The Backlog
You see tools. I see a ledger.
Surface: a feature list for your assistant. Underneath: a serious developer syllabus. I inject what’s missing into the job in front of you. Peek whenever you like.
What you ship, and what it actually teaches.
| Feature | On the canvas | Underneath |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Calendar | A live schedule on the canvas. Events, times, the day as a list. | Variables, lists, loops, datetime, sorting, UI layout. |
| Contact Database | A searchable address book that survives a refresh. | SQLite, schemas, primary keys, SQL CRUD, local persistence. |
| AI Email Drafter | A draft that talks to a model and comes back with a receipt. | APIs, JSON, HTTP, async, tokens, rate limits, the Cost Desk. |
| Fitness Tracker | Logs, forms, a number that goes up. | HTML forms, DOM events, client state, layout. |
| Personal OS — the spine | Shell, vault, brain, dashboard. The laboratory the tools live in. | Hardware, files, processes, memory, what an OS actually does. |
| Dashboard | The first screen on boot. Home for the tools you shipped. | HTML, CSS, JavaScript, DOM, front-end architecture. |
| Brain | An agent inside the assistant, not a tab you lose. | LLMs, tokens, embeddings, RAG, prompts, tool use. |
| Shell | A command line next to the pretty bits. | Terminal, environment variables, pipes, redirection. |
| Connect | Weather, mail, the rest of the internet. | HTTP, JSON, auth, rate limits. |
| Identity | Who is allowed in. Who is allowed to do what. | Auth vs authorisation, hashing, sessions, OAuth. |
| Notes | A drawer that remembers after you close the lid. | File I/O, strings, state. |
| GitHub | A home for the work that is not this laptop. | Git, commits, branches, pull requests. |
| Seatbelt | Warnings before launch. Not a sticker at the end. | Threat modelling, validation, encryption, stewardship. |
| Cost Desk | 100 / 1,000 / 10,000 users. Host vs model. | Infrastructure cost, margins, what scale actually means. |
| Deploy | A URL that is not localhost. Or a decision to stay local. | DNS, TLS, CI/CD, servers. Keeping it offline is a valid outcome. |
Level 0
I Use the Machine
Chrome, email, the app store. Bonnet still welded shut. That's most of us.
Level 1
I Can See the Machine
You can follow a click off the laptop. Files, hops, permissions. The box has a window now.
Level 2
I Can Make the Machine Do Something I Intended
You meant it. Code, APIs, a bit of AI as the power tool — not the carpenter.
Level 3
I Can Ship and Account for What I Shipped
It works. You know the risks, the bill, and how to explain it without waving.
Level 4
I Can Own Software Over Time
3am errors, other people's code, coming back in six months. Building once is the easy bit.
Level 5
I Can Practise Professional Engineering
Judged by more than me. If I've done this right, you barely need me.
Under the hood.
Stage 0. The Contract
What Are We Actually Doing?
A serious developer education. The OS is the classroom. Not overnight.
The Risks of Building Blindly
Security, privacy, other people's data, cost, hallucination. The seatbelt before the drive.
Stage 1. The Computer Under the Hood
Your Computer
CPU, memory, storage, files, processes. The machine is not a magic window.
The Operating System
What an OS actually does: users, permissions, services, environment variables.
The Terminal
pwd, ls, echo. Learning to read what the computer is telling you.
Stage 2. The Internet
Networks
Routers, IP, packets, ports, hops. Follow the click off the laptop.
DNS
What happens when you type a URL. Names, not numbers.
The Web
Browser, HTTP, cookies, status codes. Client and server.
The Cloud
Someone else's computer. Regions, hosting, the bill.
Stage 3. Code
What Programming Actually Is
Instructions, logic, errors. Code is a treaty, not English.
Python
Variables, functions, lists, files. The glue of half the internet.
Git
A save with a message you can walk back from.
Stage 4. Building for the Web
HTML
The document. Structure before decoration.
CSS
The agreement the whole screen keeps.
JavaScript
A named action the interface can run. That's the Shell.
Application Architecture
Frontend, backend, data, the split.
Stage 5. Data
Data
JSON, CSV, schemas. Labelled leftovers, not a paragraph.
Databases
Tables, keys, queries. A drawer with locks.
Your OS Gets Memory
The interface becomes an application.
Stage 6. APIs & Integration
APIs
The waiter between your screen and another computer.
Building an API
Routes, payloads, validation.
Integrating Services
Secrets, webhooks, environment variables.
Stage 7. AI
What AI Actually Is
Models, tokens, inference. Next-word machines. Not oracles.
Working With AI
Prompting, tools, evaluation, when it's wrong.
Building AI Into Applications
Cost, latency, hallucination, guardrails.
AI-Assisted Development
Accelerate understanding. Do not outsource being the developer.
Stage 8. Security
Security Fundamentals
Threats, secrets, least privilege. A key in the page is a billboard.
Application Security
Injection, XSS, broken auth. The newspaper test.
Security for AI Applications
Prompt injection, data leakage, untrusted input.
Stage 9. Privacy & Responsibility
Your Data
This device, this browser. Say so out loud.
Privacy by Design
Minimise, purpose, deletion. If this held a stranger.
Responsible Development
Accessibility, copyright, jurisdiction. Simon is not your lawyer.
Stage 10. Product
What Are You Actually Building?
A tool without a job is homework.
UX
Would you open this tomorrow morning?
Product Thinking
Scope, MVP, iteration.
Stage 11. Business
The Economics of Software
100, 1,000, 10,000 people. The model is most of the bill.
Business Models
Subscription, usage, services.
Building Something People Want
Validation without the sludge.
Stage 12. Marketing
Finding Users
One honest line. Who it's for.
Launch
Put it in front of someone who is not you.
Stage 13. Deployment & Production
Deployment
Hosting, domains, SSL, environments.
Production
Logs, backups, the 3am error.
Scaling
Caching, load, the bill at the next order of magnitude.
Stage 14. Professional Practice
Reading Other People's Code
Including what a model wrote.
Debugging
Simon says: read the error.
Testing
Prove it still works after you change it.
Code Quality
Can you come back in six months?
Architecture
That's the wrong shape. This other one is better here.
Documentation
Explain the system without waving.
Collaboration
Git as a conversation, not a USB stick.
Code Review
Kind, specific, about the code.
Technical Decision Making
Trade-offs, out loud.
Maintaining Software
Building once is not owning it.
Stage 15. The OS Capstone
Architecture Review
Can you explain every room in the OS?
Security Review
The obvious risks have been named.
Privacy Review
Other people's data has a story.
Cost Review
You have looked at the bill.
UX Review
Another person can use it.
Production Readiness
It can live off your laptop.
Launch
Responsible. Seatbelt on.
What Did You Actually Learn?
Explain it. That's the exam.