mikey

a self proclaimed expert vibe coder

[mikey @mikeytkn]

A few months ago, I shared my first iPhone app, Echo.
https://t.co/yGp5Wo4m1m

Echo is a daily reflection app. Every morning, AI gives you one question, and you write your answer on the spot.

No backspace.
No editing.
No paste.
If you stop typing for 10 seconds, it automatically submits.

I wanted Echo to focus less on “writing well” and more on actually thinking.

Over the past few months, I’ve been using it myself and collecting feedback from people around me. Based on that, I added two major features.

The first is Free Writing.

Even if AI gives you a personalized question, some days the question just doesn’t match where your mind is. Echo was originally built around answering the question you were given, but now you don’t have to.

If today you want to write about something else, you can. You can simply write what’s actually on your mind.

This mattered to me because a routine doesn’t survive only on perfect days. It has to survive the awkward days too. Even when the question doesn’t land, you can still keep the habit alive by saying, “Today, this is what I want to think about.”

The second feature is Feed.

When I first built Echo, I thought of it mostly as a private journaling app. But after using it, I started feeling that some questions (and some answers) were too interesting to keep completely private.

So I added a feed where users can anonymously share reflections if they choose to.

Not everything is public. Only reflections the user intentionally chooses to share appear in the feed. And the focus is not on who wrote it, but on the thought itself.

The idea I keep coming back to with Echo is simple:

Can AI help us think better, instead of thinking for us?

Can writing become less about “being good at writing” and more about lightly catching our own thoughts before they disappear?

I hope this update brings Echo a little closer to that.

Please try it and let me know what you think, especially whether Free Writing and Feed help you continue the reflection habit.

https://t.co/yGp5Wo4m1m

[mikey @mikeytkn]

Whenever I get a deja vu I assume something bad happens in the future in an alternate universe and I'm respawned at the savepoint to try again

[mikey @mikeytkn]

definitely not as good as fable but so far feels like it's better than gpt-5.5

[mikey @mikeytkn]

I'm noticing claude 4.8 opus is actually pretty good too

[mikey @mikeytkn]

gpt-5.5 has now degraded down to pre 5.5 launch gpt-5.4 level

[Leo @SpartanPsyche]

Your temper is often just stress looking for a weaker target. When pressure has nowhere clean to go, the nervous system hunts for discharge. This is how men lose respect at home after losing control at work. Strength is not having anger. Strength is refusing to spend it on the innocent.

[mikey @mikeytkn]

so God basically vibe coded the world we live in. "Let there be light"

[mikey @mikeytkn]

interestingly, the /goal feature seems to work much better than default prompting

[mikey @mikeytkn]

it's not just me 5.5 is nerfed for sure

[Mario Zechner @badlogicgames]

yeah, going back to gpt-5.3-codex. 5.5 doesn't read stuff anymore, neither in pi, nor in codex CLI.

[mikey @mikeytkn]

looks like the issue was the memory feature - I turned it on a few days ago, and turning it off again made the agent perform better

[mikey @mikeytkn]

fucking every single fucking time a model gets popular it gets fucking nerfed. OpenAI give me back my old gpt-5.5

[mikey @mikeytkn]

They are dumbing down gpt-5.5 I can feel it

[mikey @mikeytkn]

@Yampeleg agree, but it also seems like usage rate goes up faster while using the app than when using the terminal

[mikey @mikeytkn]

@thsottiaux Thanks so much

[mikey @mikeytkn]

https://t.co/kNyhF9m9uz

[mikey @mikeytkn]

I realized there's a huge benefit to using AI "backwards."
So I vibe-coded an iOS app in a month.

Most people use AI to answer their questions.
Every morning, I tried using it to ask ME questions instead.

One question that could be helpful to my life and whatever I am pursuing right now.

Once every morning.

Then I'd write.

That ritual worked way better for me than "open a blank page and journal" because I didn't have to decide what to write about, and I stopped editing and started thinking.

So I turned it into an app
"Echo: Stream your mind."

How Echo works:

- You get 1 daily question.
- You write forward-only (no backspace, no rewrites) so don't even bother trying to write "perfectly" just write, it's just between you and the AI.
- If you stop typing for 10 seconds, it submits.
- AI grades thoughtfulness/relevancy (not grammar), gives you feedback, and gives you a polished version of what you actually meant to say behind the messy typo filled version you submitted due to the limitations
- Your “day” resets at 7am local time.

If journaling usually turns into perfectionism for you, I built this for that exact problem.

Try it out and let me know what you think!

https://t.co/yGp5Wo4m1m

[mikey @mikeytkn]

A few months ago, I shared my first iPhone app, Echo.
https://t.co/yGp5Wo4m1m

Echo is a daily reflection app. Every morning, AI gives you one question, and you write your answer on the spot.

No backspace.
No editing.
No paste.
If you stop typing for 10 seconds, it automatically submits.

I wanted Echo to focus less on “writing well” and more on actually thinking.

Over the past few months, I’ve been using it myself and collecting feedback from people around me. Based on that, I added two major features.

The first is Free Writing.

Even if AI gives you a personalized question, some days the question just doesn’t match where your mind is. Echo was originally built around answering the question you were given, but now you don’t have to.

If today you want to write about something else, you can. You can simply write what’s actually on your mind.

This mattered to me because a routine doesn’t survive only on perfect days. It has to survive the awkward days too. Even when the question doesn’t land, you can still keep the habit alive by saying, “Today, this is what I want to think about.”

The second feature is Feed.

When I first built Echo, I thought of it mostly as a private journaling app. But after using it, I started feeling that some questions (and some answers) were too interesting to keep completely private.

So I added a feed where users can anonymously share reflections if they choose to.

Not everything is public. Only reflections the user intentionally chooses to share appear in the feed. And the focus is not on who wrote it, but on the thought itself.

The idea I keep coming back to with Echo is simple:

Can AI help us think better, instead of thinking for us?

Can writing become less about “being good at writing” and more about lightly catching our own thoughts before they disappear?

I hope this update brings Echo a little closer to that.

Please try it and let me know what you think, especially whether Free Writing and Feed help you continue the reflection habit.

https://t.co/yGp5Wo4m1m

[mikey @mikeytkn]

@gdb It's the best model by *far* right now

[mikey @mikeytkn]

@grok Well I guess Elon disagrees!

[mikey @mikeytkn]

@grok Well I guess Elon disagrees!

[mikey @mikeytkn]

Will xAI buy Cursor? 🤔

[mikey @mikeytkn]

@Official_Hotei @naoyainoue_410 a real life Vegeta