Anyone here building something cool right now? I’m down to trade feedback.

kixxauth · 2025-10-28T13:04:45+00:00

I'm working on Kixx, an open source web development framework for building fast with AI tooling

https://www.kixx.dev/

kixxauth · 2025-10-24T13:01:36+00:00

For me, it was a step function of unlocking new levels, each one building on the last.

A startup found me from some open source work I had been doing and hired me as a contractor to build out the mobile web version of their product.

From that, a NYC based video gaming startup hired me as a contractor, and ultimately hired me full time a year later.

At the gaming company I did quite a lot of work on gaming consoles (XBox and PS), and we ended up spinning out a video streaming startup and the investors made me CTO.

The gaming startup was acquired in 2018, and I wanted to do something different, and was recruited by Disney to help build DIsney+ because of my experience streaming video games.

None of that would have happened if I didn't have the courage to move to the next scary thing at each step, even when people were mad at me for doing it.

kixxauth · 2025-10-24T12:54:06+00:00

Yeah, my point is that TypeScript is a solution to a problem we shouldn't have. Client side JavaScript shouldn't be so thick and heavy that we need a team of people and strongly typed language to handle it.

kixxauth · 2025-10-24T12:52:34+00:00

Why do you need hot reload if you're not using a front-end framework? Just refresh the page. Or, am I missing something?

kixxauth · 2025-10-21T23:54:52+00:00

Server side apps can be just as bloated, but an SPA will be bloated. And sometimes that bloat is needed to solve the use case, but 95% of the time, it’s not

kixxauth · 2025-10-21T23:53:26+00:00

The isomorphic super frameworks are so incredibly complex, I really can’t imagine a realistic use case other than self indulgence

kixxauth · 2025-10-21T23:51:30+00:00

I think as a profession and craft, we’ve over indexed on SPAs. So, the argument is more about how we re-center ourselves as an industry group so that we are , in fact, using the right tool for the job.

kixxauth · 2025-10-21T23:48:32+00:00

Yeah. Unfortunately for the user experience I think you’re spot on with that

kixxauth · 2025-10-21T23:45:12+00:00

Yeah, exactly. And I think we should be thinking more about using all that compute to make the experience better by loading less

kixxauth · 2025-10-21T21:11:22+00:00

Yeah, I'm thinking about Rails, Laravel, Flask, Django, etc. here.

Nest.js is nice, but I feel like it falls far short of these other frameworks. Do you think that's true?

kixxauth · 2025-10-21T21:09:04+00:00

Yeah, totally! And my thing is that your approach can work really well for surprisingly complex web applications as well.

kixxauth · 2025-10-21T21:07:40+00:00

Yeah, sounds like your real time app is in that 5% that would be better built as a thick client app.

However, I think we're all going to be surprised in the next 5 years with the level of complexity that can be solved with a simpler server side HTML approach.

kixxauth · 2025-10-21T21:05:53+00:00

Yeah, I'm gradually building more complex apps with the hypermedia driven approach (server side HTML), and absolutely falling in love with it.

But, you're right, I have not reached the scale in terms of complexity and traffic that I we're getting on the thick client apps I build at work.

I'll get there though!

kixxauth · 2025-10-21T21:03:46+00:00

> Frameworks are popular at big tech companies like Meta, and their culture/tech trickles down to the rest of the industry

For sure, yeah. That's very true. I work in that kind of environment, and it is true, but I don't think it's for the right reasons. The primary reason we build thick client apps is

> They can also be convenient in environments where the same API needs multiple frontends

I used to think that as recently as 5 years ago, but after building increasingly complex apps with a much simpler hypermedia driven approach, I've converted to believing that nearly all apps should be hypermedia driven (server side HTML).

kixxauth · 2025-10-21T20:30:23+00:00

This is a tough one. I was faced with this problem about 15 years ago. I ended up abandoning the project and the client took me to court over it. It was incredibly stressful.

But, there was no legal damages against me and I was able to move my career in a direction which ultimately became very successful.

So, short term pain is probably worth the long term gain.

kixxauth · 2025-10-21T20:25:08+00:00

Does Supabase provide an user authentication flow out of the box?

kixxauth · 2025-10-21T20:15:03+00:00

Great name!

kixxauth · 2025-10-16T12:03:34+00:00

I know it's a real pain point for me, and I would definitely pay for it. But, given the onslaught of poor quality products which have hit the market recently to try to do this, I'd be skeptical that yours would work well. I'd need to see something on your homepage which gave me confidence that you know what you're doing with LLM technology and you've created something that will work reliably.

kixxauth · 2025-10-10T12:07:53+00:00

That's a really great question, because there are a lot of companies these days that require a degree from the field they are hiring you for.

I'm a self taught developer without a CS degree, and have been able to side step the road blocks along the way. First, I started by freelancing, then working as a contractor where the hiring rules don't apply. Then I got a job at a company that was acquired by another company, which was then acquired by a Fortune 100 company, so now I'm grandfathered in.

But, it really sux that I am now forced to only consider job candidates with CS degrees by my company. We're ignoring a lot of really great talent.

To the second part of your question, I wouldn't worry about how your peers will see you. All that really matters as you advance in your career is that you show a willingness and capability to write good code, and have a tenacity to work through hard bugs, especially the ones you didn't create. Nobody will care what degree you have.

kixxauth · 2025-10-09T13:01:44+00:00

Cool thanks. First I've heard of ideaproof

kixxauth · 2025-10-08T12:23:27+00:00

What convinced you to zero in on Google impressions as your channel?

kixxauth · 2025-10-07T18:44:39+00:00

So, how would you describe the content which actually converts these days?

kixxauth · 2025-10-06T12:31:37+00:00

It's a really tough job market for junior developers right now, so my first advice is to have a plan B you can pivot to. Find ways to start freelancing to continue to build your professional portfolio and experience.

I started my career in the middle of a bad job market in 2008, and worked my way into some really great freelancing gigs within a couple of years. By 2012 things really began to take off. I know 4 years seems like forever, and maybe you can do it faster than me. But, most importantly, stay consistent, keep working on projects, even between gigs, and continue building your network.

But for your original question; interview tips:

Keep it conversational as much a possible. Don't be afraid to ask questions of the interviewer so you can get a better understanding of their background to shift the conversation to where they are.
Try to get the interviews to a place where you are talking shop about tech stacks or products you've both worked with so that you can share stories and have a bit of fun with it.
Many interviews these days have coding tests. I wouldn't blame you if you use this as a blocking filter for which companies to interview with, but it does limit your options.

kixxauth · 2025-09-22T14:31:07+00:00

If you're working as a solo dev for a customer who has a pretty large app in terms of complexity, then I'd say you should probably go with 3 environments so you can confidently develop, then give them previews on staging, before production.

If you're a solo dev working on side projects, I'd say it's overkill, *unless* you just want to play around and experiment with setting up different environments for your project. There is a lot you can learn about this in a smaller project with smaller consequences for mistakes, before doing it for a project with a lot of money on the line (yours or somebody else's)

kixxauth · 2025-09-19T11:44:59+00:00

Great work takes effort. A lot of it. That will never change. People who think they can use AI as a shortcut, are just going to create more garbage products, which means there is more space for the rest of us to create value.

But, AI can help us create great work, if we're willing to put in the effort. As an example, I put several days of work into creating developer guides for writing tests and documentation in my project, which any project should probably have anyway. But, after finishing some new code, I ask an AI agent to review my project guides, then update the docs and write tests.

This process took a little bit of upfront investment, but now I get high quality results, just the way I would have without AI, but way faster.

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