Still Building

Introducing baby girl to Claude.

I've always had a bias for action. I love to build. Last year, I even built a human being. But with the profound new meaning that motherhood has brought me, the thought of returning to corporate life felt soul-crushing. My plan for 2026 was to cruise — take it easy and give myself grace as I settled into my identity as a working mom.

But 2026 had other plans.

The tech industry is going through one of the most transformative eras of my lifetime. AI is reshaping white-collar work at a pace nobody can fully predict, and the careers of almost everyone I know are at risk. When this article came out last month, it lit a fire under me. Suddenly, it was undeniable: this year is shaping up to be one of the most pivotal of my career. I didn't need a manager to tell me — it was time to shape up or ship out.

Even though I'm anxious about the sustainability and longevity of my career, I'm also genuinely excited to evolve. AI is leveling the playing field for people who may not have decades of experience but are curious and adaptable. It's reinventing roles and job descriptions, allowing us to do more than we thought possible, and challenging established paradigms and turning them on their heads. For someone like me, who's never played well against rules and corporate politics, this is exactly the kind of disruption I've been craving.

This shift toward “AI-first” has the energy of a college hackathon. It feels like 2017 again, when I discovered Sketch for the first time, taught myself UX design, moved to Silicon Valley, and carved out an entirely new career path. Nobody knew what they were doing, and that was the point. Anything felt possible, and I wrote my own rules. After a decade of building that career to a comfortable, established place, things are pivoting again. Everyone is suddenly learning, experimenting, sharing, and getting their hands dirty with AI tools — at work and in their free time — because those who learn fastest end up on top. This is the environment I thrive in. It's why I got into tech in the first place.

In a world where the tools are improving exponentially and anyone can build almost anything, and hard skills are no longer the bottleneck, it's time to dream bigger. What can I build? What should I build? How will the style, judgment, and product sense of my “first” brain help me stand out in a sea of “second brain” slop and easy-to-replicate average work? How will my taste — the small, deliberate decisions I make across my work — be the differentiator that no automated system can truly replicate?

Even though my hands are fuller than they've ever been, I build. Whether I'm latched to my breast pump or sitting in front of dual monitors — one computer, one baby — I build.

Excited to share what I've been working on soon.

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