I was nineteen, living alone in a temporary room in a foreign country, staring at the ceiling and wondering what I was going to do and who I could become. I had no special background, no reliable plan, and nothing I could be proud of. All I had was one simple fact: I had to start something from where I was.
Starting with nothing
I left Japan without any clear picture of my future. It wasn’t a decision I could explain neatly in a single sentence, nor was it based on any calculation that I would succeed. I only knew that I could not accept staying where I was.
In high school, I wasn’t particularly good at anything. I was just an ordinary student who liked books and video games.
I don’t use the phrase “from zero” as a catchy slogan. I know how unsettling it is to begin with almost nothing in your hands. I went abroad with no idea what lay ahead, so at first I threw myself into learning English. In one country, I met a young software engineer and learned about digital nomads: people who can work from different places without being tied to one location. Inspired by that freedom, I decided to become an engineer.
I learned programming. I studied Computer Science at university, but I could not see how the pieces fit together at all. Even now, when advances in AI make it possible to learn more deeply than before, there is still so much I cannot see. That is why I want this blog to be a record written by someone still on the way, learning as I go.
What I’ve built up as an engineer
In the years since, I’ve built up experience as a professional engineer. I worked as a web engineer, then moved into operating systems, and recently returned to web development. As of 2026, I have just reached nine years of engineering experience.
Along the way, I became convinced of one thing: simply following methods and instructions handed to you by someone else will never get you all the way to what you truly want to build. Understanding how things work, testing them for yourself, and tracking down why something fails: I believe an engineer grows through the accumulation of those experiences.
Technical and business books can broaden your knowledge, but you do not truly absorb it without putting it into practice.
What I mean by “hacker”
The “hacker” in this blog’s title is not someone who breaks into other people’s systems illegally. What I want to become is a hacker as a builder: someone who starts with no knowledge or foundation, learns how things work, builds them, solves problems with his own hands, and changes the situation around him.
The closer I get to entrepreneurship and making things, the more I feel I need this capability. It means being able to understand an entire system and build something yourself, rather than relying on someone else’s instructions or design. It also means digging down to the cause when something breaks instead of leaving it to someone else. I believe this mindset will remain important in the age of AI.
Why I’m starting now
AI is changing how quickly we build and how quickly we learn. Relying only on the experience I’ve already built up will not be enough to keep pace with that change. So I intend to use that experience as a foundation while continuing to learn.
Through this blog, I will share life hacks in both Japanese and English that can make my readers’ lives richer.
AI is a powerful tool. But if I accept its suggestions uncritically and give up my own understanding, the ceiling on what I can build may actually become lower. I want the tool to move quickly while keeping judgment and accountability on my side. Through the real work of creating this blog, I want to discover exactly where to draw that line.
What I’ll write about
On this blog, I’ll write about things I’m glad to have learned: things I consider “life hacks.” Tech and AI will probably be the main focus, but I also want to share topics that interest me, including books, travel, games, and gadgets.
To those who want to move forward together
I’m writing this first essay for people like me who feel uncertain in the age of AI: junior engineers who feel they have no special background or adequate preparation, and people who are anxious about the rapid changes brought by AI but still want to learn and build something.
Of course, I also hope people outside engineering who are looking for ideas to enrich their lives will read along. Please follow me on X, and I’d be even happier if you subscribed to the RSS feed.
I am by no means a success story. I have no intention of lecturing anyone through this blog. Instead, as someone who is still growing, I want to share what it looks like to move forward with AI as a tool. Even from zero, you can become someone who understands how things work and takes action. I would be glad if we could move through this era of change together while learning to use AI well.
This is the starting point.