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Tim Jones

Always Curious

How Vibe Coding Cured My Engineering Perfectionism

“Vibe coding” has become the tech industry’s latest favourite buzzword. Depending on who you ask, it’s either an undisciplined hack where engineers blindly mash tab until something compiles, or a magical utopian future where software writes itself. In practice, neither extreme captures the reality. Real vibe coding isn’t about surrendering your brain to the LLM; it’s about shifting your role from a typist to an architectural director. And frankly? It is utterly addictive. ...

August 30, 2026 · 6 min · Tim Jones

The Bumpy Journey to Passing the Anthropic CCAR-F Exam

Getting certified is usually a beautifully boring process: you study, you book your slot, and you pass (or at least pretend the failure never happened). My journey to passing the Anthropic Claude Certified Architect - Foundations (CCAR-F) exam yesterday, however, was anything but standard. Buckle up. This is the story of how a platform migration, a sneaky total programme overhaul, and an embarrassingly stupid AM/PM booking mistake turned a simple exam into a bureaucratic adventure. ...

July 17, 2026 · 5 min · Tim Jones

OpenClaw Feels Less Like a Tool and More Like Hiring Staff

A few weeks ago, I picked up a Mac mini for a very specific reason: I wanted a box I could leave running, close enough to “infrastructure” to be dependable, but still personal enough to feel like mine. That machine ended up becoming the home for OpenClaw, and OpenClaw has ended up being one of the more interesting shifts in how I think about local AI agents. Not because it’s perfect. It absolutely isn’t. ...

March 15, 2026 · 6 min · Tim Jones

Vibe Coding: The Truth is Out There (And It Has a Paywall)

Last night, I was sprawled on the sofa watching some low-quality UFO’s-are-real show on Prime when an idea hit me: what if I built a simple app to experiment with paywalls and tiered subscriptions? Not because I had a grand business plan, but because I was curious how long it would take to spin up something functional from absolute zero. Three hours later, Paint Vault was live on Replit—a minimalist hobbyist tool with Stripe-powered subscriptions and Clerk authentication. ...

January 18, 2026 · 6 min · Tim Jones

re:Invent 2025: Cutting Through the AI Agent Hype

Touchdown back in the UK after a week of navigating the neon-soaked chaos of Las Vegas. If re:Invent 2025 proved anything, it is that the industry has finally stopped talking about what AI might do and started grappling with what it actually does when we let it off the leash. A quick heads-up: These are just my personal thoughts based on the sessions I managed to squeeze into and the big announcements that everyone was buzzing about. It’s not a list of every single update, but rather a look at the “agentic” shift I felt everywhere from the Venetian to Caesar’s Forum. ...

December 18, 2025 · 6 min · Tim Jones