{"version":"https://jsonfeed.org/version/1.1","title":"Philip I. Thomas","home_page_url":"https://www.philipithomas.com","feed_url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/feed/feed.json","description":"Philip Thomas is an engineer in San Francisco who crafts digital tools.","authors":[{"name":"Philip I. Thomas","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com"}],"items":[{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2026-06","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2026-06","title":"What I'm up to - June 2026","summary":"My monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in May - Went to Oaxaca for vacation, which was a culturally rich and walkable place. I enjoyed a lot of ...","date_published":"2026-06-01T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/sagrado-filemon-cover.jpg","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2026-05","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2026-05","title":"What I'm up to - May 2026","summary":"My monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media:  What I did in April - Visited NYC briefly. Discovered a new cafe I like called WatchHouse - they even happened to be...","date_published":"2026-05-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/stripe-projects-launch","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/stripe-projects-launch","title":"Stripe Projects launches","summary":"Last month, I wrote Agent experience about the Stripe Projects beta and how developers must now treat AI as a first-class user of their products alongside humans. Today, Stripe Projects launched durin...","date_published":"2026-04-29T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/stripe-projects-launch-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2026-04","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2026-04","title":"What I'm up to - April 2026","summary":"My monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media:  What I did in March - Published Software in the AI era and updated my personal website. - Wrote Agent experience abo...","date_published":"2026-04-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/agent-experience","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/agent-experience","title":"Agent experience","summary":"As coding becomes solved by AI, developer tools need to be designed for agent users as much as human ones. \"Agent experience\" is a problem I have been focusing on at Chroma. The first step is legible ...","date_published":"2026-03-26T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/agent-experience-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/software-in-the-ai-era","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/software-in-the-ai-era","title":"Software in the AI era","summary":"On retiring the Contraption Company brand","date_published":"2026-03-20T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/software-in-the-ai-era.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/sync-phone-numbers-and-webhooks","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/sync-phone-numbers-and-webhooks","title":"Sync, phone numbers, and webhooks","summary":"A couple of weeks have passed since I last posted. If this were an email, it would start with \"Sorry for the slow response.\"  Sync A project I built just shipped at Chroma. I added Amazon S3 sync supp...","date_published":"2026-03-05T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/sync-phone-numbers-and-webhooks-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2026-03","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2026-03","title":"What I'm up to - March 2026","summary":"My monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media:  What I did in February - Published Three-ring binder and A fresh coat of paint on Contraption Co. - Launching a proj...","date_published":"2026-03-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/fresh-coat-of-paint","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/fresh-coat-of-paint","title":"A fresh coat of paint","summary":"Recently I have been watching documentaries by Gary Hustwit. It started with Rams, about the life of Dieter Rams. Next, Urbanized about city design. Then, Helvetica about the popular font. As I watche...","date_published":"2026-02-19T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/fresh-coat-of-paint-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/three-ring-binder","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/three-ring-binder","title":"Three-ring binder","summary":"When I was a kid, I would assemble binders with information about topics I was interested in. My favorite one was about airplanes and their specifications. I find that collecting information helps me ...","date_published":"2026-02-13T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/three-ring-binder-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/openclaw-is-my-new-coworker","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/openclaw-is-my-new-coworker","title":"OpenClaw is my new coworker","summary":"What happens when you give AI its own laptop","date_published":"2026-02-02T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/openclaw-is-my-new-coworker-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2026-02","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2026-02","title":"What I'm up to - February 2026","summary":"Here is my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.   What I did in January - Busy month at Chroma - including launching a case study with Mintlify who recently ...","date_published":"2026-02-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/code-as-content-and-digital-proprioception","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/code-as-content-and-digital-proprioception","title":"Code as content, digital proprioception, and what's next","summary":"I recently launched Trivet, and I've enjoyed seeing people install it on websites ranging from personal homepages to business blogs. Before AI, Trivet would have taken me a few weeks to build. Now, Co...","date_published":"2026-01-25T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/code-as-content-and-digital-proprioception-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/chroma-for-ruby","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/chroma-for-ruby","title":"Chroma for Ruby","summary":"Last week, I shared a personal project I built over the holidays - Trivet, which adds Google sign-in to Ghost. Here, I'm sharing a work-focused holiday project I built: an official Ruby client for Chr...","date_published":"2026-01-14T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/chroma-for-ruby-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/trivet-adds-google-sign-in-to-ghost","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/trivet-adds-google-sign-in-to-ghost","title":"Trivet adds Google sign-in to Ghost","summary":"A free, open-source project for blogs","date_published":"2026-01-03T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/trivet-adds-google-sign-in-to-ghost-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2026-01","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2026-01","title":"What I'm up to - January 2026","summary":"Here is my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in December - Visited Boulder - Launched a print edition of Contraption Company, which was a fun ...","date_published":"2026-01-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/tacit-knowledge-in-softwar","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/tacit-knowledge-in-softwar","title":"Outage, tacit knowledge, and a new project","summary":"Hello from Boulder, Colorado - where we've been dealing with power outages due to high wind. Alas, as I lost power in Boulder, my apartment in San Francisco also lost power. I knew because my Mac Mini...","date_published":"2025-12-24T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/tacit-knowledge-in-softwar-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/digital-gardening","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/digital-gardening","title":"Digital gardening","summary":"I've been thinking about gardens this week. It started while reading the book Shopkeeping, which had a section entitled \"Gardening\": > A good shopkeeper will notice if a wall or section is in a slump ...","date_published":"2025-12-16T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/digital-gardening-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/introducing-the-print-edition","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/introducing-the-print-edition","title":"Introducing the print edition","summary":"Contraption essays delivered by mail","date_published":"2025-12-10T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/introducing-the-print-edition-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/build-and-tinker","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/build-and-tinker","title":"Building less, tinkering more, and walking away sooner","summary":"I'm back from my vacation to Japan, slowly adjusting to California time. It was a fun and inspiring trip – I'm thinking about it now while listening to the Eric Dolphy album Out There on vinyl, which ...","date_published":"2025-12-05T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/build-and-tinker-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-12","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-12","title":"What I'm up to - December 2025","summary":"Here is my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in November - Just got back from a holiday in Tokyo and Hakone. I explored Ametora, noodles (tsuk...","date_published":"2025-12-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/disaster-recovery","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/disaster-recovery","title":"Disaster recovery","summary":"I'm headed off on holiday later this week. As the trip approached, I found myself thinking about how to best back up my Mac Mini home server. I've had an abnormal number of conversations about SOC 2 c...","date_published":"2025-11-19T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/disaster-recovery-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/snail-mail","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/snail-mail","title":"Snail mail","summary":"I’ve been getting back into analog media this year - reading paper books, listening to vinyl, subscribing to print magazines, even getting the Sunday New York Times. For some of the blogs I follow, su...","date_published":"2025-11-11T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/snail-mail-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/introducing-workshop","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/introducing-workshop","title":"Introducing Workshop","summary":"New newsletter about work in progress","date_published":"2025-11-01T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/introducing-workshop-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-11","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-11","title":"What I'm up to - November 2025","summary":"Here is my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in October - Published MCP and the future of AI, Introducing Workshop, Maintenance, Backup Plans,...","date_published":"2025-11-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/maintenance","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/maintenance","title":"Maintenance","summary":"I’m preparing to launch Workshop here as an independent newsletter within Contraption Company. I started it as an experiment, and I’m ready to graduate it from “experiment” to “project.” Before doing ...","date_published":"2025-10-30T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/maintenance-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/backup-plans","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/backup-plans","title":"Backup plans","summary":"I’ve always been fascinated by planes. A few years ago, I took an introductory class toward a private pilot’s license - and it was less fun than I expected. The plane pretty much flies itself; the pil...","date_published":"2025-10-28T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/backup-plans-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/git","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/git","title":"GitHub syncing","summary":"Something I worked on just launched: Chroma GitHub Sync. I love the mental model of businesses having a \"shadow business\" - a non-obvious skill they must master to achieve their main goal. My favorite...","date_published":"2025-10-23T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/git-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/mcp-and-the-future-of-ai","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/mcp-and-the-future-of-ai","title":"MCP and the future of AI","summary":"Toolmaking for LLMs","date_published":"2025-10-13T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/mcp-and-the-future-of-ai-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/hacking-yc-again","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/hacking-yc-again","title":"Hacking YC (again)","summary":"I like seeing how things work. Digitally, that often means keeping the network tab open to watch how websites talk to servers. Sometimes, I find mistakes. Last month, while browsing Y Combinator’s sof...","date_published":"2025-10-01T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/hacking-yc-again-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-10","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-10","title":"What I'm up to - October 2025","summary":"Here is my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in September - Spent Labor Day in Boulder - Went to Alchemy Springs Sauna in SF- I'm happy to see...","date_published":"2025-10-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-09","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-09","title":"What I'm up to - September 2025","summary":"Here is my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in last month - Launched Chroma Cloud - Had a quick trip to Colorado - Went on a first bike ride ...","date_published":"2025-09-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/taste-skill-gaps","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/taste-skill-gaps","title":"Taste-skill gaps","summary":"When I saw Craig Mod speak in San Francisco this summer, he mentioned an concept that stuck with me. I don’t remember his exact context, only that he was new to something and knew his work wasn’t good...","date_published":"2025-08-29T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/taste-skill-gaps-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/joys-of-self-hosting","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/joys-of-self-hosting","title":"The joys of self-hosting","summary":"When I checked my phone this morning, the first notification was that my home server \"Toolbox\" was down. Everything on it was offline - Postcard, Booklet, this blog, and more. I pulled out my laptop, ...","date_published":"2025-08-27T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/joys-of-self-hosting-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/claude-launching-and-tools","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/claude-launching-and-tools","title":"Claude, Launching, and Tools","summary":"For the last week, I’ve been leaning into Claude Code for development. I used to think of it as more of a hobbyist tool, rather than a professional one. Cursor had been the main way I used AI to write...","date_published":"2025-08-20T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/claude-launching-and-tools-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/adding-a-brain-to-my-toolbox","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/adding-a-brain-to-my-toolbox","title":"Adding a brain to my toolbox","summary":"One of my favorite projects has been using my Mac Mini as a home data center. It hosts this blog and all of my projects. After using cloud machines for decades, there's something tactile about maintai...","date_published":"2025-08-15T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/adding-a-brain-to-my-toolbox-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/rethink-chat","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/rethink-chat","title":"It's time to rethink chat","summary":"Today's chat tools feel dated. It's time for a startup to rethink them. Notion is an example of a team firing on all cylinders to become AI-native. But, no communication tools seem to have cracked AI....","date_published":"2025-08-14T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/rethink-chat-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/software-is-bread-not-burgers","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/software-is-bread-not-burgers","title":"Software is bread, not burgers","summary":"I was reading the book Richard Hart Bread last night when I came across this paragraph: > Absolute devotion to consistent methods and exact recipes is useful when you’re running a fast-food franchise ...","date_published":"2025-08-09T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/software-is-bread-not-burgers-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/my-favorite-tool-for-making-email-less-stressful","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/my-favorite-tool-for-making-email-less-stressful","title":"My favorite tool for making email less stressful","summary":"Email has become a to-do list—bills, questions, scheduling requests, expense reports, and more. Opening it can induce stress. Amid these tasks were email newsletters—long-form pieces I wanted to read....","date_published":"2025-08-05T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/my-favorite-tool-for-making-email-less-stressful-cover.JPG","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/workshop-welcome","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/workshop-welcome","title":"Welcome to Workshop","summary":"Welcome to a new project: a members-only newsletter experiment on Contraption Company called Workshop. So far this year, 98k people have read essays on this site\\1\\(fn1), and more than 4k subscribe to...","date_published":"2025-08-02T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/workshop-welcome-cover.jpg","tags":["workshop"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-08","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-08","title":"What I'm up to - August 2025","summary":"Here is my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in last month - Back to eating solid foods after my jaw surgery. - Playing with gpt-oss on my com...","date_published":"2025-08-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/postcard-open-source","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/postcard-open-source","title":"Postcard is now open source","summary":"Self-host a personal website + newsletter","date_published":"2025-07-03T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/postcard-open-source-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-07","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-07","title":"What I'm up to - July 2025","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in last month - I wrote a post about open-sourcing Postcard. The post got picked up by Hacker News...","date_published":"2025-07-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-06","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-06","title":"What I'm up to - June 2025","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in last month - On Contraption Company, I published An app of one's own about building a personal ...","date_published":"2025-06-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/app-of-ones-own","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/app-of-ones-own","title":"An app of one's own","summary":"Personal software for life automation","date_published":"2025-05-16T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/app-of-ones-own-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/chat-with-my-dog","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/chat-with-my-dog","title":"How I built a chatbot with my dog","summary":"Lessons for AI prompting and retrieval","date_published":"2025-05-09T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/chat-with-my-dog-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-05","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-05","title":"What I'm up to - May 2025","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in last month - \"I created a chatbot with my dog\" was a presentation I gave at a meetup. (Here's t...","date_published":"2025-05-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/how-to-host-web-apps-on-a-mac-mini","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/how-to-host-web-apps-on-a-mac-mini","title":"How to host web apps on a Mac Mini","summary":"Open-sourcing Toolbox, a framework for Mac-based home web servers","date_published":"2025-04-11T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/how-to-host-web-apps-on-a-mac-mini-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-04","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-04","title":"What I'm up to - April 2025","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in last month - I published How to host web apps on a Mac Mini, a follow-up to my piece A mini dat...","date_published":"2025-04-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/finding-a-software-jojb","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/finding-a-software-jojb","title":"What worked for finding a software engineering job","summary":"Retro on my recent job search","date_published":"2025-03-07T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/finding-a-software-jojb-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-03","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-03","title":"What I'm up to - March 2025","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in February - I published \"Why Ruby on Rails still matters\", and it went a little viral and was re...","date_published":"2025-03-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/rails-versus-nextjs","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/rails-versus-nextjs","title":"Why Ruby on Rails still matters","summary":"An old tool endures in a Next.js world","date_published":"2025-02-21T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/rails-versus-nextjs-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/a-mini-data-center","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/a-mini-data-center","title":"A mini data center","summary":"Hosting web apps on a Mac Mini","date_published":"2025-02-07T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/a-mini-data-center-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-02","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-02","title":"What I'm up to - February 2025","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in January - Moved to San Francisco 🌁 - Joined the engineering team at Chroma - Bought a record p...","date_published":"2025-02-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/chroma","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/chroma","title":"Joining Chroma","summary":"Building memory for AI applications","date_published":"2025-01-31T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/chroma-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/craft-in-the-digital-era","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/craft-in-the-digital-era","title":"Craft in the digital era","summary":"The next iteration of Contraption Company","date_published":"2025-01-24T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/craft-in-the-digital-era-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/lost-and-found","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/lost-and-found","title":"Lost and found","summary":"2024 recap + what's next","date_published":"2025-01-10T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/lost-and-found-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-01","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2025-01","title":"What I'm up to - January 2025","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in December - I'm amid some big life changes. I'm joining an AI startup in San Francisco, and movi...","date_published":"2025-01-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/archetypes-of-llm-apps","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/archetypes-of-llm-apps","title":"Archetypes of LLM apps","summary":"What businesses are actually doing with AI","date_published":"2024-11-22T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/archetypes-of-llm-apps-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/bts-find-api","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/bts-find-api","title":"Behind the scenes of the Find AI API","summary":"We recently released a Search API for Find AI, and announced its integration with Clay.com. APIs allow developers to interact with a product using code. There are many different ways to build an API, ...","date_published":"2024-11-14T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/bts-find-api-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-11","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-11","title":"What I'm up to - November 2024","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in September - Visited San Francisco and rode in my first Waymo - Launched Find AI on Clay.com, ou...","date_published":"2024-11-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/having-a-tj","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/having-a-tj","title":"Having a TJ","summary":"The importance of a passionate first customer","date_published":"2024-10-18T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/having-a-tj-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/distribution-vs-innovation","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/distribution-vs-innovation","title":"Innovation versus distribution","summary":"The race between startups and incumbents","date_published":"2024-10-11T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/distribution-vs-innovation-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/internal-tools-of-find-ai","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/internal-tools-of-find-ai","title":"Internal tools of Find AI","summary":"Technical presentation at an AI meetup","date_published":"2024-10-04T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/internal-tools-of-find-ai-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-10","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-10","title":"What I'm up to - October 2024","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in September - I've started publishing on Contraption Company every Friday. My posts last month: I...","date_published":"2024-10-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/wine-craft","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/wine-craft","title":"Wine craft","summary":"2024 harvest season in Alsace","date_published":"2024-09-27T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/wine-craft-cover.JPG","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/using-data-to-optimize-ai-apps","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/using-data-to-optimize-ai-apps","title":"How I use data to optimize AI apps","summary":"A video collaboration between Find AI and Velvet","date_published":"2024-09-24T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/using-data-to-optimize-ai-apps-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/is-fractional-work-the-future","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/is-fractional-work-the-future","title":"Is fractional work the future?","summary":"A conversation with Taylor Crane ","date_published":"2024-09-20T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/is-fractional-work-the-future-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/how-and-to-publish-an-indie-programming-book","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/how-and-to-publish-an-indie-programming-book","title":"How to self-publish a programming book","summary":"Ayush Newatia shares his  journey of making the Rails and Hotwire Codex","date_published":"2024-09-13T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/how-and-to-publish-an-indie-programming-book-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/the-next-iteration-of-contraption-company","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/the-next-iteration-of-contraption-company","title":"The next iteration of Contraption Company","summary":"From indiehacker back to venture-funded founder","date_published":"2024-09-06T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/the-next-iteration-of-contraption-company-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-09","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-09","title":"What I'm up to - September 2024","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in August Hello from a train somewhere in the French countryside. I just finished spending a few d...","date_published":"2024-09-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-08","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-08","title":"What I'm up to - August 2024","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.    What I did in late June + July - Been working hard on Find AI - rolling out lots of feature and updates, st...","date_published":"2024-08-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/tech-talent-agents","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/tech-talent-agents","title":"The opportunity of tech talent agents","summary":"With the shift to remote work, companies unlocked a global labor pool. Job posts began receiving hundreds of applications each. In the past months, AI tools accelerated this problem by enabling candid...","date_published":"2024-07-12T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/tech-talent-agents-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/almost-perfect","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/almost-perfect","title":"Before and after Almost Perfect","summary":"At the beginning of this year, I spent a couple of weeks at the Almost Perfect creative residence in Tokyo, run by Luis and Yuka. This week Luis and Yuka published a podcast we recorded during my resi...","date_published":"2024-07-08T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/almost-perfect-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-06","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-06","title":"What I'm up to - June 2024","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter (a couple of weeks late!) about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media. What I did in May  - Summer weather has hit NYC - it's great to be back outside - Pu...","date_published":"2024-06-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/code-a-booklet-ai-feature","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/code-a-booklet-ai-feature","title":"Coding a Booklet AI feature","summary":"This morning, I added a new feature to Booklet. I used OpenAI to suggest new posts to write, to make it easier for members to post. It looks like this: Inspired by a podcast I was listening to on the ...","date_published":"2024-05-30T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/code-a-booklet-ai-feature-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/creator-vs-software-businesses","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/creator-vs-software-businesses","title":"Talking shop with Ben Weiss","summary":"Today I'm publishing a podcast with Ben Weiss about creator versus software businesses. While a student at Northwestern University, Ben founded Zcruit - a software for college football recruiting. Aft...","date_published":"2024-05-07T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/creator-vs-software-businesses-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-05","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-05","title":"What I'm up to - May 2024","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media. What I did in April - Cat's out of the bag - the \"Shenanigans\" I referenced in March and April are revealed. I...","date_published":"2024-05-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-04","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-04","title":"What I'm up to - April 2024","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.      I'm a little late on the April edition, but better late than never. What I did in March - Spent some time...","date_published":"2024-04-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/how-i-build-multiple-products","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/how-i-build-multiple-products","title":"How I build multiple products","summary":"I recently joined the SaaS Growth Podcast to talk about Contraption Company, product studios, and building multiple products like Booklet and Postcard. I think the interview covered some interesting t...","date_published":"2024-03-21T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/how-i-build-multiple-products-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/talking-shop-aaron-cohn-realnice","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/talking-shop-aaron-cohn-realnice","title":"Talking shop with Aaron Cohn from realnice","summary":"Today I'm publishing an conversation I had with Aaron Cohn for the Contraption Company podcast. Aaron is the co-founder of realnice, a simple personal website builder. realnice competes with my produc...","date_published":"2024-03-04T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/talking-shop-aaron-cohn-realnice-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-03","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-03","title":"What I'm up to - March 2024","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media. What I did in February - Finished my residence at Almost Perfect in Tokyo. I gave a presentation Rethinking Wo...","date_published":"2024-03-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/rethinking-work-beyond-the-factory","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/rethinking-work-beyond-the-factory","title":"Rethinking work beyond the factory","summary":"I recently completed a two-week creative residence at Almost Perfect in Tokyo. I split my time on the trip between working on Booklet and exploring Japan. The Almost Perfect residence runs continuousl...","date_published":"2024-02-27T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/rethinking-work-beyond-the-factory-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-02","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-02","title":"What I'm up to - February 2024","summary":"Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in January - Hello from Tokyo! I'm here doing a creative residence at Almost Perfect. If you're in...","date_published":"2024-02-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/digital-product-studios","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/digital-product-studios","title":"Digital product studios","summary":"I describe Contraption Company as a digital product studio. Many people ask what that means. \"Is it a startup?\" (not exactly). \"Is it an agency?\" (ideally, no). \"Do you make apps to spin them out into...","date_published":"2024-01-28T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/digital-product-studios-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-01","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2024-01","title":"What I'm up to - January 2024","summary":"Happy New Year! Here's my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in December - Published updates to Booklet, including a design refresh, dynamic op...","date_published":"2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/digital-quiet","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/digital-quiet","title":"Digital quiet","summary":"In the peak years of Bay Area tech offices, open offices were all the rage. As companies expanded, a physical division emerged between departments. Sales and support teams thrived in a buzzing atmosph...","date_published":"2023-12-20T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/digital-quiet-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/engineering-over-enforcement","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/engineering-over-enforcement","title":"Engineering over enforcement","summary":"In my introductory physics class, we replicated calculations by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist after whom our department was named. After returning from the Manhattan Project, this professor became...","date_published":"2023-12-14T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/engineering-over-enforcement-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/community-media-companies","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/community-media-companies","title":"Community-powered media companies","summary":"On a recent Arvid Kahl podcast, Channing Allen described Indiehackers.com as a \"community-powered media company.\" It's been weeks since I listened to the episode, but that idea of a community-powered ...","date_published":"2023-12-07T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/community-media-companies-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/booklet-architecture","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/booklet-architecture","title":"Booklet's architecture","summary":"Booklet is a modern email group software from Contraption Company. Think \"Google Groups,\" but with a modern interface and features. If you haven't tried Booklet, here is a 3-minute video showing how i...","date_published":"2023-12-04T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/booklet-architecture-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-12","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-12","title":"What I'm up to - December 2023","summary":"This is my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in November - Started writing some essays about online work, dependability, tools, and craft on t...","date_published":"2023-12-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/indie-to-micro","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/indie-to-micro","title":"The transition from indiehacking to micro companies","summary":"With the launch of Indiehackers.com in 2016, a counter-culture of startups emerged seeking to build businesses without venture capital funding. The trend followed established independent companies suc...","date_published":"2023-11-17T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/indie-to-micro-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/one-year-of-dependable-software","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/one-year-of-dependable-software","title":"One year of dependable software","summary":"Today I'm introducing a new part of Contraption Company: Essays covering thoughts and opinions on online work, dependability, tools, and craft. My name is Philip, and I'm the founder and owner of Cont...","date_published":"2023-11-10T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/one-year-of-dependable-software-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-11","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-11","title":"What I'm up to - November 2023","summary":"This is my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  What I did in October - Switched my daily driver Aeropress coffee recipe to this one by Jonathan Gagné. It p...","date_published":"2023-11-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-10","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-10","title":"What I'm up to - October 2023","summary":"This is my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  ✨ What I was up to in September I launched Booklet, a forum as an alternative to chat. It's my attempt to ma...","date_published":"2023-10-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/launching-booklet","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/launching-booklet","title":"Launching Booklet","summary":"We now recognize the downsides of social media platforms. But, when we start work for the day, we plug into a firehose of messages not dissimilar from Facebook's News Feed. While sitting on a Zoom cal...","date_published":"2023-09-20T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/launching-booklet-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/introducing-frctnl","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/introducing-frctnl","title":"Introducing FRCTNL","summary":"With the recent tech downturn, there's been a clear shift. Instead of the previous \"growth-at-all-costs\" model, companies are now emphasizing efficiency. This is evident in hiring, as firms now seek e...","date_published":"2023-09-07T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/introducing-frctnl-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-09","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-09","title":"What I'm up to - September 2023","summary":"I'm Philip, and this is my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.  ✨ What I was up to in August - Launched FRCTNL, a community of fractional tech workers. - Co...","date_published":"2023-09-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-08","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-08","title":"What I'm up to - August 2023","summary":"I'm Philip, and this is my monthly newsletter about what I'm up to, which I send in place of social media.       ✨ What I was up to in July      Booklet is a product I've been building to help communi...","date_published":"2023-08-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-07","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-07","title":"What I'm up to - July 2023","summary":"✨ What I've been up to      We finished moving back to NYC last month. I made a quick stopover to Canada for Tailwind Connect, where I met some interesting people and  learned some new CSS techniques....","date_published":"2023-07-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-06","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-06","title":"What I'm up to - June 2023","summary":"✨ What I've been up to It's been a busy month at Contraption Company. I'm amid building a new product called Booklet, which I plan to launch this Summer. It's a community platform designed to be a cal...","date_published":"2023-06-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-05","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-05","title":"What I'm up to - May 2023","summary":"✨ What I've been up to April was a blur - I was in the Bay Area, NYC, and Cleveland. I'm looking forward to spending the next three weeks without travel.       I am currently immersed in the developme...","date_published":"2023-05-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-04","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-04","title":"What I'm up to - April 2023","summary":"✨ What I've been up to Wow, it's Q2 already!      I spent a couple of weeks in Paris last month, where I worked remotely and found some amazing coffee.       For Postcard - I rebuilt the post-writing ...","date_published":"2023-04-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/slow-travel","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/slow-travel","title":"Slow Travel in Paris: Discovering Substance Cafe","summary":"I just returned from two weeks of \"slow travel\" in Paris. Instead of visiting museums and attractions, \"slow travel\" consists of living my everyday life, but in a different city. My trip generally con...","date_published":"2023-03-25T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-03","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-03","title":"What I'm up to - March 2023","summary":"✨ What I've been up to      Part of my work at The Contraption Company includes helping startups develop new products. For the last six months, I've unintentionally been working almost exclusively wit...","date_published":"2023-03-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-02","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-02","title":"What I'm up to - February 2023","summary":"✨ What I've been up to      Hello from Cozumel, Mexico! It's 80° F here - a welcome break from the Chicago Winter.       Since last Summer, I've been taking a \"solo week\" trip every quarter as a creat...","date_published":"2023-02-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-01","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2023-01","title":"What I'm up to - January 2023","summary":"✨ Highlights of last month - Traveled to Hilton Head, Savannah, and Denver for the holidays - Had a couple of flights canceled by Southwest - Published \"Why I built Postcard: A calmer alternative to s...","date_published":"2023-01-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/how-to-replace-social-media-with-a-personal-newsletter","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/how-to-replace-social-media-with-a-personal-newsletter","title":"How to replace social media with a personal newsletter","summary":"Last week I shared how I'm building Postcard as a calmer alternative to social networks. I believe that personal newsletters will replace social networks like Twitter and Facebook as a dependable, per...","date_published":"2022-12-29T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/why-i-built-postcard-a-calmer-alternative-to-social-networks","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/why-i-built-postcard-a-calmer-alternative-to-social-networks","title":"Why I built Postcard: A calmer alternative to social networks","summary":"During the pandemic, I deleted most of my social media accounts. While social networks started as a great way to stay in touch - the websites evolved into addictive entertainment platforms. But I stil...","date_published":"2022-12-21T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2022-12","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2022-12","title":"What I'm up to - December 2022","summary":"✨ Highlights of last month - Launched Postcard. Had \\>15k visitors on the first day and hundreds of signups, which was more than I expected. Overall, a great start! - Did a smaller launch for The Cont...","date_published":"2022-12-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/launching-postcard","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/launching-postcard","title":"Launching Postcard","summary":"Today I'm launching Postcard, the easiest way to make a personal website. In 5 minutes, you can create a page that looks great on any device - with no coding or design skills required. Host it on your...","date_published":"2022-11-10T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/launching-postcard-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/introducing-contraption-co","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/introducing-contraption-co","title":"Introducing The Contraption Company","summary":"Today I'm introducing my new business, The Contraption Company - a product studio building dependable software tools for online work.  Slow growth makes steady progress In the past, I've built VC-back...","date_published":"2022-11-04T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/introducing-contraption-co-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2022-11","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2022-11","title":"What I'm up to - November 2022","summary":"✨ Highlights of last month - Enjoyed my time in NYC catching up with many people - Released some new features for Postcard - Got a new photo 🤔 Things worth sharing - Reading How to make great coffee ...","date_published":"2022-11-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2022-10","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2022-10","title":"What I'm up to - October 2022","summary":"✨ Highlights of last month - I spent a week in the Catskills and saw a wild bear for the first time 🐻 - Shipped an archive page, social sharing improvements, and a showcase of customer websites for P...","date_published":"2022-10-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/when-are-low-code-prototypes-useful-evaluating-startup-market-and-implementation-risks","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/when-are-low-code-prototypes-useful-evaluating-startup-market-and-implementation-risks","title":"When are low-code prototypes useful? Evaluating startup market and implementation risks","summary":"Ask for advice on how to make a startup, and most people recommend starting with a low-code prototype.       There are categories of businesses where low-code prototypes can help you de-risk a new ide...","date_published":"2022-09-14T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2022-09","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2022-09","title":"What I'm up to - September 2022","summary":"This is a monthly email about what I'm up to!      ✨ Highlights of last month - Had a relaxing, Walden-esque week in Mexico City, spent mostly in Parque México. I spent a lot of time reading - includi...","date_published":"2022-09-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2022-08","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2022-08","title":"What I'm up to - August 2022","summary":"This is a monthly email about what I'm up to!      ✨ Highlights of last month - Spent almost the entire month traveling. It was great to be back in LA and Denver for a bit. - For coffee on the road, I...","date_published":"2022-08-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2022-07","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2022-07","title":"What I'm up to - July 2022","summary":"This is a monthly email about what I'm up to!      ✨ Highlights of last month - Launched Made in Webflow, a project I've lead to redesign and rebuild a popular social site for Webflow creators - Seein...","date_published":"2022-07-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2022-06","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/2022-06","title":"What I'm up to - June 2022","summary":"I'm testing a monthly email about what I'm doing!      ✨ Highlights of last month - I finished the first version of Postcard, which is a personal website + mailing list tool I'm building.    (If you w...","date_published":"2022-06-01T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["postcard"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/sharing-a-project-i-built-postcard","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/sharing-a-project-i-built-postcard","title":"Sharing a project I built - Postcard","summary":"Over the last two years I've quit Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.  I replaced social media with newsletters and blogs as the ways I stay in touch. Not many people have blogs - so I built a bot to le...","date_published":"2022-05-19T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/advice-for-marketplace-startups","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/advice-for-marketplace-startups","title":"Advice for marketplace startups","summary":"Marketplace businesses connect buyers and sellers, and they typically make money by taking a cut of transactions. Some of today's largest companies are marketplaces, such as Amazon, Airbnb, and Uber. ...","date_published":"2021-05-11T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/moonlight-s-pitch-deck","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/moonlight-s-pitch-deck","title":"Moonlight's pitch deck","summary":"In 2017, I co-founded Moonlight as a professional community for software developers with Emma Lawler. We were both leaving San Francisco, and wanted to make it easier for all developers to find specia...","date_published":"2020-10-15T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/moonlight-s-pitch-deck-cover.png","tags":["contraption"]},{"id":"https://www.philipithomas.com/buyers-define-marketplaces","url":"https://www.philipithomas.com/buyers-define-marketplaces","title":"Buyers define marketplaces","summary":"A marketplace business connects buyers and sellers in exchange for a cut of the revenue. Some of today's biggest companies, such as Amazon, Uber, and Airbnb, are marketplaces. Yes, these companies cha...","date_published":"2020-06-07T00:00:00.000Z","image":"https://www.philipithomas.com/images/covers/buyers-define-marketplaces-cover.jpg","tags":["contraption"]}]}