I graduated as a computer science engineer without ever building an app or a website

I graduated as a computer science engineer without ever building an app or a website

I loved using them. I had ideas for them. Procrastination won every semester.

Since last month, my favorite activity has been picking an open‑source project, adding the features I want with Claude Code, and using it every day. Here are three things I built that I now use daily:

1. Metro Stop Counter

I take the metro to commute to and from the office. During the ride I usually watch a YouTube or Netflix video, glancing up each minute to see if my stop has passed. In a packed coach, that can be genuinely hard.

So I built an iPhone and Apple Watch app with Claude Code that counts stops from the accelerometer (works underground where GPS dies), and the watch taps my wrist at my station.

2. VibeIsland

I run multiple Claude Code sessions at once and was alt-tabbing all day to check on them.

Then I saw VibeIsland selling online at $15 for lifetime access and figured Claude Fable 5 could build me one, so I gave it the inputs.

Now a notch sits above my screen showing what every session is doing, and I approve permissions right from it.

3. Menu bar to-dos

I often get reminded of personal todos while I’m on my work laptop, and work todos while I’m using my personal work machine.

To manage them, I created a menu‑bar to‑do list with separate work and personal sections, synced via iCloud. Each morning I spend about 30 minutes populating the list, and checking items off at night feels like a proper way to close the day.

All three came out of the last month. College me would not believe that.

What's the small daily annoyance you'd build an app for, if writing code wasn't the blocker?

#claudecode
#buildinpublic
#sideprojects
#ai