Software Bonkers

By Craig Mod

The year is 2026, and I have reached a state of total obsession. I am software bonkers: my mind is an endless loop of architectural possibilities and digital tools.

I believe the boundaries of software should be knowable, and the relationship you have with your tools should be sane—which is to say, you should actually own them. For a long time, these convictions were just internal monologues. Then, I started building.

🐦 The "Ideal" Social Network

My introductory project with Claude Code was to reconstruct Twitter according to my own philosophy. I wanted a space that felt like the "Internet of Yore."

The Rules of the System:

• Ephemeral by Default: All posts vanish after 7 days.
• The "Life Support" Mechanic: You can prevent a post from disappearing by replying to it.
• Strict Rationing:
  • Maximum 2 posts per day.
  • Maximum 20 replies per day (to prioritize quality discussion).
• Visual Constraint: Images render in 1-bit black and white; they only transition to full color or grayscale upon being clicked.
• Pure Feed: No algorithms. Just a simple, reverse-chronological stream.

This experiment became a sanctuary for my membership community, where we focus on being inspiring and kind to one another.

🛠️ Custom Infrastructure

I’ve avoided the "platform trap" of Patreon or Substack. Instead, I constructed my own ecosystem on top of Memberful.

"Why pay a monthly fee to a corporation only to be limited by their vision of how your program should function?"

Over the last few years, I've incrementally added features to this site. Recently, using Claude Code, I developed:

1. Auto-Chaptering: A tool that generates granular timestamps for my members-only livestream Q&As.
2. Video Indexing: A searchable archive of roughly 40 hours of video. When a member clicks a specific question, the player jumps to the exact millisecond of the answer.

I also build "micro-utilities" for daily use—things like a script that appends my clipboard to a file called notapieceofshit.txt (where I store kind words from others) or rapid currency converters.

💰 The Accounting Masterpiece

The peak of my "bonkers" phase occurred during a recent tax season jag. My financial life is a chaotic, international puzzle:

• Income Streams: Book royalties from Random House (via a NY agent), direct sales via Shopify, and my membership program.
• Banking: Multiple accounts across different countries.
• Payments: A mix of credit cards and Japanese bank wires.
• Compliance: I must reconcile sales by country for my Japanese accountant because I am technically an exporter of physical books.

Off-the-shelf software was useless. So, I built my own.

The New Stack vs. The Old Way

The logic for my currency conversions is now handled programmatically: $\text{Total Value} = \sum (\text{Transaction Amount} \times \text{Historical Rate}_{date})$

Technical Implementation

The system is built on a surprisingly simple foundation:

# The Core Stack
Framework = "Flask"
Language = "Python"
Database = "SQLite"

The power isn't in a "reinvention of the wheel," but in how these simple pieces are assembled. I own the data and the code. If a bug appears, I spend a few dollars on Claude to help me patch it.

🧠 Reflection: From Scarcity to Clarity

I am, admittedly, a "dork" with a CS degree and an obsessive streak. My financial situation is so specific that almost no one else shares it, making custom software the only logical path.

Growing up with a sense of extreme scarcity, I've carried that pathology into adulthood. This software is a transmutation of that anxiety—turning a fear of the unknown into a "honkin' dashboard" of absolute financial truth, from the 30,000-foot view down to the micron.

Maybe we should short every SaaS company on the market. (Though, realistically, new ones will just rise to take their place).

Current Status:

• Build Accounting Engine
• Cancel Quicken Subscription
• Expand "TaxBot2000" capabilities
• Further demystify financial flows

We are currently in the "dorks-only" era of AI-assisted coding, but the horizon is expanding. It's only getting easier to build the tools we actually need.