Ben's List
My friends always ask me where to eat. I built a chatbot that gives them recommendations I've curated from over a decade of eating around the world. I still prefer they text me directly, but I wanted to share it with the world.
Started as a basic chat tool. Nuked the UI, went minimal. Went from naively dumping all data into a prompt to a two-stage LLM pipeline resulting in a 6-9x token reduction.
Selling stuff secondhand is painful. Flaky buyers, lowballers, ghosting. I built a tool that handles all the back-and-forth for you and only loops you in when there is good news that requires your attention.
198 commits in 7 days. Architecture pivoted 3 times. Started as a Craigslist posting tool, ended with managed email, AI negotiation, cloud browser automation.
Sporadic
There is no reliable way to learn mushroom identification in the field other than field guides (e.g. All the Rain Promises and More). Apps that give you the answer don't teach you anything — and misidentification can be fatal.
Teaches you to observe like a mycologist — 16-question flow, weighted trait matching, Socratic AI that challenges your assumptions but never gives a definitive ID.