Tag
#build-in-public.
Real Numbers: a newsletter for engineers building on the side
I launched Real Numbers — the newsletter that replaces my original one here. It documents my side income publicly: every stream, every two weeks, no omissions. First issue: July 1, 2026.
The Real AI Side Hustle Is Live on Amazon
My first book is live on Amazon — the honest result of testing the '$10k/month with AI' methods every YouTuber sells. What the process took, and what's next.
Why I cut my AI book from 17 chapters to 11 before I finished it
I planned an 80,000-word book, then cut it from 17 chapters to 11 before the draft was done. The build-in-public story of why shorter got better.
I gave myself 60 days to bootstrap side income with Claude Code
A senior engineer's honest 60-day log of using AI tooling to ship real products — what actually got built, what it earned, and what I'd do differently.
How I Built This Site with Claude Code
A build log of charlesmcquain.dev — why I chose Astro and Tailwind, how I drove the whole thing with Claude Code, and the architecture decisions (and one nasty CSS bug) along the way.