I paid $1 for priceless art

A little rant about why music is the best deal.

Recently while listening to one of my favourite songs I realized that it had been nearly a decade since I first heard it. A decade ago, I paid $1 for a song that I am still enjoying today. It got me thinking…

Music is the best deal.

Music inspires us. Music motivates us. It makes us run faster. It resonates in our bodies when we hear it live. It soothes our children. Music speaks to us. It connects us. Music is therapy. Music is fundamental to being human… And we pay $0.99 for it.

10 years ago, I paid $0.99 for a song that has given me a decade of inspiration, pleasure and enjoyment. I paid $1 for priceless art.

What’s my point?

Support artists.

Do whatever you need to do to make sure that the artists you love continue to do what they love which in turn makes you love the world even more.

Can’t afford their songs? Email them and ask if there is something you can help them with, or better yet, get involved in their online communities and be proactive. Tell your friends about them, become a promoter, bring a friend to a show. Anything. Just support the artists you love. Because they are artists and what they give you, music, is art and a gift. A gift that gets cheaper and cheaper for you to consume as time goes on.

You pay $0.99 for something that has taken them a lot of time and energy. They have given you a piece of their soul for the low low price of $0.99. Don’t complain about it. Buy the songs, see them live, buy a t-shirt or whatever… just support them. In whatever way and capacity you can.

I am not a musician nor do I play one on TV.

Introducing Runner

It was December 28th. I woke up at 6am and Cursor had been running all night. I had Claude working while I slept, writing code, pushing commits, doing things that would have taken me a full day. Just sitting there staring at the screen, coffee getting cold, and realizing life wasn't going to be the same. I got a taste of the agentic workflow and couldn't go back. Turns out I wasn't the only one. When the Christmas break ended, Charlie and Yitong, my co-founders at Agora, had similar epiphanies

How I build: Dec 2025 Edition

I treat AI as a tool and like any tool, people can use the same tools in different ways to acheive different results. I recently realized that I use AI differently than some of my colleagues so I was encouraged to share how I code. Before I talk about the tools and tactics, it's important to remember that I have a golden rule when using AI to code: Don't get AI to build something you don't understand or haven't built at least 3 times before. CRUD application? ✅ Simple Tab View Mobile App? ✅

The Messy Middle

My family is moving into a new house and we wanted to do a little bit of remodelling upstairs. Nothing big, just closing off a wall, making a closet a little bigger and swapping out a sink in the bathroom. My wife's family owns a construction business, so we are lucky to have an inside track with contractors and knowledge. My father in law is a genius, he runs his own construction business but still made time to come and measure, sketch and draw up the plans himself. My wife and I his customers

Someone needs to hear it

So, you want to write something but you are feeling like you can’t finish and post it for a really simple reason: there are 6 people in the world smarter than you on this topic, surely they should write it not you. During an interview today for Agora’s product manager, a warrior of art reminded me of this mental block and it rung so true. How many great pieces of advice, lessons, ideas and inspiration are left unsaid due to someone feeling as though they aren’t qualified enough to talk about it

Read more

Introducing Runner

How I build: Dec 2025 Edition

The Messy Middle

Someone needs to hear it