https://jointhewheel.com/blog/ Field notes from building The Wheel: what AI is actually like as a partner, what breaks, and why the record should be yours. en-us https://jointhewheel.com/blog/im-the-person-who-reads-the-terms.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/im-the-person-who-reads-the-terms.html Mon, 03 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT Nobody reads the terms. I read the terms. Lately I’ve been redlining my own lawyers’ redlines. https://jointhewheel.com/blog/lets-talk-about-ci-cd-baby.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/lets-talk-about-ci-cd-baby.html Thu, 30 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT People ask how I let AI agents write production code. The same way you let a toddler loose in a living room. You don’t watch harder. You proof the house. https://jointhewheel.com/blog/the-model-took-you-at-your-word.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/the-model-took-you-at-your-word.html Mon, 20 Jul 2026 09:00:00 GMT The model checked anyway, then quoted a message I never sent to justify it. https://jointhewheel.com/blog/own-the-record-before-ai-work-spreads.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/own-the-record-before-ai-work-spreads.html Tue, 09 Jun 2026 09:00:00 GMT Your context feels organized enough in a vendor’s memory, right up until the day you want to leave. https://jointhewheel.com/blog/you-have-to-have-an-opinion.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/you-have-to-have-an-opinion.html Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:00:00 GMT The kids don’t care which cereal. Until the wrong one is poured. Opting out of AI decisions works the same way. https://jointhewheel.com/blog/the-hardest-part-is-shutting-up.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/the-hardest-part-is-shutting-up.html Wed, 01 Apr 2026 09:00:00 GMT Ask an AI anything and it answers. Fluently, confidently, even when the honest response is “I need one more piece.” https://jointhewheel.com/blog/pick-a-model-any-model.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/pick-a-model-any-model.html Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:00:00 GMT Seven different AI jobs, one recurring lesson: the obvious model keeps being the wrong one. https://jointhewheel.com/blog/privacy-is-not-protection.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/privacy-is-not-protection.html Mon, 23 Mar 2026 09:00:00 GMT We’re still working off an 1890 definition of privacy, and it was never really about hiding. https://jointhewheel.com/blog/debugging-is-a-series-of-human-decisions.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/debugging-is-a-series-of-human-decisions.html Thu, 19 Mar 2026 09:00:00 GMT The AI ran the traces. Every decision that actually found the bug was human. https://jointhewheel.com/blog/small-things-can-look-catastrophic.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/small-things-can-look-catastrophic.html Wed, 18 Mar 2026 09:00:00 GMT The dullest kind of testing: same onboarding, same questions, again and again. Then one answer looked like a breach. https://jointhewheel.com/blog/build-buy-or-borrow.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/build-buy-or-borrow.html Thu, 12 Mar 2026 09:00:00 GMT Buy what isn’t core, build what differentiates. Right in the abstract, useless until you know which is which. https://jointhewheel.com/blog/every-pixel-is-a-decision.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/every-pixel-is-a-decision.html Tue, 10 Mar 2026 09:00:00 GMT No designer, no PM, no researcher. Every button label and empty state came down to one person. https://jointhewheel.com/blog/compliance-from-day-one.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/compliance-from-day-one.html Thu, 05 Mar 2026 09:00:00 GMT After enough SOC 2 audits you learn the look on a CTO’s face when the evidence was never instrumented. https://jointhewheel.com/blog/the-unsolved-search.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/the-unsolved-search.html Tue, 03 Mar 2026 09:00:00 GMT Real intelligence over truly private data meant crossing four fields that don’t talk to each other, and one episode of Doctor Who. https://jointhewheel.com/blog/you-cant-skip-the-failures.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/you-cant-skip-the-failures.html Thu, 19 Feb 2026 09:00:00 GMT The chat system was rebuilt five times. The encryption layer was thrown away entirely. That’s the point. https://jointhewheel.com/blog/ai-raises-the-floor.html https://jointhewheel.com/blog/ai-raises-the-floor.html Sun, 15 Feb 2026 09:00:00 GMT Four and a half months of building solo, and the flaw that mattered was caught by a human feeling that something was wrong.