Behind Potato Lab
Ahmed
Engineer by choice, tinkerer by nature, coffee lover by ritual.
I like knowing how things work, and the easiest way for me to find out is to build them. Potato Lab is where the odd ideas end up, the ones I make because they sound fun and not because anyone asked for them.
The projects are all over the place. Some are low-level C++ work with camera frames and pixels, like the bug I spent ages on that only showed up when both cameras were recording at once. Others are small, playful things built around shapes and words. A lot of them are about making hard-to-picture things visible: DasViz animates data structures as you push and pop, OFlo lays out an AI agent setup on a canvas, and PopWord puts new vocabulary on your home screen.
For a long time I kept side projects in private repos until they felt finished, so most of them never came out. These days I decide what "done" means before I start, and when I get there, I ship it.
Break a big system into small pieces, then fit them back together into one complete puzzle.
That's pretty much how I approach everything. It's also why the projects here are small. I learn more from finishing something small than from polishing something big forever, and it's usually only after shipping that I find out what the work really needed.
How I work
Stay curious
Creativity is just curiosity that didn't quit. I keep pulling the thread long after everyone else has put it down. That's usually where the good stuff is hiding.
Embrace imperfection
A dozen small, imperfect steps beat waiting on one perfect solution. Ship it, learn from it, make it better. That's how progress actually happens.
Stand out, not in
Nobody remembers the safe, average thing. I'd rather build something specific for someone real than something merely fine for everyone.
What I reach for
- Languages
- KotlinC++
- Android
- Jetpack ComposeCoroutines & FlowHiltRoomMulti-module architecture
- Camera & graphics
- Camera2MediaCodecOpenGL ESJNI / NDK
- Also
- Kotlin MultiplatformKtorOn-device MLCI/CD
Off the clock
Slow mornings, longer routes, and the kind of conversations that lose track of time. The best ideas tend to arrive when I stop chasing them, so I make room: coffee before code, walks that run longer than planned, a garden that needs more patience than I have.