Have we all become tech fetishists now?
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22
Nov
What I Learned at SMU's Legal Database Launch (And My Decision About zeeker.sg)
After 150+ hours building data.zeeker.sg, I attended SMU's SOLID database launch to see institutional legal data infrastructure in action. I applied my decision framework and made my choice: I'm continuing. Here's what I learned about when solo builders should persist alongside institutions.
9 min read
14
Nov
Building data.zeeker.sg: Technical Architecture
The complete technical stack behind Singapore's first public legal news API: zeeker CLI standardizes data collection, Datasette serves SQLite straight from S3, and canned queries make legal research accessible without SQL. Built solo, runs on $6-12/month, designed to scale from 1 to many sources.
21 min read
10
Nov
When Institutions Enter Your Passion Project Space
Domain renewal: $110. But the real cost is over 150 hours and zero users. Now SMU is building what I tried solo. Here's my framework for deciding: continue, collaborate, or gracefully close.
7 min read
27
Oct
What Top 10% Actually Means (For a Lawyer Who Codes)
177K monthly downloads. Top 10% of 700K packages. Zero revenue, one maintainer, weekend work. Here's what "success" actually means for open source maintainers—and what I'd tell anyone considering building their own tools.
5 min read
21
Oct
Why Prompt Engineering Felt Wrong (And What Skills Changed)
I sat in a standing-room-only prompt engineering workshop feeling anxious—not because I was behind, but because I don't use any of these frameworks. Turns out my instinct was right. That same month, the technology shifted from prompts to persistent agent skills
4 min read