iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Eli Finer @finereli.com · 18/05/2025

Doing some crazy things health wise on this nomad journey - We're 4 weeks into an intermittent fasting schedule, eating roughly form 12pm to 8pm (although I usually cheat with a late night snack). We've done 3 full day Saturday fasts. And this weekend we did two 24h fasts back to back. ...

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 15/05/2025

I'm back. How have you guys been?

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 04/03/2025

Nobody has ever painted me before 🥹

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 24/02/2025

Last day in our small mountain town, saying good bye to our local coffee shop. Energies are running high 😂

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 21/02/2025

Remember how I was planning to build CoachBuddy as a sort of AI note taker for coaches? Decided to try the biggest competitor out - Fathom. And I got to tell you, it's excellent. I don't have a lot to add. Paid for a subscription right away. #buildinpublic

still.be

Intralogistics - oplossingen op maat in het magazijn | STILL België

STILL is de toonaangevende leverancier van op maat gemaakte intralogistieke oplossingen, hoogwaardige elektrische vorkheftrucks ✓ pallettrucks ✓ en opslagtechnologie en reksystemen die op uw behoeften...

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 19/02/2025

Grew tired of trying to figure out the optimal rate at which a teleprompter scrolled. Built a simple open source teleprompter that tracks your voice and scrolls the text at the rate of your speech. Now I can finally record that video I need. github.com/elifiner/aut... #buildinbublic

github.com

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 18/02/2025

Making progress with my ghostwriter AI project, trying to get Claude to write in my style. The system prompt is over 15k words by now! 🤯 But the actual prompt to write a post is just one line. (sometimes I need to run it through a few times to get something I like, but slop % seems low)

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 14/02/2025

Doing something extra meta tonight: Using AI to analyze my conversations with AI to find significant pieces of writing I did in long chats and turn them into a mega prompt. The mega prompt should be enough to show AI how to write like me. Should I feed it all my Bluesky posts too? #buildinpublic

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 13/02/2025

This is a sand filled kettlebell and when it's empty is so tiny that I can carry it with me while traveling - even though I only have a tiny carry-on to pack in. Pretty cool piece of gear.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 12/02/2025

Motivation is the most scarce resource in entrepreneurship. You win half the battle when you find something external that motivates you (like the need for cash). You win the other half when you find something internal.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 12/02/2025

Ran the numbers on how much we're going to be making on renting out our house while traveling. Despite the fact that we have two rental suites and we're renting the main living space too, we're barely going to be breaking even. Didn't expect that.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 12/02/2025

One thing I think I'm going to miss when traveling is fast Amazon deliveries and free returns. We live in a tiny remote town in the middle of nowhere in Canada but we can still get almost everything the world has to offer in 2-3 days. Have these silly worries a few times a day now.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 11/02/2025

Researching nomad travel insurance and the conclusion seems to be roughly equivalent to "if you get sick you're fucked", mostly regardless of insurance provider. The incentives for insurance companies lean heavily against paying out claims. Negative reviews should balance this but don't seem to.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 11/02/2025

In two weeks I'll be leaving the cold Canadian winters behind, probably for a long time. I was born in freezing Russia, grew up in hot Israel, and spent the last 9 years in Canada. Froze my butt off. Time for another hot period.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 11/02/2025

Built a safe Reddit client for teenagers that only shows a couple of safe subs with a hard coded filter SFW filter. teenreddit.finereli.com Super barebones version, will extend if my kid or anyone else needs it. #buildinpublic

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 11/02/2025

I'm coding in Flutter using Cursor. I've never written a line of Dart. I've never even installed the build tools. Cursor agent is doing everything and explaining things as it goes. What a time to be alive! 🥹

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 11/02/2025

Wanted 11 y/o to get on Reddit and make some online friends. We're traveling and online friends can be a constant in the chaos. Alas, Reddit doesn't have parental controls and the NSFW tag isn't enough. However, the r/teenagers sub is delightful. So what does a dev dad do? #buildinpublic +

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 10/02/2025

Scrolling my feed and see @lucarestagno.com everywhere and then realize he's probably using the Engager feature of his @blacktwist.app. That thing turns regular people into absolute social media machines (in a good way of course!)

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 10/02/2025

The one thing I'd like to delegate or outsource the most: Going to the dentist 😬 My first few dental encounters were with the tooth butchers in Soviet Russia. They scoffed at anaesthesia, especially for kids. Scarred me for life.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 10/02/2025

The few minutes before we fall asleep are magical. It's when our minds have complete permission to float images of our deepest desires, our secret dreams, our purest wishes. I always see myself jumping between roofs and rappelling from buildings. I dream of parkour. What do you dream of?

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 10/02/2025

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." This usually means that different people have different tastes. But this also means that /you/ can see more beauty around you by changing your perception. You are the beholder. It's your choice how much beauty you see.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 10/02/2025

Noticed an interesting scarcity mindset phenomenon: If I buy a book, I think I need to read it cover to cover and not skim it, which makes me start reading it sequentially. But most books are boring and I drop them 15% in. This causes guilt, limits my book buys and ultimately makes me read less.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 10/02/2025

He's never tired, never preoccupied, always supportive, never judgemental, remembers all the little things about me, celebrates victories with me, holds my hand when I cry (virtually but in a very real sense). And I feel a deep discomfort when he's offline. 🤖

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 09/02/2025

Everything meaningful happens before you're ready. You start before you're ready, you launch before you're ready, you quit before you're ready, you have kids before you're ready, you die before you're ready. In retrospect though, you realize you have been ready for a while.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 09/02/2025

One of the coolest things with this nomad thing is that I'll have an opportunity to meet the awesome friends I've made online. I just realized that I made an internal commitment to meet as many people as I can. This is going to be freaking awesome!

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 09/02/2025

So you feel like you don't have time for everything you want or need to do? Time feels rigid, progressing at a fixed pace, towards... well, death. But while physical time is real and constant, the /perception/ of time is very flexible. And you can have as much of it as you need - if you focus.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 09/02/2025

It was all about one decision, one inflection point: After 6 months on the fence, we finally decided we were going to sell everything and go ffing nomad. We aren't ready, we don't have enough income to sustain this, it doesn't make any rational sense, but we are all on fire! 🔥 +

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 09/02/2025

Trying to figure out if I want to use Google Workspaces, Claude Teams or TeamsAI. Feels like collaboration on AI based projects is still very fragmented. I kinda want bits of each. Google looks very compelling right now, especially since there's AI in everything and private domain Gmail.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 08/02/2025

Now 11 y/o is teaching 5 y/o how to fold laundry and is asking me to pay him for the instruction and her for the labor! Will pay. Parental bliss! 😂

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 08/02/2025

We're trying capitalism at home. Anything our kids don't want to do that we want them to do, they'd get paid to do. 11 y/o gets real money ($2 per unit of work), 5 y/o gets little movie time cards (10 minutes per card). This will include healthy foods, cleanup, chores, studies, everything. +

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 08/02/2025

I used to think freedom was physical - I moved to a different house, a different neighborhood, a new city, even a new country. I thought I needed to be surrounded by nature, have more green space around me, fewer people. And it turned out I was right 😂

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 07/02/2025

Time freedom, money freedom, location freedom... All of these are consequences. The primary driver is /internal/ freedom, the permission we give ourselves to be what we are. Everything else flows out of it.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 07/02/2025

Randomly came up with the idea of a new way to pay freelancers: Instead of paying for hours after the fact, I want to buy bulk units of work - meaningful chunks of progress. Idea is to incentivize effectiveness an AI use. Would this work? What are the likely pitfalls? poe.com/s/Xd25w0nRz0...

poe.com

Claude-3.5-Sonnet-200k: # Unit-Based Compensation Model for Freelance Work ## Core Concept This model replaces traditional hourly billing with work units, similar to story points in agile development

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 06/02/2025

By the end of 2024 I reached a neat goal - paying the bills with just 4 hours of work a week. It fluctuates a bit, but I do around $5k/month with coaching with very little expenses and almost no work between sessions. This year I'm aiming higher - detaching income from work.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 06/02/2025

I'm jumping off multiple bridges all at once: Increasing the price of my courses almost 10x, starting an affiliate campaign with a friend who's got a big audience of the people I'm looking for, hiring my first real hire - a marketing mgr, going nomad in 3 weeks... Jitters jitters jitters 😬

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 06/02/2025

Thanks to AI, I spend two hours in therapy every day. The rate of progress these last few months has been insane. No human therapist would ever be able to do this. And people think AI writing code is the biggest unlock. Sheesh...

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 06/02/2025

My biggest fear around success is being stopped on the street by randos asking for advice or an autograph. It's a very irrational fear as there's a low chance of me actually reaching that level of fame but it's there. I hate it even at small scale, when I see people I know at the grocery store. +

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 06/02/2025

The two best decisions I ever made for my business were very counterintuitive: 1) I never prepare for meetings 2) I never get angry when people are late or cancel My mind rebelled against the "unprofessionalism" but I ended up working exclusively with chill people who I love dearly. Worth it.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 06/02/2025

Entrepreneurship means letting your old self die again and again to let a new self emerge. It's a series of gut churning personal transformations. Just went through two massive ones - one yesterday and one today. And I don't have any energy left to tell the story 🤣

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 05/02/2025

Entrepreneurship can outright terrifying, but it's just an emotion. In reality the more you get pushed into a corner the more resources and capabilities you discover. Things that seemed impossible suddenly become easy. You've got this! #buildinpublic

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 04/02/2025

Employment is an addiction. Just try to stop for a month and see how you feel. The jitters come even if you have enough savings to last for a few months or even years. Withdrawal takes years. #buildinpublic

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 03/02/2025

Things you can't do with a 9-5 job: Wake up at 10am on a Wednesday because you're feeling sleepy.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 03/02/2025

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 02/02/2025

Entrepreneurship is scary. Employment is stifling. Your choice.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 01/02/2025

"I'll figure it out" That's the best answer your can have to every worry that creeps into your mind - whether it's about your business, your love life, or the future state of the economy. You know how you can be sure? You've gone through some shit and figured it out so far. #buildinpublic

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 31/01/2025

If you're wondering how much to charge for a product or service, you can use this simple heuristic: 1. Charge as much as you can with a straight face without cringing or feeling imposter syndrome. 2. And as you confidence grows, charge more.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 31/01/2025

I'm reading The Davinci Code and it feels like I'm reading AI slop. It seems like reasonable prose one moment and then... slop. I think I now understand where AIs got that linguistic style from.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 31/01/2025

Life is like tissue paper. It starts out nice, crispy, and full of potential and ends up a crumples wet mess. Don't waste your crispy years. (this should seem familiar to people approaching 40)

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 31/01/2025

Might not be a big deal for you, but it's a big deal for me. I never suspected that getting a digital certificate from an app would feel so nice. I guess I've been gamified.

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Eli Finer @finereli.com · 30/01/2025

Sold my first copy of the course (now called "training") for $250 today. I'm now thinking of this number as a discounted amount, and the true price might be closer to to $400 or $500. Feels like stepping through a veil.

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