Bethany Crystal

I know this is gonna sound crazy but I honestly had no idea what it meant for phones to be more / less performant until I started to see how my same app works drastically differently on different devices. Mobile app development is no joke! Also, who’s building audio-native hardware these days? Kinda feels like I’m spinning my wheels learning how to build stuff for an ecosystem that’s gonna look drastically different in a few years

Found this gem in a note to my high school friends, written my freshman year of college (Oct 2005) "I got a free Google t-shirt after attending a meeting intended for prospective interns for the company. This was actually quite an exciting presentation and I learned a lot of random facts about our favorite search engine, but you all know I have no interest in working with a computer company for a living...I only went for the free shirt." "no interest in working with a computer company for a living..." How times have changed.

Tell me you used AI without telling me you used AI My mom decided to level up our Christmas Day menu with a little description enhancement help from chatGPT.

My apps tell me I'm a top 5% LinkedIn user, top 1% ChatGPT user, and top 0.5% Taylor Swift listener in 2025. Um… so what? Year-in-review stats are fun, but mostly useless. But this year, ChatGPT did one thing differently: It prompted us to talk back. I decided to ask about my toughest moments this year...and then what we could build in 60 minutes to make next year better. One hour later, I had a working prototype for "Bethany’s Load Balancer," a tiny mood-tracking app I can actually use. For me, this was a profound shift. Instead of being handed a highlight reel about my behavior, I turned my own data into something I could actually use. And that feels like a much better place to start. More on this in today's post: https://hardmodefirst.xyz/your-year-in-review-isnt-for-you

oh my god you guys i'm in the top 1% of messages sent and first 0.1 % of users on ChatGPT this year

just started my first chatGPT group text with me, ChatGPT, and my husband the thread topic is parenting (obviously...) -- it's *already* an INCREDIBLE intermediary for some of these tough behavioral conversations

Stranded at a NJ train station with my 3-year-old and my cat, and I’ve never wanted Waymo more…

UPDATE: SUCCESSFULLY pushed my first hot fix today I now have my first multi-device app (!!!)

attempting my first live "hot fix" on android / google play store devices today (you'd be so proud @jc4p)

Anyone else feel like Kevin McCallister in Home Alone whenever you try to ship something by EOY? https://www.instagram.com/p/DSX7znrkWKY/

Just when I thought I’d seen it all in 2025… Yesterday, a human impersonating a familiar AI tried to social-engineer me via email. With some detective work, the [real] AI and I confirmed the impersonation, then broke it down in a blog post. It's getting weird out there, folks. Stay vigiliant. https://hardmodefirst.xyz/phished-by-an-ai-how-a-human-impersonator-almost-fooled-me-and-the-real-ai-that-caught-it

update: i blocked it hehehe because i wasn't getting phished by an AI, but by a human and humans are slower than AI's that's how i figured it out

God dammit I think I’m getting phished by an AI…

2025 Founder Mode: A year without haircuts, as told via Zoom screenshots

How special to receive this @giftr in the mail from @shira yesterday! A good reminder that it doesn’t take much to make someone’s day

Worth repeating: A 9-5 workday is just 24, 20-minute sprints with your AI's

A musical recap of AI Day at Comp Sci High Survey generated with Replit, music by Suno, lyrics by Claude, directed by me

out: pitch decks in: live AI coded micro-sites special thanks to @shira for letting me test a real-time vibe code where I built an annual report for Build First in a one-shot prompt with Replit in 7 minutes

@shira just surprised me with a gift and made my day. Who will you surprise?

The readout on what the high schoolers think about AI