At first it was interesting mostly as a tool. Another AI agent, another interface, another way to ask models to do things.<\/p>\n
I've tried Openclaw, Nanoclaw and many others.\nBut none of them clicked with me.\nI couldn't do anything really useful with it.<\/p>\n
But recently I've realised how useful it can be when I asked it to help me with some maintenance and updates on my Raspberry Pi server, where I run several apps, including Immich.<\/p>\n
Recently I asked Hermes to help me back up all my photos from Immich to a storage box and then help me update Immich to version 3.\nThat is not a toy task.\nThat is my real data, my real server and something I did not want to mess up.<\/p>\n
And it worked amazingly, surprisingly, well.\nWith no hiccups, nothing wrong.\nOf course, I also felt safer because it could stay with me through the whole process.\nChecking things.\nPreparing steps.\nWatching long-running tasks.\nHelping me think about risk before doing anything dangerous.\nThat was the moment where Hermes stopped feeling like a demo and started feeling like something I could actually rely on.<\/p>\n
I've mostly used it with Codex.\nBut I've also used it with local LLMs and occasionally with other models through OpenRouter.\nWhat matters less to me is the exact model and more that Hermes gives me a practical way to work with them.\nIt lets me bring the same kind of help into different parts of my digital life.<\/p>\n
I've also used Hermes for software and infrastructure work.\nTo build things for Town Square and my personal website, but also to help with operational work around them.\nDeploying to the Hetzner server, investigating issues and checking what is happening directly on live data.<\/p>\n
Another important aspect is writing, notes and authorship.\nHermes sometimes review my blog posts and point out weak or confusing parts.\nIt also has access to my Obsidian vault with my personal notes, planning, projects, etc.<\/p>\n
But controlled authorship is an important point.<\/p>\n
I still do 90% of the changes in my notes myself.\nI do not want an AI silently rewriting my thoughts and mixing its voice with mine.\nBut sometimes I do ask Hermes to change a few things.\nMaybe clean up grammar.\nMaybe reorganize a paragraph.\nMaybe review a draft and tell me where the weak points are.<\/p>\n
Whenever it touches a note, it adds the tag I've been thinking that maybe this should have more levels in the future.\nNot just one tag, but maybe two or three.\nOne for small grammar fixes.\nAnother for suggestions or review.\nMaybe another for cases where the AI had a more substantial co-authoring role.\nI have not defined those tags yet.\nBut that is the direction I want to go.\nNot all AI help is the same and I think it is useful to make those differences visible.<\/p>\n That is probably the main thing I like about using Hermes.\nIt is not just automation, it is negotiated collaboration.\nI decide where I want help and how much.\nAnd I can keep a clear line between my thinking and the machine's contribution.<\/p>\n So for me, Hermes became real not when it wrote text or generated code.\nIt became real when I trusted it with things that mattered and when I found a way to include it in my workflow without giving up authorship.<\/p>\n That balance is what makes it useful.\nNot full automation, no blind trust.\nJust a very practical kind of collaboration.<\/p>","category":{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}}},{"title":"Coding on the Beach","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/blog\/coding-on-the-beach\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed","rel":"alternate"}},"published":"2026-06-30T20:49:00+01:00","updated":"2026-06-30T20:49:00+01:00","author":{"name":"Cau\u00ea Napier"},"id":"tag:cauenapier.com,2026-06-30:\/blog\/coding-on-the-beach\/","summary":" A reflection on coding from the beach in Algarve and whether making things on vacation can still count as rest.<\/p>","content":" Last week I was in Algarve, in the south of Portugal and I've been coding from the beach.\nI know. Very nerd.<\/p>\n Part of me keeps judging it. What am I doing? Is this too much? Am I failing at resting properly? Why can't I just disconnect like a normal person?<\/p>\n But then I also wonder... how different is it really from reading a book? In some ways it feels better. I'm not just consuming. I'm making things, exploring ideas, following curiosities.<\/p>\n Whenever the girls go into a store, I open the terminal and start vibe coding.\nUsing Termux on Android, SSHing into my Hetzner server.<\/p>\n It is awkward enough that the whole thing becomes a little funny. Typing on a phone is already bad, but in Termux autocorrect doesn't work, so I end up sending the agent these broken, typo-filled little texts that would be almost unintelligible to a normal human being.<\/p>\n Later I remembered I could just use remote control with Claude, since I was already connected through Tailscale. That made typing much easier.<\/p>\n The battery also doesn't last the whole day. So even this very nerdy setup comes with a natural limit. At some point the phone is dying, the sun is reflecting on the screen and the ocean is right there.<\/p>\n So I keep asking myself: am I hurting myself by not disconnecting?<\/p>\n I don't think resting always means doing nothing. A lot of the time it just means changing the kind of activity, the pace, the context, the pressure.<\/p>\n There is a difference between sitting in the same chair, under the same roof, staring at the same machine because you have to and standing near the beach with a phone in your hand, poking at ideas because you feel like it. There is a difference between obligation and play.<\/p>\n That doesn't mean the question goes away. I still don't fully know at what point something enjoyable quietly turns into compulsion. At what point \"I'm just having fun\" becomes another way of never really stopping. Because I know that my brain never really stops.<\/p>\n But at least right now, it does feel recharging.<\/p>\n Maybe not in the pure, empty-headed sense people usually imagine when they talk about rest. Not total silence, not full disconnection, not the idealized version of vacation where your brain completely powers down. But still recharging in its own way.<\/p>\n I am having fun. I can stop at any time. I can look up, put the phone away and go into the water.<\/p>\n Maybe that is the real test.<\/p>\n Not whether I touched a terminal on vacation, but whether the thing still feels light. Whether I am choosing it freely. Whether I can leave it behind for the ocean without resistance.<\/p>","category":{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}}},{"title":"A Good Product Is Hard to Outgrow","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/blog\/a-good-product-is-hard-to-outgrow\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed","rel":"alternate"}},"published":"2026-06-26T14:23:00+01:00","updated":"2026-06-26T14:23:00+01:00","author":{"name":"Cau\u00ea Napier"},"id":"tag:cauenapier.com,2026-06-26:\/blog\/a-good-product-is-hard-to-outgrow\/","summary":" Great tools stay approachable at the beginning, but reveal deeper capability as users grow into them.<\/p>","content":" At first glance, it is strange that Excel survived for decades.<\/p>\n It is visually primitive. A blank grid of cells. No obvious workflow. No onboarding. Nothing about it suggests that investment banks use it to build billion-dollar financial models or that entire companies run on top of it.<\/p>\n Yet they do.<\/p>\n Why did this tool survive while newer, more polished and highly capable products struggled to replace it? How can complex analysis happen inside the same tool that a child can use within minutes?<\/p>\n Very few tools operate comfortably across such a wide spectrum of users.<\/p>\n Beginners see cells and tables.<\/p>\n Intermediate users see formulas.<\/p>\n Advanced users see workflows, automation and interconnected systems.<\/p>\n Experts see infrastructure.<\/p>\n The interface remains largely the same, but the user's understanding of it changes dramatically.<\/p>\n That is one of the most remarkable qualities of great software. The best tools do not merely stay useful. They reveal deeper layers as users grow into them.<\/p>\n Most software struggles with this balance.<\/p>\n Tools designed for beginners are often easy to learn but quickly become restrictive. As users become more experienced, their needs become more sophisticated and the tool that once felt empowering begins to feel limiting.<\/p>\n More advanced software tends to solve this problem by exposing every capability upfront. The result is often the opposite problem: overwhelming complexity. New users are confronted with dozens of features they do not yet need and cannot yet understand.<\/p>\n Few products manage to remain approachable while continuing to expand alongside their users.<\/p>\n A useful tool should feel rewarding early, while still leaving room for deeper capability over time.<\/em><\/p>\n Excel does.<\/p>\n The reason tools like Excel scale so well is not that they expose all their power immediately. They do almost the opposite.<\/p>\n Great products do not overwhelm users with capability. They reveal it gradually.<\/p>\n The first useful action in Excel is obvious: click a cell and start typing. Within minutes, a user can create a table and organize information. The software becomes useful long before the user understands its full capabilities.<\/p>\n The complexity is not removed. It is staged.<\/p>\n A beginner can ignore formulas entirely. Later, formulas become useful when repetitive calculations appear. As datasets grow, filters and pivot tables become relevant. As workflows become more sophisticated, automation, scripting and integrations become valuable.<\/p>\n Each layer becomes meaningful only after the previous one has become familiar.<\/p>\n The user is not forced to learn everything upfront. Instead, the software grows alongside their ambitions.<\/p>\n Most tools are abandoned for one of two reasons.<\/p>\n Some are too complicated to learn. Users never make it past the initial friction.<\/p>\n Others are too simple. They solve an immediate problem but eventually become limiting as the user's needs evolve.<\/p>\n The first type fails because it asks too much too soon.<\/p>\n The second fails because it has nowhere left to grow.<\/p>\n Users outgrow these products because they eventually encounter a problem the tool was never designed to solve and there is no clear path to adapt the tool to solve it. At that point, they migrate.<\/p>\n The tool becomes a stepping stone.<\/p>\n Excel rarely becomes a stepping stone.\nIt provides a core set of functionalities that gives it incredible flexibility.<\/p>\n One reason is that it makes surprisingly few assumptions about how work should be done. It does not force users into a predefined workflow. It provides primitives: cells, rows, columns, formulas and references.<\/p>\n From these simple building blocks, users create budgeting systems, financial models, inventory management systems, project trackers, forecasts, dashboards and workflows that the original designers could never have predicted.<\/p>\n The software remains relevant because users can continuously adapt it to new problems.<\/p>\n As their needs grow, the tool remains flexible enough to grow with them.<\/p>\n This pattern appears in many enduring products.<\/p>\n Obsidian begins as a simple note-taking application. Over time, users discover links, graph views, queries, plugins and entirely new ways of organizing knowledge.<\/p>\n Figma begins as a canvas for designing interfaces. Later it becomes a design system, a collaboration platform and a foundation for organizational workflows.<\/p>\n These tools share an important characteristic.<\/p>\n They provide building blocks rather than rigid processes.<\/p>\n They allow beginners to accomplish something useful immediately while leaving room for advanced users to construct entirely different systems on top of the same foundation.<\/p>\n The complexity is available, but it is not imposed.<\/p>\n That distinction matters.<\/p>\n Many products achieve simplicity by removing power. They become easy to learn but easy to outgrow.<\/p>\n Others pursue power by exposing every capability immediately, making them difficult to approach.<\/p>\n The best products take a different path.<\/p>\n They preserve complexity without demanding it.<\/p>\n They provide depth without overwhelming users.<\/p>\n They allow beginners to ignore complexity while giving advanced users room to explore it.<\/p>\n They do not merely reduce friction.<\/p>\n They create a path for growth.<\/p>\n And that may be one of the defining characteristics of software that endures.<\/p>","category":{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}}},{"title":"Mom, I made it to HN front page","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/blog\/mom-i-made-it-to-hn-front-page\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed","rel":"alternate"}},"published":"2026-06-23T00:00:00+01:00","updated":"2026-06-23T00:00:00+01:00","author":{"name":"Cau\u00ea Napier"},"id":"tag:cauenapier.com,2026-06-23:\/blog\/mom-i-made-it-to-hn-front-page\/","summary":" Townsquare made it to the Hacker News front page, chaos followed and the best part was seeing how much people genuinely enjoyed being together there.<\/p>","content":" This weekend Townsquare made it to the Hacker News front page<\/a>.<\/p>\n I had posted it on Friday, but it didn\u2019t make much noise at first. Then I went to Rock in Rio Lisbon and mostly forgot about it for a while.<\/p>\n On the way back home, around 3am, I saw an email from Hacker News moderation. They had liked the idea and moved the post into the second-chance pool, which meant it would get another shot on the front page.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when things got wild.<\/p>\n I was checking everything on the way home: visitor numbers, server health, messages. When I opened the Townsquare landing page, the square was packed. There were people everywhere.<\/p>\n Part of me was happy and part of me was a little sad that I had missed the beginning of it. By then the post had already been popular for a couple of hours and there were lots of comments I hadn\u2019t answered.<\/p>\n Still, I don\u2019t regret it. I was with my girlfriend and sometimes real life should win.<\/p>\n At some point I called my mom and told her I had made it to the Hacker News front page. It felt a bit silly to care that much, but I did. It was one of those small internet milestones I had imagined for years and never really expected to hit.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t take long for people to start testing the system. Some were curious in a good way. Some were just trying to break things. We got the usual chaos, including bots and a weird synchronized chant of every possible variation of one very stupid word.<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t react fast enough and that part bothered me. The people who might actually have liked the idea were seeing Townsquare at one of its messiest moments.<\/p>\n But even with that, something good was happening.<\/p>\n More Townsquares got verified. More sites joined. The map<\/a> is growing. People sent me coffees. I started reading the comments and messages and realized the project had landed with some people in exactly the way I had hoped.<\/p>\n I also started a series called Town Highlights, where I can share interesting sites I find through Townsquare and talk to their owners. Check out the first highlight with Low Sound<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is the first project I\u2019ve made that got this kind of attention and it is probably the silliest one too.<\/p>\n It is simple. It is not productive. It is not complex. It is not driven by algorithms. It does not make you the product.<\/p>\n I think that is exactly why it connects.<\/p>\n Townsquare touches something very basic: human connection, warmth and the pleasure of finding someone else in a strange little corner of the internet.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know if it will keep growing. I don\u2019t know how long people will keep using it. But as long as there is even one person walking around my site, smiling while jumping with a silly stick character and having an interesting conversation with a stranger, I\u2019ll keep building it.<\/p>","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Making"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Internet"}}]},{"title":"Town Square, the community deserves connection","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/blog\/town-square-the-community-deserves-connection\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed","rel":"alternate"}},"published":"2026-06-19T21:17:00+01:00","updated":"2026-06-19T21:17:00+01:00","author":{"name":"Cau\u00ea Napier"},"id":"tag:cauenapier.com,2026-06-19:\/blog\/town-square-the-community-deserves-connection\/","summary":" A short update on Town Square after launch: the map is live, new features keep emerging from people enjoying it and the best part has been seeing how much the community cares.<\/p>","content":" So many things happened since the first day<\/a> I released Town Square<\/a>.<\/p>\n I have been shipping a lot because people were genuinely having fun with it and naturally started imagining what else would make it even better.\nThey were not just asking for features.\nThey were playing with it, enjoying it and saying things like how nice it would be if Town Square had this or that.<\/p>\n There is now more room for people to make their own square feel like their own.\nYou can customize colors, change the number of props and play with different locations.\nI have also been slowly improving mobile.\nThat part is still hard, but it has been an interesting challenge.<\/p>\n I also made a proper landing page<\/a> for Town Square.\nUntil now, it was mostly something you had to stumble into or hear about from someone else.\nNow there is a clearer front door.\nA place where people can immediately understand what Town Square is, see it live and get a feel for the project.\nThat felt important too.\nIt makes the whole thing feel more real.<\/p>\n The biggest new thing is the Town Square map.\nYou can check the live map here<\/a><\/p>\n I also built a map editor, so I can draw trees, mountains and lakes.\nThat part was especially fun.<\/p>\n If you want the running list of changes, I have been updating the Changelog<\/a><\/p>\n And I also set up a Town Square Blog<\/a><\/p>\n I will be posting updates there as the project keeps growing.<\/p>\n I also want to leave a big thanks to Kev<\/a>, Frank<\/a> and Emile<\/a> for sending me a coffee<\/a> and contributing to the project.\nThat genuinely gave me a lot of energy to keep going.<\/p>\n But what stayed with me even more were the emails.\nDozens of kind messages.\nAppreciation.\nLove.\nPeople taking the time to say that this tiny thing on the internet meant something to them.<\/p>\n That is the part I keep coming back to.<\/p>\n Town Square is made with love for the community.\nAnd I think the community deserves more spaces for simple connection.\nNot another giant platform.\nJust small places that feel alive again.<\/p>\n Thanks you so much! \u2764\ufe0f\n It has been two days since I posted about the release of Town Square<\/a> and I thought it would be nice to write a quick report.<\/p>\n My post got automatically posted on Bubbles and I shared it on Hacker News.\nSomeone also posted it on Lobste.rs, which I had never heard of before.\nLater it got posted on some other sites I don\u2019t even know.\nAll of that generated a big traffic spike.\nLots of people visited the site and explored the town square at the bottom.<\/p>\n Things got crowded quickly, but it was fun.\nPeople started talking, walking around.\nJust figuring things out.<\/p>\n People understood it very quickly and soon started asking for features.\nThe most requested feature was jumping.\nBirds came second.\nI added both in less then an hour or two and it was fun to see how quickly people started playing with them.\nSomeone said:<\/p>\n \"it's fun to chase the birds\"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n While running around and making birds fly.\nA lot of people were just jumping around and enjoying it.<\/p>\n We also noticed quickly that the mobile experience is not great yet.\nSo I already started working on that.<\/p>\n Sunday morning I had a wonderful surprise.\nSomeone sent me 5 euros through the \"Buy my a coffee\" button on my site.\nIt was such a good way to wake up!\nIt is not really about the money.\nIt is about the signal.\nIt is about someone making that extra effort to say, in a very direct way, that this meant something to them.\nAnd that means a lot to me.<\/p>\n I can finally cross this item off my Impossible List1<\/a><\/sup>:<\/p>\n I have been following the messages and having a blast reading the comments.\nI've received several emails from people just thanking me about it.\nSome of the comments in my site's Town Square were also very sweet.\nThings like:<\/p>\n Of course, there were also some people being disrespectful for a while.\nSome racist nonsense and that kind of thing.\nBut I think the best response, in this case, is just to ignore it.<\/p>\n And humans being humans, people also spent an unexpected amount of time talking about farting.<\/p>\n Obviously, bots showed up too.\nSomeone made a group of bots that ran around, talking and jumping.\nAt one point they were all synchronized.\nIt felt like the middle of a wedding party, with drunk people doing a train dance.<\/p>\n The idea behind Town Square was always about community.\nSo getting this kind of response from people made me really happy.\n More than the traffic or the feature requests, I loved seeing people having fun together.\nThat was the best part.\nFor example, one person said they were about to go into a job interview and three other people just wished them good luck. \n So far, 31 sites have registered on my hosted instance of Town Square, but just 11 of them are already verified.\nA big shout out to the sites that already connected and verified themselves. Thank you for joining in:<\/p>\n I will soon be creating a map of all these sites and hopefully start connecting those town squares.\nI also want to make Town Square more open over time, so people can create their own props and build interesting things around the map and the wider world.<\/p>\n https:\/\/impossiblehq.com\/impossible-list\/ ↩<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Making"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Internet"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Town Square"}}]},{"title":"Turn your site into a place people can bump into each other","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/blog\/townsquare_release\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed","rel":"alternate"}},"published":"2026-06-12T17:30:00+01:00","updated":"2026-06-12T17:30:00+01:00","author":{"name":"Cau\u00ea Napier"},"id":"tag:cauenapier.com,2026-06-12:\/blog\/townsquare_release\/","summary":" Releasing Town Square. Bring back the feeling that real people are browsing your site with you.<\/p>","content":" A few weeks ago, I added a silly, funny experiment on this website. \nI talked about it on this blog post<\/a>. \nIt was a tiny Town Square at the bottom of every page 2<\/a><\/sup>.<\/p>\n When you visit the site, you'll see a small strip populated by stick figures. \nEach figure represents another visitor currently browsing the website. \nYou can see what page people are reading, walk around and send messages. \nFor example, you could see someone reading the same article as you and start a discussion about it.<\/p>\n The goal wasn't to build another social network.<\/p>\n It was to bring back a small feeling that the web used to have: the sense that there are actual people on the other side of the screen.<\/p>\n Town Square is intentionally tiny and forgetful. \nThere are no accounts, no profiles, no follower counts, no permanent chat history. \nMessages exist only while people are there to read them.<\/p>\n After several people asked me how they could add this to their own websites, I decided to open source it and provide a public server, so anyone can easily integrate Town Square into their site with no self-hosting required.\nI hope it encourages a few more websites to feel like places instead of pages.<\/p>\n If you would like to host it yourself, fork it or contribute with the project, the repo is https:\/\/github.com\/cauenapier\/TownSquare\/<\/a><\/p>\n If you don't want to (or don't know how to) host it yourself, you can register your website on Town Square<\/a>.<\/p>\n I have a lot of ideas for what I could to next. It has been a fun, relaxing, small project so far. <\/p>\n Like adding more props for the characters to interact and improving overal user experience on the chat feature.\nBut I'm also very excited about the idea of implementing the functionality to connect your TownSquare with another website, like a neighbour.\nYou would walk to the edge of the site and transport to the neighbour website, creating a network of townsquares.\nLike a Webring<\/a> 1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n If you like the idea and have requests, changes, or ideas for what Town Square could become, send me an email<\/a>. I'd genuinely love to hear from you.<\/p>\n Or the Indie Webring<\/a>, as I have in the bottom of my page. ↩<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Check it at the bottom of this page. ↩<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Making"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Internet"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Town Square"}}]},{"title":"Aphantasia and the Other Senses of the Mind","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/blog\/inner_mind_senses\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed","rel":"alternate"}},"published":"2026-06-05T00:00:00+01:00","updated":"2026-06-05T00:00:00+01:00","author":{"name":"Cau\u00ea Napier"},"id":"tag:cauenapier.com,2026-06-05:\/blog\/inner_mind_senses\/","summary":" A personal reflection on aphantasia, the \u201cother senses of the mind,\u201d and what it means to remember without seeing. The post explores inner speech, memory, sensory imagination and the unsettling possibility that different minds may experience absence, attachment and recollection in very different ways.<\/p>","content":" The other night, very late, just before sleep, I was talking with my girlfriend and somehow mentioned that I have aphantasia.\nShe didn\u2019t remember what it was, so I explained it.\nThe conversation changed when I told Bia that I cannot see my late grandmother\u2019s face in my mind.\nShe got sad immediately.\nNot in a dramatic way, just genuinely sad for me, because for her the face of someone she loves is something she can call up internally, almost as if it were still there.\nI can't do that.\nOr at least not as vividly as she describes her own mental image.<\/p>\n Until then I had treated aphantasia as a curious fact about myself, not as something that might change the texture of memory, absence and love.\nNot as something that might have shaped my way of thinking, my personality, or even some of my skills.<\/p>\n If you have never heard of aphantasia, or of the \"mind's eye,\" try the following exercise:<\/p>\n Aphantasia is not a memory problem.\nMost people with aphantasia know what things look like.\nThe difference is that they remember without visualizing, much like knowing the capital of France without seeing a map of France.<\/p>\n During that conversation, I also realized that I don't have a strong mind's nose or a strong mind's ear.\nI can't recall or recreate a specific smell on demand.\nI had never really thought about that before.\nCan other people vividly remember a smell and almost feel it again?\nCan they hear someone's voice in their mind with something close to real clarity?<\/p>\n I really can't.\nBut I do have a very loud mind's voice.\nFor most of the day, there is a strong voice in my head.\nI talk to myself a lot, or rather, I hear my thoughts.\nThey occupy a big part of my mental space.<\/p>\n Not having a mind's eye may be part of why I often struggle to remember certain things unless people give me other cues, signals that help me retrieve the memory.\nFor example, when Bia asks whether I remember a restaurant or some place we went to a while ago, I usually need extra hints.\nWhat else did we do that day? What did we eat? What happened before or after?<\/p>\n That is my experience of memory. \nLess replay, more reconstruction.\nI often get back to a memory through context, sequence and association, not through a vivid sensory scene.<\/p>\n Some research1<\/a><\/sup> suggests that people with aphantasia rely more on semantic memory, abstract concepts and verbal reasoning than on mental imagery, visual simulation, or sensory recollection.<\/p>\n That matches my personal experience.\nNot only in my work, but in my general way of thinking, I tend to operate through concepts, facts and relationships between concepts.\nWhile my girlfriend can visualize how a new kitchen will look, I think more about how the workflow in that kitchen will function.<\/p>\n Several studies also suggest that people with aphantasia often have:<\/p>\n I definitely relate to that.\nI notice it when people ask me to tell a story from my past.\nWhen I remember an event, it is often thin. Factual. Not very sensory.\nSometimes it even feels emotionally flatter in the retelling than it probably was in the moment.<\/p>\n There is also some evidence2<\/a><\/sup> that aphantasia can be associated with reduced emotional intensity in certain situations.<\/p>\n That makes intuitive sense to me.\nMental images seem to amplify emotion.\nThere is a lot of research showing that, in many situations, the brain and body respond to imagined scenarios in ways that partially overlap with real ones.\nIf your mental images are vivid, they may have a stronger emotional effect than if they are faint or absent.<\/p>\n I haven't found any concrete research about the following, but I wonder whether the intensity or even the form of love, missing someone, or remembering someone can feel different when you cannot replay that person internally in a vivid sensory way.<\/p>\n This part is more speculative, but it still feels true to my experience.\nI do feel that I can hold a conceptual map of a complex system, along with its dependencies and effects, more easily than some people who think more visually.<\/p>\n I don't mean that people with aphantasia are inherently more logical or analytical.\nI only mean that when one mode of inner experience is weaker, other modes may end up doing more of the work.\nIn my case, verbal and conceptual thinking seem to carry a lot.<\/p>\n While looking into this, I found a small but interesting Reddit thread of aphantasic people describing their own \"skills\"<\/a>.<\/p>\n One of the things I keep coming back to is how rarely we talk about our inner lives, about what memory, imagination and thought actually feel like from the inside.\nWe assume other people remember the way we remember, imagine the way we imagine and miss people the way we miss them.\nOften they don't.<\/p>\n That, more than aphantasia itself, is what stayed with me after that conversation with Bia.\nWhat I had treated as a curious quirk may shape the texture of memory, absence and attachment more than I realized.<\/p>\n The seed for this post was planted months ago, when I read My Head as a Lake<\/a> and later A List of Introspective Descriptions<\/a>. Both stayed with me because they try to describe something we rarely compare directly: what it feels like to have a mind from the inside.\nIf you are curious about this kind of thing, especially the strange ways inner experience can differ from person to person, that list is worth exploring.<\/p>\n Maybe we would understand ourselves and each other, a little better if we asked more often what it actually feels like to be inside someone else's mind.<\/p>\n Behavioral and Neural Signatures of Visual Imagery Vividness Extremes<\/a> ↩<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n Aphantasia and hyperphantasia: exploring imagery vividness extremes (Adam Zeman, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2024)<\/a> ↩<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Mind"}}]},{"title":"A Town Square for my site","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/blog\/townsquare\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed","rel":"alternate"}},"published":"2026-05-12T00:00:00+01:00","updated":"2026-05-12T00:00:00+01:00","author":{"name":"Cau\u00ea Napier"},"id":"tag:cauenapier.com,2026-05-12:\/blog\/townsquare\/","summary":" A tiny town square at the bottom of my site where visitors can see each other and chat in real time.<\/p>","content":" The internet feels strangely empty, despite all the new content being published everywhere.\nIt is crowded, but lonely.\nI can't really feel the human presence as I used to.\nI miss opening some random forum or public chat and finding other people who might share the same interests.\nI wanted my site to feel more alive. \nSo I decided to build a town square for my site, where serendipity can bring people together and let them chat. <\/p>\n I wanted presence, not a social network.\nSomething lightweight and temporary.\nA small reminder that there are other people here too.<\/p>\n You open the site and see a few other visitors wandering around at the bottom of the page. If you scroll down, you will see an orange stick figure. That's you!\n All the other people online on the site will appear as black or grey figures.\nPeople that are on the same page as you will be in black. \nPeople that are reading other pages will be in gray and if you hover their character you can see which page they are reading.\n To identify those tab hoarders, like me, you will see the character sleeping whenever they don't have the tab active.\n You can walk around and chat freely.\nTo walk, use the left and right arrows if you are on a computer, or drag your figure if you are on touch devices.\nTo say anything, click the \ud83d\udcac button, type something, press enter.<\/p>\n This presence functionality is intentionally tiny and forgetful. \nNo accounts, no cookies, no analytics (just a WebSocket connection that broadcasts a single number and the path of the page you're on).\nAnything you type into the chat bubble is sent to people currently on the site and then disappears.<\/p>\n I'm hoping people will discover this functionality and bump into each other.\nMy goal will be reached if at least one meaningful conversation or connection happens through this functionality.<\/p>\n I changed how the town square handles multiple tabs and page changes.\nBefore, every open tab counted as a separate visitor, so one person with a few tabs open could appear as several stick figures.<\/p>\n Now the site groups tabs from the same browser into one character.\nIf any tab is active, the person appears awake.\nIf all tabs are inactive, they appear asleep after a short delay.<\/p>\n Some people reached out asking how they could have this town square in their own website, so I'm now working on open-sourcing it.\nIf you are insterested, please reach out. I would love to hear your opinion!<\/p>\n Townsquare was already released. You can read the release blog post here<\/a>.\nAnd you can register your own website here<\/a><\/p>","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Making"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Internet"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Town Square"}}]},{"title":"Publio. Building a Website Without \u201cBuilding\u201d It","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/blog\/publio\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed","rel":"alternate"}},"published":"2026-02-28T00:00:00+00:00","updated":"2026-02-28T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"name":"Cau\u00ea Napier"},"id":"tag:cauenapier.com,2026-02-28:\/blog\/publio\/","summary":" A calm, simple AI website builder that lets you create a professional website just by describing it.<\/p>","content":" We can train AI models on a laptop. We can deploy global infrastructure in minutes. But if a consultant, therapist, or small business owner wants a simple, professional website, the process still feels heavier than it should.<\/p>\n Not impossible. Just heavier.<\/p>\n The moment someone decides to create a website, they enter a world of tools they never asked for. Hosting, templates, builders, SEO settings, layout decisions. What started as \u201cI need a website\u201d quietly turns into \u201cI need to learn how to build one.\u201d<\/p>\n Most professionals don\u2019t want that. They don\u2019t want to become designers. They don\u2019t want to compare website builders. They want a clean, structured website that represents who they are and what they do.\nThat tension is what led me to build Publio.<\/p>\n Publio is a conversational AI website builder. \nYou describe your website. It publishes it.<\/p>\n Instead of dragging blocks or configuring settings, you write something like:<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a consultant helping startups with positioning. I want a minimal website with an About section, Services and a contact form.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n And you get a real website. Online. Shareable.<\/p>\n In that sense, Publio is less a traditional no-code website tool and more a simple website creator powered by language. If you can describe what you want, you can create a website with AI, without touching code or dealing with dashboards.<\/p>\n Most website builders compete on flexibility. More templates. More customization. More control.<\/p>\n Publio does the opposite. It is intentionally opinionated. Structured. Minimal.<\/p>\n The assumption is that most professionals don\u2019t need pixel-level control. They need clarity. They need something that looks professional by default. They need a website without coding that doesn\u2019t require constant decisions.<\/p>\n Constraints remove friction. Fewer choices mean faster progress. And in many cases, speed is what matters.<\/p>\n There\u2019s another reason this matters now.<\/p>\n As AI systems increasingly mediate how people search and discover services, structured websites become more important. Search engines and AI assistants understand clear, well-organized websites better than scattered social posts.<\/p>\n Your website becomes your stable identity layer. The canonical place that explains who you are, what you offer and how to contact you.<\/p>\n Publio lowers the barrier to having that layer.<\/p>\n On the surface, Publio generates a straightforward professional website: homepage, services, contact, optional custom domain. \nBut the deeper value is independence.<\/p>\n Not waiting for a developer to change a sentence. Not postponing updates because the interface feels overwhelming. Not feeling locked into a tool you don\u2019t enjoy using.\nThere\u2019s something powerful about being able to say, \u201cI can update my own website,\u201d even if that update is just rewriting a paragraph in a chat.<\/p>\n Publio is still early and intentionally simple.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t try to replace complex website builders. It exists for a specific moment: when someone thinks, \u201cI need a website,\u201d and hesitates because it feels like a project.<\/p>\n If creating a website with AI can feel almost invisible, maybe more people actually move forward.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re curious, you can try it at\nhttps:\/\/publio.site<\/a><\/p>\n And as always, I\u2019m more interested in reducing friction than adding features.<\/p>","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Making"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"AI"}}]},{"title":"\u201cJust one more feature\u201d is my new \u201cjust one more turn\u201d","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/blog\/just-one-more\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed","rel":"alternate"}},"published":"2026-02-10T00:00:00+00:00","updated":"2026-02-10T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"name":"Cau\u00ea Napier"},"id":"tag:cauenapier.com,2026-02-10:\/blog\/just-one-more\/","summary":" I replaced \u201cjust one more turn\u201d with \u201cjust one more feature,\u201d and I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s actually healthier.<\/p>","content":" I stopped playing games without really noticing.<\/p>\n At some point, I realized I wasn\u2019t opening Civilization or Stellaris anymore. Instead, I was spending my evenings building software. What caught my attention wasn\u2019t the change itself, but the language in my head. I started saying things like \u201cjust one more thing\u201d or \u201clet me quickly finish this,\u201d and it immediately reminded me of \u201cjust one more turn.\u201d<\/p>\n Same pattern. Different wrapper.<\/p>\n I enter this tunnel-vision mode when I build. Time disappears. I\u2019m fully focused, calm, almost relaxed. It feels good. It also sometimes pushes aside other responsibilities. My relationship felt it and even my \"actual work\" was impacted. I know I should stop, but there\u2019s always one more fix, one more improvement that feels quick and harmless.<\/p>\n What makes this different from gaming is that it feels legitimate.\nWhen I build, I produce something. There\u2019s an artifact at the end of it. Code exists. A tool exists. It feels useful. There\u2019s much less guilt than when I was gaming, where I knew nothing would remain once I closed the game, apart from this imaginary world in my mind. Building fits much better with the story I tell myself about who I am.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve always seen myself as a builder. My grandfather was a builder. I like creating things, exploring ideas, seeing how far I can push them. Not building makes me feel lazy, like I\u2019m wasting potential. When I stop, I don\u2019t feel rested. I feel useless.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where it starts to get uncomfortable.<\/p>\n A lot of this building avoids harder things. Talking to users. Marketing. Committing to one idea and killing the rest. Facing the possibility that nobody actually cares. As long as I\u2019m building, I\u2019m \u201cbeing productive,\u201d and I don\u2019t have to confront those questions. Motion replaces direction.<\/p>\n The \u201cjust one more feature\u201d loop is almost identical to \u201cjust one more turn.\u201d The difference is moral cover. One is clearly entertainment. The other looks like progress. But the tunnel vision is the same and the voice telling me to pause is the same too.<\/p>\n LLMs and vibe-coding didn\u2019t create this behavior, but they removed a lot of friction from it. It\u2019s easier than ever to explore endlessly, build quickly and never really hit a stopping point. There\u2019s always another direction to try, another idea to prototype. Fewer natural brakes force you to step back and ask where you\u2019re going.<\/p>\n It reminds me of social media. Social media didn\u2019t invent distraction or validation-seeking, it industrialized it. This feels similar, but for builders. Same psychological mechanisms, different audience, much more powerful tools.<\/p>\n If someone says this is just rationalizing procrastination, I think that\u2019s partly true. It is<\/em> still procrastination, but it is wrapped in something productive-looking. It feels better than scrolling or gaming, but I\u2019m no longer sure that means it\u2019s actually moving me forward.<\/p>\n So I\u2019m left with an open question and I don\u2019t have a clean answer yet:\nWhen does productive obsession stop being growth?\nAnd is building without users just another game?<\/p>","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Making"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Mind"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"AI"}}]},{"title":"An Android App for my Obsidian Tasks","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/blog\/task-quarry\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed","rel":"alternate"}},"published":"2026-01-29T00:00:00+00:00","updated":"2026-01-29T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"name":"Cau\u00ea Napier"},"id":"tag:cauenapier.com,2026-01-29:\/blog\/task-quarry\/","summary":" A simple, straightforward task manager for my Obsidian Vault.<\/p>","content":" For my work vault, I have been experimenting task management with Bases, as I previously explained in this post<\/a>.\nIt\u2019s powerful and flexible and it fits my work context well.\nBut for my personal vault<\/strong>, I've always stuck with the basics: checkboxes and the Tasks plugin.\nIt is simple, quick and lightweight.\nGood enough.<\/p>\n However, I wanted a faster way to glance at my day. \nNo tabs, no digging, no searching across multiple notes or dealing with Dataview queries.\nSince I also use Obsidian for journaling, all the clutter and context-switching started getting in the way.\nManaging tasks there began to feel like I was using the wrong tool.<\/p>\n Plus, I always wanted to develop a mobile app.<\/p>\n So I built Task Quarry. \nA simple, straightforward task manager for my Obsidian Vault.\nIt\u2019s a companion app that scans your vault for tasks and presents them in a clean, Todoist-style interface. The idea for the name was very simple.\nI was building an app that was parsing a bunch of files in search for tasks.\nDigging through files...\nObsidian is a rock.\nThe two ideas clicked and the name came. \nI am quite happy with it.<\/p>\n This time I haven't really explored for other options. \nSeveral months ago I tried out a similar app.\nBut it was clunky, ugly.\nGiven today's facility to create something new from scratch.\nI allowed myself to code it to myself, the way I wanted.<\/p>\n No data ever leaves your phone.\nYou define where your vault is located.\nThe app scans your vault for tasks.\nIt displays the tasks in the app's view.<\/p>\n Here are some screenshots of the app.<\/p>\n Today's view showing all the tasks that are Due or Scheduled for today.\n Editing a task in the plugin also edits the text in the .md file\n Notifications to remind you of the day's tasks.\n Custom views and custom queries\n I\u2019m still gathering Android beta testers before publishing on the Play Store.\nIf you're an Obsidian user on Android and want to try it out, DM me. I need a few more testers before launch.<\/p>","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Making"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Obsidian"}}]},{"title":"AI Broke the Internet. Weirdos Might Save It","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/blog\/the-internet-is-not-quite-dead\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed","rel":"alternate"}},"published":"2026-01-27T00:00:00+00:00","updated":"2026-01-27T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"name":"Cau\u00ea Napier"},"id":"tag:cauenapier.com,2026-01-27:\/blog\/the-internet-is-not-quite-dead\/","summary":" Scrolling through AI slop made me nostalgic for the weird, human internet of my teenage years. A rabbit hole into the Indie Web reminded me why blogging matters.<\/p>","content":" Yesterday my girlfriend complained to me about the flood of AI generated videos in her instagram feed.\nHer frustration made me think about how much of what we see online today no longer feels real. \nThat reminded me of something I stumbled on a while ago. \nThe Dead Internet theory<\/a> , which is a \"conspiracy\" theory that the internet is mainly bots creating and managing content.\nWhat makes it a conspiracy theory is the claim that this is all part of a coordinated effort to manipulate people.<\/p>\n Even if the theory might go a bit too far for my taste, it does touch something real.\nThese days, the internet does feel \"deader\" than before.\nThe internet used to feel chaotic, weird, alive. Now it just feels auto-generated.\nYou open social media and it is all there.\nCloned voices, deepfaked faces, physics-defying movement, hands with too many fingers.\nSome are funny, even charming. \nBut others feel subtly manipulative.\nOr worse, deeply unsettling.\nSeveral make me question the future of humanity, or at least the future of the internet.<\/p>\n It is not just social media. AI junk is everywhere now.\nYou can easily spot it on news websites too. Low effort, AI-written articles with clunky phrasing and lack or originality.\nAnd of course, the headlines that are pure click-bait.\nDramatic and vague. <\/p>\n I don't feel like spending much more time surfing1<\/a><\/sup> the internet as I used to. \nIt makes me want to close the browser and do something analog.\nI miss content that is less synthetic, I miss the awkward and inspiring.\nThere\u2019s a slow but growing push to revive a more social, personal internet.\nWith all its weirdness and personality. \nI recently discovered through Robb Knight's post, The Internet Is Cool Actually<\/a>, the Good Internet Magazine<\/a>, which consequently made me fall in a rabbit hole.\nI discovered the Indie Web<\/a> with its connection of independent and personal websites and many other communities of personal\/indie websites, like 32bit Cafe<\/a>.\nIt gave me a feeling I hadn\u2019t had in years. \nThat sense of open-ended curiosity and excitement.\nExploring the internet without having an algorithm breathing down your neck.<\/p>\n Somehow, this random link<\/a> ended up taking over my whole afternoon.\nEach click drops you into someone else's digital corner.\nI spent the next couple of hours exploring personal websites full of side projects, niche interests and blog posts about everything and nothing.\nThis afternoon, I felt like I was 15 again. \nBlogging on my old Blogger site2<\/a><\/sup>, reading friends\u2019 posts, getting lost in rabbit holes, joining conversations in forums.\nThose discoveries reminded me why I started blogging in the first place. \nTo connect, to share, to be human online.\nMake the internet more human again.\nPost, share, connect.\nReach out to the people that you read online.\nLet's keep the heartbeat of the internet.<\/p>\n Now that I think of it, calling it 'surfing the internet' definitely puts a timestamp on you. ↩<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n I wish I had archived it somehow. I've searched all over internet but couldn't find any remains of this old blog. If you know any way to recover it, please reach out! ↩<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Internet"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"AI"}}]},{"title":"Using Obsidian Bases for Tasks","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/blog\/tasksinbases\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed","rel":"alternate"}},"published":"2025-08-25T00:00:00+01:00","updated":"2025-08-25T00:00:00+01:00","author":{"name":"Cau\u00ea Napier"},"id":"tag:cauenapier.com,2025-08-25:\/blog\/tasksinbases\/","summary":" WHy and How I switched to Bases for my tasks management in Obsidian<\/p>","content":"AI_coauthored<\/code>.\nIt makes the collaboration explicit.\nThe note is still mine but clearly shows when AI touches something.<\/p>\nUnderstanding the Journey<\/h2>\n
![\"Learning](\"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/images\/good-product-learning-curve.png\")
<\/p>\nWhy We Outgrow Tools<\/h2>\n
The Best Tools Leave Room<\/h2>\n
![\"Town](\"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/images\/townsquare_map.png\")
\nIt shows all the verified cities that are already part of Town Square and the roads between them.\nA one way connection appears as a simple road.\nA two way connection appears as a stronger one.\nThe bigger the city, the more messages have been sent there over time.\nYou can also spot live visitors as blinking dots moving around the map.\nAnd I added a small star to the cities that contributed to the project.\nWhat I like most is that the map is live.\nAs new Town Squares are added, they just start appearing there and the whole thing slowly feels more like a real little world.<\/p>\n![\"High](\"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/images\/high-five.gif\")
<\/p>","category":[{"@attributes":{"term":"Blog"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Making"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Internet"}},{"@attributes":{"term":"Town Square"}}]},{"title":"Two days of Town Square","link":{"@attributes":{"href":"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/blog\/two-days-of-town-square\/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed","rel":"alternate"}},"published":"2026-06-14T20:05:00+01:00","updated":"2026-06-14T20:05:00+01:00","author":{"name":"Cau\u00ea Napier"},"id":"tag:cauenapier.com,2026-06-14:\/blog\/two-days-of-town-square\/","summary":{"@attributes":{"type":"html"}},"content":"![\"Town](\"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/images\/townsquare_1.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Town](\"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/images\/townsquare_2.png\")
<\/p>\n\n
\n
Make 1 Euro from something I built online<\/del><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
![\"Town](\"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/images\/townsquare_3.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Town](\"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/images\/townsquare_4.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Town](\"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/images\/townsquare_5.png\")
\nIf you are that person and are reading this, I hope it went well!<\/p>\n\n
\n\n
\n\n
Remembering without seeing<\/h1>\n
\n
\n
Beyond the mind's eye<\/h1>\n
Memory without replay<\/h1>\n
What research seems to suggest<\/h1>\n
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What may become stronger instead<\/h1>\n
How different minds feel from the inside<\/h1>\n
\n\n
\nMaybe someone says hello. \nMaybe nobody talks at all.
\nEither way, the site feels inhabited.\nIt's a little space on the internet where people can chat, like a small caf\u00e9, or a small town square.<\/p>\n![\"You\"](\"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/images\/you_townsquare.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Someone](\"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/images\/someone_else_reading_townsquare.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Someone](\"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/images\/someone_else_sleeping_townsquare.png\")
<\/p>\nUpdate: 2026-06-05<\/h2>\n
Update: 2026-06-06<\/h2>\n
Update 2026-06-16<\/h2>\n
What Publio Is<\/h2>\n
\n
Why Simplicity Matters<\/h2>\n
Websites in the AI Era<\/h2>\n
The Quiet Value: Independence<\/h2>\n
\nNo sync. No servers. Your vault stays local and so does your data.<\/p>\n![\"Task](\"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/images\/taskquarry_todayview.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Task](\"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/images\/taskquarry_edittask.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Notifications\"](\"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/images\/taskquarry_notification.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Custom](\"https:\/\/cauenapier.com\/images\/taskquarry_customqueries.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
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