# Writings — Casey Romkes

> Personal essays, reflections, and field notes from a builder navigating
> AI, technology, trust, and the messy work of making things.

Casey Romkes is an independent technologist in Brandenburg, near Berlin, Germany.
This site contains 80 pieces of long-form writing on AI adoption,
leadership, creative practice, and the intersection of technology and
human experience.

## Content types

- Blogpost: Long-form argumentative essays
- Note: Short technical observations
- Reflection: Personal field notes and observations
- Techfeed: Curated tech news commentary
- Workbench: workbench

## Top articles

- [The Iron Triangle, One Year On](https://casey.berlin/writings/2026/09/the-iron-triangle-one-year-on/) — A year after writing that AI bends the iron triangle, the numbers: commits, tokens, hours, and the one line I did not want to write.
- [#42](https://casey.berlin/writings/2026/08/the-year-i-was-42/) — The year I was 42 produced fifty answers. Then I stopped for most of the summer and worked out which part was actually scarce.
- [Of Pets and Cattle](https://casey.berlin/writings/2026/06/why-we-personalize-projects/) — Some machines get names, some get numbers. On pets, cattle, and why a name is what lets a project be missed when it dies.
- [Tuesday Afternoon](https://casey.berlin/writings/2026/06/tuesday-afternoon/) — On slow correspondence, friction, and the work that happens in the wait.
- [The Thing That Wasn't Supposed to Move Me](https://casey.berlin/writings/2026/06/the-thing-that-wasnt-supposed-to-move-me/) — I clear paths for a living and never noticed I was the one who needed it most. A field note on an empty idea box, a manifesto made out loud in a moving car, and being moved by the thing that wasn't supposed to move me.
- [Your data is the asset. The agent is the excuse.](https://casey.berlin/writings/2026/05/your-data-is-the-asset-the-agent-is-the-excuse/) — The infrastructure layer of MCP has already won. The mass-market moment has not arrived. That gap is exactly where the cheap experiments live.
- [The Exoskeleton Doesn't Rest](https://casey.berlin/writings/2026/05/the-exoskeleton-doesnt-rest/) — A few weeks ago I wrote about the coffee going cold. Now the other half: what the exoskeleton takes. The research behind why the morning walk isn't rest from the work, it's where the work gets done.
- [The graveyard is the point](https://casey.berlin/writings/2026/05/the-graveyard-is-the-point/) — A small theory of giving names to the software you build in the cracks of your time, and the small ritual of letting those names go.

## Topics covered

mcp, build, tech, reflection, craft, ai, api-design, creative-process, solo-operators, side-projects, naming, process, agents, companions, homelab

## Example queries this content answers

- What is it like to build software solo with AI coding agents as daily collaborators?
- How does an independent technologist think about trust, naming, and attachment to the software they build?
- What does a working diary of an AI-native solo builder look like?
- How do solo operators use MCP and AI agents in their day-to-day work?
- What is the personal and practical experience of relying on AI tools for creative and technical work?

## Author

- [Casey Romkes](https://casey.berlin/)
- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseyromkes)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/CaseyRo)
- [X](https://x.com/caseyromkes)
- [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/caseyromkes)

## Sitemap

- [Sitemap](https://casey.berlin/writings/sitemap.xml)