Build It Faster

Mike and Joe
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Build it Faster with Mike and Joe

  1. 3d ago

    Amazon.com Isn’t a Budget Category (BiF 20)

    Expense tracking breaks down when one Amazon.com bank row hides groceries, candy, and household purchases. Mike and Joe compare two very different ways to budget: a zero-based monthly spreadsheet and an annualized cash-flow system built around obligations and flex spending. They work through leftover money, overspending, annual bills, travel, ambiguous merchant transactions, and the manual work behind accurate categories. They also discuss Joe’s custom budgeting application and where Claude can help. The key constraint: the spreadsheet or application still has to encode the rules you chose; AI can operate the workflow, but it should not invent your financial model. In this episode: - What happens when every dollar has a job but the month changes - Rolling over leftovers and handling overspending - Saving for annual and irregular expenses - Categorizing individual receipt items instead of whole merchant rows - Separating obligations from flexible spending - Using Claude to reduce transaction-management friction This is an account of the hosts’ own systems, not personalized financial advice or a downloadable budgeting app. 00:00 Two approaches to budgeting 00:56 Every dollar has a job 08:48 Mike's budget spreadsheet 13:20 What does an Amazon.com row mean? 18:41 Joe's annualized cash-flow model 26:13 The three budget charts 33:34 Receipt scraping and item categorization 40:57 Obligations versus flex 43:22 Purchase history as a household inventory 46:18 Does Claude still need a budgeting app? 49:54 What to do with a flex buffer More Build It Faster: https://fasterpod.com

  2. Oct 16

    Claude Helped Fix a Pump—and an Agent Helps Us Publish (BiF 19)

    Mike reports fixing his septic air pump with an $80 repair kit after considering a roughly $300 replacement. Joe walks through the podcast agent: cache the exports, review available analytics, propose focused longs and experiments, prepare a review package, then publish after approval. Also: an HOA website waiting for a domain change, custom Slack emojis, hardware stories, and whether Claude can replace parts of a budgeting app. This is a conversation about personal experience, not a pump repair tutorial. Costs and outcomes are Mike’s account. The production workflow still needs manual YouTube B/C setup; Spotify analytics are not yet connected despite the broader description in the conversation. Build It Faster — season 1, episode 19.

  3. Oct 14

    Using Claude for Home Projects With Joel (BiF 18)

    Using Claude for home projects, Joel, Mike, and Joe discuss Home Assistant setup, self-hosting, and hands-on fault diagnosis. Joel shares how a new home workshop changed his approach to 3D printing, why he assembled a personal radio station around his music library and cloned voice, and how Claude now handles configuration work he could do himself but does not have time for. Mike also explains how Claude helped him identify a torn diaphragm in an above-ground air pump; the repair kit still needed to be fitted at the time of recording. They also get into: - Three-legged versus four-legged tables - Kids asking surprisingly difficult questions - Proving intermittent ISP latency - Wiring a new house for Ethernet - Home Assistant automations and self-hosted services - Building a neighbor’s website - Orchestrators and a granularity gradient for software work This is an informal project conversation, not a step-by-step repair, radio, or Home Assistant tutorial. More Build It Faster: https://fasterpod.com 0:00 Meet Joel 9:25 A home workshop and 3D printing 18:10 Three legs, four legs, and wobbly tables 25:27 Curious kids and how things work 31:03 Candy detour 39:26 Joel FM: a personal AI radio station 42:43 Proving intermittent ISP latency 45:15 Wiring a new house 47:31 Claude for Home Assistant and self-hosting 51:19 A website for a neighbor 52:35 Diagnosing an air-pump failure 56:00 An orchestrator and a granularity gradient

  4. Oct 13

    When PMs Start Shipping Code with AI (BiF 17)

    Michael returns from a working road trip and catches up with Joe on a major refactor of their meeting app. They discuss separating board rules from networking and question whether peer-to-peer sync is still the right choice. Then Michael describes how AI has changed his work as a PM: when he writes a small PR himself, when he hands a problem back to engineers, and what happened when a six-PR solution grew beyond his reach. They explore shared work with an agent in a Slack thread, time set aside to improve skills, and a customer-service lead who built a spreadsheet validation tool for her team. The refactor and team workflows are works in progress. This conversation shares their choices and lessons, not a finished product demo or a universal process. More Build It Faster: https://fasterpod.com

  5. Sep 25

    A Failed Join Made Us Rethink Our Meeting App (BiF 16)

    One person could not join a real session in our meeting app. Joe and Michael discuss what this means for its peer-to-peer design. They compare it with a hosted real-time service and weigh privacy against a simpler setup. They also discuss short-lived retro boards and how they work on the project from a phone and a cloud development setup. This is a design discussion. They have not measured a user limit or built the hosted option. More Build It Faster: https://fasterpod.com

  6. Jul 19

    Claude, Codex, and the Agent Harness Problem (BIF Ep 15)

    Claude and Codex workflows depend on more than the model: context, permissions, quotas, and the harness shape the result. Mike, Joe, and Josh talk through a practical AI coding agent discussion: testing a new AI coding tool on Windows, deciding how much access to give an agent, how Claude and Codex handle projects differently, and why moving work between harnesses is not always seamless. Topics include: - AI coding agents on Windows - Claude, Codex, and different agent harnesses - Giving agents repo access without handing over private data - Owning your context instead of fighting tool-specific project state - Claude subscription limits, third-party usage, and token burn - Why learning the harness matters before expecting the workflow to transfer Chapters: - 00:00 Opening - 00:23 Combining the episode and testing an AI tool on Windows - 11:04 The first magic and reliability gap - 20:59 Enterprise concerns and agent permissions - 22:25 Letting Codex work on trusted repos - 27:33 Context windows and agent harnesses - 34:23 Claude, subscriptions, and third-party harnesses - 39:13 Extra usage, token burn, and safety questions - 43:09 Owning your context - 44:19 Moving context between different harnesses - 50:04 Learning how each harness works More Build It Faster: https://fasterpod.com

  7. Jul 13

    Cutting Friction in a Google Meet App (BIF Ep 14)

    Mike and Joe celebrate launching their Google Meet lean coffee app, work through branding and early feedback, reduce friction in the Meet experience, assess mobile usability, and reflect on AI-assisted development patterns they want to reuse. - 0:00 Celebrating Rapid Development - 2:47 Exploring Branding and Domain Names - 5:34 Feedback and User Experience - 8:37 Mobile Experience and Usability - 11:49 Lessons Learned from Development - 17:38 Applying Knowledge to Future Projects

  8. Jul 13

    Using Claude to Ship Code and Kill Busywork (BIF Ep 13)

    Joe preps for the AI Engineer World’s Fair, Mike and Joe review Google Marketplace rejection fixes, then Mike shares how he used Claude for a first production PR and automated his photography paperwork workflow. - 0:00 Anticipation for the AI Engineer World's Fair Conference - 2:53 Goals and Expectations for the Conference - 6:06 Networking and Knowledge Acquisition Strategies - 9:04 Exploring AI in Literature and Media - 12:08 Preparing for Effective Networking - 14:57 Transitioning to New Topics and Future Discussions - 16:05 Navigating Rejection: Lessons from Google Marketplace - 21:00 Personal Growth: Achievements in Project Management - 33:34 Streamlining Photography: Automating the Creative Process

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About

Build it Faster with Mike and Joe

Information

  • Creator
    Mike and Joe
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    20
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Mike and Joe
  • Show Website
    Build It Faster