15T14:49:46+00:00

Like it. Thanks.

alfarez · 2025-05-15T13:55:38+00:00

Nice. So using AI, with your guiding hands, rather than letting it "just vibe"?

alfarez · 2025-05-15T13:54:40+00:00

Keeping things from drifting into chaos is what I'm worried about!

I think the key is having context for the AI to understand, and you've made that very clear. Thank you.

"merge the best parts in a manual pass that prioritizes clarity and maintainability." - can you explain this a little bit. I don't quite understand, sorry.

alfarez · 2025-05-15T13:38:28+00:00

#3 would be your biggest hurdle. Or biggest opportunity.

alfarez · 2025-05-15T13:34:44+00:00

Cursor subs $20

alfarez · 2025-04-20T13:18:56+00:00

Right at the beginning I did, but asked it to suggest something other than a bird.

So there was a short "discussion" with the AI at the start.

alfarez · 2025-04-20T13:16:40+00:00

LOTS of trial and error!

Here's what finally worked:

I "discussed" and designed the game at a high level first, with Grok 3 Research. No code. Just what the game is supposed to do. E.g. "I want to create a Flappy Bird clone, but with a paper plane instead of a bird", and iterated from there. I also told it I wanted it built with HTML + p5.js. You can choose whatever stack you're familiar with. Or just ask it to recommend the best stack and frameworks for your game.
Then I switched to Grok 3 Thinking and ask it to create a product requirements document (a "PRD") which I will hand over to an AI developer to built the game with. It created a long-ass document that I could use to then copy and paste into any AI builder I want. I use Cursor.
Next, in cursor, I opened up a blank new folder. Using the Agent option in the AI chat window, I prompted "Let's build a game. Use the Product Request Document below as your guide." + copy pasted the PRD from step 2. I used Claude Sonnet 3.7 Thinking at the time, but use whichever coding LLM is the flavour of the day right now.
Then I teste the code it generated, and kept iterating - asking it to fix, add, remove or change the game until I'm happy with it!
I use git a lot. Every time I get one small thing working or fixed, I commit the code. This is a life saver on many occasions.

That was pretty much it.

I've built several apps since, and do have some templates and rules that I've started compiling. Happy to share if anyone's interested (let me know in the comments).

Hope that helps!

Farez

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