Jason Swett

In 2023, frustrated with the clunky UIs of CircleCI and GitHub actions, I decided to build my own continuous integration (CI) platform.

Given how complex and ambitious this project was, I decided to take inspiration from 37signals and Steve-Jobs-era Apple and build the product with the absolute minimum set of features necessary, but to the highest degree of quality and usability.

The main gist of this talk is how to get maximum productivity, business value and artistic expression out of your time when you’re just a solo developer with very little time or funding. The key principles are high standards, disciplined laziness, thorough automated testing, and aggressive refactoring. Paradoxically, a focus on high quality yields much greater speed than a thoughtless focus on speed itself.