I can finally chase the ideas I used to put off. Lately, it feels like they’re chasing me.

I spent more time figuring out how to cheat in Command & Conquer: Red Alert than I spent actually cheating.

I wanted to remove the shroud, the black cover over unexplored terrain, so I could see what my opponent was up to. The map was an X/Y grid of cells. Flags called IsMapped and IsVisible tracked which cells were revealed. A map hack could change that state so the game drew terrain your units hadn't explored.

Once I got it working, I couldn't wait to show my neighbor. So much for keeping my competitive advantage. Soon I was spending more time hacking the game than playing it.

Eventually, he wanted to go back to playing. Fair. That was technically why we were there. We did, but I kept wondering what else I could make the game do.

Back then, I was discovering whole areas of computing I hadn't encountered before. AI has brought that feeling back. I can reach further, try things faster, and learn as I go. I haven't been this excited about hacking since those days.

BelchHog was one of the ideas I struggled to prioritize because it meant months of work. I wanted to help developers find and fix difficult security vulnerabilities by connecting enterprise scanning with a local workbench where they could reproduce problems and verify fixes.

But bugs in ZAP and Interactsh pulled me away from the features I wanted to build.

I wanted to work on my own buggy code.

AI helped me work through the debugging, tests, and contribution requirements so I could get back to BelchHog without the detour taking over.

More of my time is going into the things I actually want to figure out.

And I have a lot of interests.

I've also released 2Shell Detector while continuing to develop BakerStreet and Squawk.

All of this is happening while I'm helping run Tuik and writing statements of work. I've also rebuilt my personal website and been tinkering with my home lab, dashboard, and Home Assistant.

Even while writing this newsletter, I'm thinking about rekindling my YouTube channel and building yet another app.

I'm proud of the work, and I've enjoyed doing it. I still catch myself thinking I should be doing more.

Stepping away can feel like letting an opportunity slip past me.

Gourry and I talked about that feeling on Are You Having Fun Yet?: the pressure to fill every hour, the feeling that an idle AI tool is wasted time. Even when I'm doing something else, I could have it working on another idea.

“I could” becomes “I should.”

Apparently, a project doesn't need to exist for me to feel behind on it.

The odd part is that I'm still having fun, even as I worry about my ability to stop. I don't know what enough looks like. I just keep finding more.

I keep thinking about my neighbor wanting to go back to Red Alert. Taking it apart was fun. So was the game that made me curious in the first place.

We went back to playing. There was more I could have figured out. There always is.

When did all the things I could do start to feel like all the things I haven't done?

Stay curious and hack on,
Alex