Misc Projects
I make small projects for all kinds of reasons: curiosity, practice, amusement, and occasionally to get someone’s attention.
Airbnb Cereal
When I applied to Airbnb some time ago, I wanted to stand out. To do that, I referenced Airbnb’s history. There’s a famous Silicon Valley story about the company’s founders selling cereal boxes to fund the startup. So why not send an actual cereal box instead of a résumé?
Typically, a cereal box has a fun character, a bowl featuring the product, the product name, of course, and the producer’s name. I put my own name there, styled like the Kellogg’s logo.
I couldn’t draw the character. All I can do is doodle. So I used AI for the image. It’s not my default choice, but back then it was kind of fresh.
Every product in the US has a nutrition label. I like how standardized it is, so I styled my résumé as one.
On the back, I added a cover letter inspired by Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Flour packaging (they have a letter from the founder on the back). You can often find a mini-game there too, like “connect the dots.” I liked those as a kid, so I added one.
Finally, if you take a real box apart, you always find little colorful squares—the color test used for printing. They fascinated me as a kid. You know what else fascinated me? The MS Paint color palette.
13 Signals Why
I made this website as part of my job application to 37signals. They asked for an 800-word motivational essay. Instead of sending plain text, I wanted to do something different.
The name “37signals” refers to 37 unidentified extraterrestrial signals that SETI researchers detected from deep space—potentially from intelligent alien life. As a sci-fi nerd, I find this pretty cool.
I wanted to reference the name, so I created a website called “13signalswhy.com”: thirteen “decoded” signals that signal why they should hire me. To get the complete message, you need to find all thirteen signals in the night sky. You can play with it at 13signalswhy.com (desktop only).
Claude Widget
When I was applying to Anthropic, I wanted to demonstrate my product thinking, visual design, and technical skills by adding features to the Claude mobile app. I replicated the original app’s chat interface in React, then added widgets that let users walk through a restaurant reservation flow using a simulated phone call.
My job application didn’t end with the app. I also recorded a video about myself, the app, and the process behind it. I wanted the video to feel as if it came from Anthropic, so I used a muted palette and worked their signature orange into small details: the painting, my T-shirt, and the timer. A subtly blurred Claude Code logo appears on the display behind me.
Booba World
Booba World is a joke website I created about my cat. You can visit it here: boobaworld.com.
Perfect Tenses
Perfect Tenses is a cheat-sheet tool I designed and developed as an exercise while learning React. It helps people learn and understand English tenses. Visit perfecttenses.com.