A Season For Change

I have always been someone who appreciates the changing of the seasons.

There is something grounding about them. Spring becomes summer. Summer becomes fall. Life moves forward whether we are ready for it or not. Memorial Day, while not technically the start of summer, has long felt like the unofficial beginning of it to me. The pools open. The grills fire up. Baseball settles in. The evenings get longer. People step outside again.

This year feels like the biggest season change of my life yet.

On Friday, the sun sets on my chapter with Ticket Solutions and TFL, and a new chapter begins. It is strange to even type that after all these years. Exciting too.

As a kid, I was fascinated by technology. I remember taking apart our old tube TV after it died just to see how it worked. I took apart computers and gaming systems too, always wondering if there was some way to rebuild them into something more than they originally were.

In some ways, this moment feels a lot like that.

I built a successful career over the last couple decades. I am incredibly thankful for it. But now it is time to carefully take the pieces back apart and see if I can build them into something even bigger and more meaningful.

That does not mean slowing down.

In fact, I expect to work harder than ever.

But for the first time in a long time, all of my energy can flow into the things I truly believe in. Getting back ten or so hours a week from commuting alone feels like someone handed me part of my life back.

Some of that time will go to family. Some of it will go to friends. Some of it will go to summer evenings, BBQ smoke, baseball games, fishing trips, and sitting outside under the stars thinking about what comes next.

But a lot of it is going into building.

I want to continue growing Transcendent Software and helping companies navigate AI, automation, and smarter systems in practical ways. There is a lot of excitement in the market right now, but also a lot of confusion. It is easy to become fascinated by a machine doing magical things. The harder part is understanding where AI fits, where it does not, where humans still need to stay involved, and how the entire system works together.

That part matters.

Anyone can bolt AI onto a workflow. Building systems that are reliable, useful, and genuinely improve how people work takes much more care.

That is also a big part of why I believe so strongly in CoffeeBreak. The platform already has a solid foundation, but now it needs real-world feedback and human guidance to shape what becomes truly meaningful. I can sit in a room and build forever, but eventually the builders need the users. Even in AI, humans in the loop still matter.

Maybe now more than ever.

Then there is Open Jibo.

That project pulls at me in a different way. I genuinely want to help bring something back to people that they lost too early. Jibo was ahead of its time. The hardware may be dated now, but it is still capable of creating joy, connection, and meaningful experiences. When the original company disappeared, people lost more than a gadget. They lost something they had emotionally connected to.

I think the work being done by the Jibo Revival Group and the broader community has the potential to give some of that magic back.

And finally, how about some fun?

Summer should still be about fun.

I am looking forward to more time with family and friends. BBQ. Nature. Fishing. Baseball. Late nights outside. Long conversations. Small adventures. This year also leads into the 250th anniversary of this great nation, and I am excited to see how the weeks leading into Independence Day unfold and what kind of celebration we can put together this year.

I have a feeling it will go off with a bang.

Honestly, that is probably how I would describe this entire season of life right now.

A season for change.
A season for building.
A season for possibility.

And I could not be more excited for what comes next.

Growth Happens Before You Feel Ready

This weekend felt like one of those moments where you realize life is changing while you’re still trying to keep up with it.

My son suddenly wants to help with everything outside. Not just ride along on the mower for fun, but actually help mow the property, do weed eating, and be part of the work. We spent part of the weekend working on the land together and somewhere along the way it hit me that he’s growing. He’s starting to become capable.

That sneaks up on you.

We also spent time planting flowers, working around the property, and dealing with spring projects. I hatched a few more chicks this week too. Some made it, some didn’t. That’s just part of raising animals and living a little closer to nature. Things grow, things fail, and you keep moving forward.

Mother’s Day was good too. Family time, good weather, slowing things down for a minute. Watching everything my wife does for our family always reminds me how much growth happens quietly in the background while everyone else is focused on bigger, louder things.

At the same time, the technology world feels like it’s changing faster than ever.

Every week there’s another AI announcement, another new model, another prediction about how everything is about to change. Some of it is hype, but some of it is real. You can feel the shift happening underneath everything now.

That’s part of why I’ve been so focused lately.

CoffeeBreak is evolving quickly. My thinking around orchestration, memory, smaller expert systems, and long-term AI behavior is changing almost weekly right now. Jibo keeps improving little by little too. New versions, new features, more personality starting to come back into the system.

It feels like a lot of things are growing at once.

Some of it is exciting.
Some of it is uncertain.
Most of it is happening faster than expected.

I think that’s just life sometimes.

You make plans, and then growth changes the shape of them.

Your kids grow.
Technology changes.
Your priorities shift.
New opportunities appear before you feel fully prepared for them.

And somewhere in the middle of all of it, you realize the future isn’t some distant thing anymore.

It’s already showing up around you in small ways every day.

The trick is noticing it while it’s happening.

Working Through It

Lately I’ve been focused on making progress.

Not the kind you see in demos or announcements. The kind where you’re just trying to move things forward a little at a time. Fix something. Improve something. Keep things from drifting too far off course.

That’s been true across everything.

Work has been steady. I had a good onsite with a client. Productive, grounded, the kind of work that reminds you why experience matters. At the same time, I’ve been pushing forward on my own projects. Jibo has mostly been regression testing. Fixing things, breaking things, trying to get to a version that feels stable. Versions don’t mean much without users, but they help me stay disciplined. They give me something to work toward.

CoffeeBreak has been a different kind of work. Less visible, more foundational. Thinking through user experience, agent loops, how systems should behave over time. Not just what AI can do, but how it fits together. I find myself thinking more about structure than features. Planning for things like memory, cost, how to use smaller models effectively instead of just reaching for the biggest one available.

It’s a lot of thinking. A lot of iteration.

And then there’s everything outside of that.

We’ve been spending time as a family, which has been good. A few days off helped reset things a bit. Spring is here, so we’ve been working outside more. Planting, tending to the land, adding more chickens. It’s work, but it’s a different kind of work. Slower. More tangible.

Not all of it goes the way you want.

Today was one of those days. We lost a few baby chicks. One didn’t make it out of the shell. One probably got trampled. Another overheated. That’s just part of it, but it doesn’t make it easier. You try to do everything right, and sometimes it still doesn’t work out.

That’s nature.

I’ve still got others at different stages, more eggs in the incubator, so it’s not a loss that sets us back. But you feel it anyway.

Same with the dogs. They’re getting older. You start to see it in small ways at first, and then more clearly. It’s part of the cycle, but it’s not something you really get used to.

Mother’s Day is coming up next week. That brings its own mix of emotions. Losing my mom still feels recent, even though time keeps moving forward. At the same time, I see everything my wife does every day for our family, and it puts things in perspective.

All of it together, it’s just life.

Messy, sometimes frustrating, sometimes really good. Rarely clean or predictable.

I think that’s why I don’t get too caught up in perfect outcomes anymore.

Whether it’s building systems, raising animals, or just trying to take care of a family, progress usually looks the same.

You keep showing up. You keep adjusting. You take the wins where you can, and you learn from the rest.

And you move forward.

What Building AI Actually Feels Like Right Now

There’s a lot happening in AI right now.

Every week there’s something new. Smarter models, faster responses, better benchmarks. If you just follow the headlines, it feels like everything is accelerating perfectly.

But building with it feels different.

It reminds me a little of when I first started working with computers. Back then, nothing was polished. You didn’t just install something and expect it to work. You had to figure things out, piece by piece. Manuals, trial and error, late nights. When something finally worked, it wasn’t because the system was perfect. It was because you understood it enough to make it work.

That’s where AI feels like it is right now.

I’ve been spending time bringing Jibo back to life. It’s been fun, a little nostalgic, but also a reality check. When you move from demos to something that lives in the real world, everything changes. Timing matters. Context matters. Small failures stand out. Things don’t just need to work once, they need to keep working.

And that’s where things start to break down.

Not because the AI isn’t good. It’s actually impressive. But because everything around it is still rough. Getting systems to talk to each other, keeping them aligned, knowing when to step in as a human. That part is still messy.

It’s kind of like working in an old shop. You’ve got great tools, but they’re scattered everywhere. Some are new, some are worn down, some don’t quite fit together. You can build something solid, but only if you know how to use them together.

That’s the part people don’t see in the demos.

The demos are clean. Controlled. One path, one outcome.

Real life is not like that.

Real life is interruptions, edge cases, things that almost work, things that work until they don’t.

That’s what building AI actually feels like right now.

And honestly, that’s what makes it interesting.

Because this isn’t the end state. This is the phase where things start to become real. Where the difference isn’t just who has the best model, but who can actually make it useful.

That’s the part I keep coming back to.

Not just what AI can do, but how it fits into real life. How it works with people. How it holds up over time.

That’s where the work is.

And it’s also where the opportunity is. ☕

Letting People See the Work Before It’s Finished

There’s a moment in building something where you have to decide who you’re optimizing for.

Early on, it’s just you. Then maybe a small set of ideas, sketches, or prototypes. Eventually, you reach a point where the work is real enough that keeping it completely private starts to hurt more than it helps.

I think I’m at that point now.

The Tension Between Polish and Learning

There’s a strong pull to wait until something feels “done” before letting anyone see it. Polished. Documented. Fully formed.

The problem is that polish often hides the most important feedback.

What I care about right now isn’t applause or adoption. It’s learning. I want to know where people pause, what they misunderstand, and which assumptions don’t survive first contact with reality.

That kind of insight doesn’t come from dashboards or signups. It comes from thoughtful eyes on unfinished work.

Choosing Who Gets to Look

I’m not interested in opening the floodgates yet. Early feedback shapes products, whether you want it to or not, and I’m being intentional about who helps shape this one.

Peers. Builders. People who understand tradeoffs. People who are comfortable saying, “This part feels off,” instead of just asking for features.

That’s who I want looking right now.

Comfortable, Not Rushed

Letting people see something before it’s ready isn’t about being early. It’s about being honest about where the work actually is.

I’m comfortable with people looking. I’m comfortable with it being incomplete. I’m comfortable saying, “This is close, but not finished.”

What I’m not interested in is rushing past that phase just to say it’s launched.

There will be a time to open the door wider. I’m not there yet.

But I’m close enough now that letting people see the shape of it feels like the right next step.