AI Development Journey | Paul Takisaki

How It Happened

Four phases. Twenty months. A lot of late nights.

Scroll horizontally to explore the journey

Phase 01

The Curious Beginner

June – August 2024

Understanding feasibility and breaking the "magic" barrier.

Commit Velocity ~5/week

First Questions

Asked Claude "Can you remember across chats?"

Started on a Windows machine with zero coding background. Struggled to differentiate between the Python shell and Command Prompt. Asked, "Can websites be coded in Python?"

First Automation

Birthday card pipeline with Make.com + GPT API

Built a birthday card automation pipeline using Handwrytten, Make.com, and GPT API. Early awareness of the tool ecosystem: "Could I use make.com for step 3?"

The Pivot to Code

No-code tools were limiting. Installed Python.

Realized no-code tools were limiting custom vision. Installed Wing Pro IDE and Python. First build: "Help me code a weather app with APIs." Learned that APIs are not magic, but structured contracts.

Python Make.com GPT API

Phase 02

The "Big Bang"

September 2024 – May 2025

Rapid experimentation. Learning by shipping. Breaking things.

Commit Velocity ~25/day (Oct)

6 Projects in One Month

todo-app, ZeroEffortAI, TheFinalsLoadout...

October 2024 explosion: todo-app (React practice), ZeroEffortAI (prompt library), TheFinalsLoadout (Vanilla JS), premium-response-generator, and HeritageWhisper V2 initialization.

763 Commits in October

~25 commits per day average

HeritageWhisper V2 initialization (Sept 30) followed by explosive development. State management bugs cascade lesson learned: "We went backwards. Now it's spinning the wrong direction."

The "Great Error Log"

18 errors in one terminal session

May 8, 2025: A massive multi-agent coding session (Claude + GPT pipeline) generated 18 recorded errors. Hit hard limits on context_length_exceeded and max_tokens. Learned to chunk tasks and "fail loud".

Next.js 14 React Supabase TypeScript Zustand

Phase 03

Architecting HeritageWhisper

August – October 2025

Production-grade architecture, security, and strategic constraint.

Commit Velocity ~10/day

Voice-First Strategy

"Seniors just talk, no typing"

Strategic pivot for elderly users. Prompt engineering breakthrough: "The long prompt is way worse than the short prompt." Zero-shot voice prompts outperformed elaborate instructions.

Security Architecture

Supabase Auth + RLS + WebAuthn

Implemented Row Level Security (RLS) to enforce tenant isolation. Added WebAuthn passkeys (TouchID/FaceID for seniors). Ethics decision: Rewrote public copy to avoid overpromising on compliance.

Stripe Integration

No "heroic wiring." Native integration.

Rejected manual API wiring in favor of Vercel's native Stripe integration. Forced webhooks to Node runtime (not Edge) because raw body verification failed in Edge environments.

Next.js 15 OpenAI Realtime WebAuthn Stripe Drizzle ORM

Phase 04

The Operator & Technical Founder

November 2025 – February 2026

Scale, SEO, advanced automation, and "AI Leader" operations.

Commit Velocity ~11/day

MCP Integration

Supabase + GitHub + Vercel MCPs

Connected Model Context Protocol servers for Supabase, GitHub, and Vercel. Discovered Claude Code's UI didn't support specific OAuth flows, requiring CLI configuration.

SEO Strategy Launch

4 content clusters defined

December 2025: Defined four SEO clusters (Memory Book, Legacy Book, Family Memory, Competitor Comparisons) to target high-intent traffic. Multi-tier personalization system designed.

PR Strategy & Soft Launch

Japanese American publications outreach

February 2026: Executed soft-launch messaging targeting Japanese American publications, leveraging the 442nd RCT family story. "Treat automation like production infrastructure."

Claude Code MCP Remotion React Native PDFShift