Stephen Penders

Writing The Virtuous Degenerate. Building Toki. Poetry, music, and things I thought I’d already worked through.

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

The life I’ve built and the person I’m still getting to know. https://t.co/w9BRi5FMHY

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

@itsdanalex I would DM him to play Diablo together

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

@weswinder Love 🥲

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

@readswithravi Patrick Rothfuss, Robert Greene, Ranier Maria Rilke.

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

@brandon_galang Too many gatekeepers out here for sure. It's not a zero-sum game, folks.

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

I love seeing all the gung-ho productivity hackers and self-serious optimization gurus on socials. I don't completely disagree with these folks, but it's fucking hilarious.

Like, man, I'm in great shape. I do most of that stuff. I'm gonna be ok.

But that doesn't stop me from jamming on Diablo 4 or Final Fantasy Resonance or playing Mario Kart World with my son until 10 pm on a weekday.

When Friday hits, I'm at the bar with my friends, smoking like a fiend and knocking them back until my humor gets darker and drier than a mortician’s martini on Halloween.

Or maybe we'll go hit karaoke at the local noraebang until 4 am.

Life isn't about being successful; it's about being fulfilled- however you get there. Go have fun, do stupid shit, get in a fight, embarrass yourself. Whatever you do, take the time to enjoy yourself and the company of good people.

Cause when it's gone, it's gone for good. I don't want to remember building apps or founding a company or making money when I'm on my deathbed. I want to remember the crazy stories and hilarious antics of my life.

Optimize for experiences, not for ego. 🤙

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

This is a useful post. You’ve quietly acknowledged that the lack of human interaction on social media is frustrating. That matters. The interesting thing is that this post will land with both people who use AI and who don’t.

Would you like me to write another reply, but closer to your voice and more playful?

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

@AlexHartsuff 2 clients a month at 20kish each is perfect for me. I’m very happy with this arrangement and client lifecycle is 6-8 months. 10 clients at 2k each sounds exhausting on multiple fronts.

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

@TokenGremlin What an exciting month man. The hype is real.

[Token Gremlin @TokenGremlin]

Google's launch caught OpenAI off guard. But apparently, they didn't delay their big release out of fear. They delayed it so they could include Gemini in the benchmarks.

I'm optimistic we'll see GPT-6.1 Luna and GPT-6.1 Astra soon, and I really hope Astra beats both Opus 5.5 and Gemini 4 Carbon.

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

@SpartanPsyche Built my body, my career, my business, and my creative pursuits this way. Have fallen down the promise and not commit trap several painful times. Once I locked in and did things no matter what every single day it became painful not to do those things.

[Leo | Phalanx Labs @SpartanPsyche]

Your brain changes from what you repeat on ordinary days, not from one big promise after a bad night. One small thing done every day for a month does more than a perfect week you can't keep up. Frequency beats force, and the person you're becoming is built on the boring days.

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

I recently had a forced resignation that turned into a lucrative consulting career, which has allowed me much more free time to pursue creative interests while almost doubling my income. I was absolutely prepared for it but it was a hairy couple of weeks when the rug was pulled out from under me!

[Essential Mastery @EssentialMastry]

“The more you understand this world, the more you destroy yourself. That's why fools are happy, and intelligent people live in loneliness.”

- Fyodor Dostoevsky

[Carl Jung Archive @QuoteJung]

read this twice:

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

@Gentleman_Ways Love his essays and Self Reliance is something I come back to time and time again. Master wordsmith.

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

@poteto any ideas for integrating Grok Bot into this build or expanding the use case? Would love your thoughts on this if it’s not too bold to ask

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

What I’m enjoying about vibe coding with AI is being able to follow a strange idea and seeing where it goes. I'm doing this for the love of the game; this is a private app that I will likely just put out as open source if people dig it.

It's called 'The Grimoire': a companion for writing my novel, shaped by what I’ve learned about writing through books and courses, and a little Winamp nostalgia.

Sharing it while I’m still figuring it out, quirks, bugs, and all.

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

@mfishbein Congrats man and totally agree. I’m just getting started but committing to being authentic to myself and my journey. The right connections and audience will find their way. I’m on board for the creator journey 🤙🏻

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

@Ansenjeo Really special work here man. I’ve been in awe watching you create this. It’s incredibly inspirational. Gets my creative juices flowing whenever I see one of your vids.

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

@himarkyi I’m absolutely on board, this sounds awesome. Thank you!

[Stephen Penders @StephenPenders]

@marclou Things will slowly go towards voice and back to chat boxes with UI or interactive interfaces being built by AI on the stop so people can visualize when needed. But as someone above said, B2B will take forever to catch up.