I build websites that are supposed to do one job:
turn a visitor into a customer.
most code i see is clean, well structured, tested ,
and completely disconnected from whether the
business it belongs to actually grows.
i got more interested in the second part
so now I build with both in mind:
the code has to be right, and it has to move a number.
i am going to share what I learn doing both here.
backend concept that finally clicked this week: indexing.
i knew "add an index to make queries faster."
i did not actually understand WHY until i watched a query
go from 800ms to 4ms on a table I'd populated with fake rows.
an index is just a sorted lookup structure so the database
stops scanning every single row to find what you asked for.
like the index at the back of a book vs reading the whole thing.
the catch nobody mentions: every index you add makes
writes slower, because now there's more to keep updated.
everything in backend is a tradeoff, nothing is free
unpopular opinion for 2026:
"Full-stack developer" tells me nothing anymore
everyone's full-stack now, the AI fills the gaps.
what's actually rare:
someone who can take a vague problem,
decide what NOT to build,
and ship the version that works.
That judgment is the job.
The stack is just tools.
Rebuilding the monkfunnel site from scratch this week.
Old version: 7 sections, 3 CTAs,
a testimonials section I hadn't earned yet,
and a footer with more links than the page had reasons to exist.
New version: what we do, why it works, one button.
If I can't make my own page convert,
I have no business redesigning anyone else's.
Before/after dropping when it's live.