Hello, world!

The start of something great (hopefully)...

Hi, thanks for stopping by. I’m not a writer by trade, so please excuse any grammatical issues, rambling sentences, or half-finished thoughts. You’re in an AI-free zone; as such, I won’t be using it for double-checking the aforementioned issues. I aim to provide a temporary safe space from all the AI noise we’re constantly surrounded by these days.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-AI. Quite the contrary - it can be a fantastic tool. It’s boosted productivity ten-fold at my work. It’s saving lives in healthcare[1][2]. It’s solving previously unsolvable problems[3][4]. It’s making technology more accessible[5].

But, unfortunately, all good things come with a cost. It’s making us lazy[6] (obligatory WALL-E reference). It’s proven to contribute to burnout among SWEs[7][8]. It’s increasingly purported to be atrophying critical thinking and basic skills[9][10]. Plus, there’s the environmental cost[11][12][13]. Not to mention dead internet theory[14]…

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Anyway, this isn’t supposed to be an AI rant. I could dedicate an entire post to the pros and cons of AI and my personal experience with it. I’ll move onto the purpose of this article (and blog) - accountability and self-improvement (sprinkled with a bit of human touch).

Introducing… Read The Fucking Manual (RTFM)[15] - a series of projects I’ll be undertaking in a language I haven’t used before (Rust), whereby I use nothing but my own brain, official documentation, and standardised specs (e.g. ISO[16], RFC[17]) to implement technologies entirely from scratch.

It’s nothing ground-breaking, but I figured it’s a nice way to take a break from the onslaught of AI chatter, whilst keeping my brain engaged and getting the satisfaction of achieving something worthwhile. RTFM is purely a passion project, a way to stay sharp outside of work.

I almost have a strange sense of nostalgia for the pre-AI days; working away at problems vigilantly, scrolling StackOverflow (R.I.P[18]), pulling my hair out when things suddenly stop working, and the overwhelming dopamine hit when I finally fix it. This dopamine rush is something I honestly haven’t felt for some time now, and I intend to re-ignite that feeling with each RTFM project I undertake.

So, my first project in RTFM: QR codes! I chose this because it’s a concept familiar to everybody, yet I couldn’t tell you how it really works beyond the basics. Maybe you’ll learn something new as well.

Rust is entirely new to me, and as such, comes with new mental models and concepts to learn. I understand I’m starting with a basic project, but as time goes on, I’ll move onto more challenging, exciting projects. I’m also open to any project suggestions you may have.

For now, watch this space - I should have my first project posted in the near future…

Hold me accountable!

References

  1. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/news/2024/can-artificial-intelligence-help-save-lives ↩

  2. https://southcarolina.himss.org/node/293195 ↩

  3. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/12/14/1085318/google-deepmind-large-language-model-solve-unsolvable-math-problem-cap-set/ ↩

  4. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ai-just-solved-an-80-year-old-erdos-problem-and-mathematicians-are-amazed/ ↩

  5. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-life-hacks/everyday-ai/ai-for-accessibility ↩

  6. https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.08872 ↩

  7. https://afterburnout.co/p/ai-promised-to-make-us-more-efficient ↩

  8. https://www.sei.cmu.edu/blog/addressing-the-detrimental-effects-of-context-switching-with-devops/ ↩

  9. https://larsfaye.com/articles/agentic-coding-is-a-trap ↩

  10. https://www.404media.co/software-developers-say-ai-is-rotting-their-brains/ ↩

  11. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2025/11/roadmap-shows-environmental-impact-ai-data-center-boom ↩

  12. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/13/ai-datacentres-environmental-impacts ↩

  13. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/musks-ai-power-plant-generates-sound-fury-mississippi-rcna258594 ↩

  14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Internet_theory ↩

  15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RTFM ↩

  16. https://www.iso.org/home.html ↩

  17. https://www.rfc-editor.org/ ↩

  18. https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-134 ↩