Studio Paraplu

An Alternative to AI Slop

Hi! I'm Kirk, founder and lead engineer at Studio Paraplu. I do something extremely rare nowadays. I write software by hand without using generative AI.

Why do I do this? A few reasons.

Primarily because of quality. Software is a craft. It is a creative endeavour, requiring problem solving and judgment. I've tried using chatbots for code generation and, quite frankly, the quality is too unreliable. I've been writing software for decades and have gotten darned good at it. I can consistently produce far superior quality than a chatbot that lacks creativity or judgment.

Another reason is efficiency. This may seem counterintuitive since supposedly LLM code generation speeds things up. That is an illusion. An LLM can produce a large volume of code quickly, but just producing code is only a small part of the job. The job is producing working, correct code, and as mentioned, the quality of AI code is notoriously unreliable. The time saved in generating code is lost (and then some!) in verifying the correctness of the generated code, and repairing the errors when inevitably some are found.

My method is to work in very small chunks. Write, verify, write, verify. The quality is assured at each step. No time is wasted trying to understand and debug someone else's (the chatbot's) errors. This is a craft that programmers who have become overly reliant on AI tools either lack or are allowing to atrophy. That makes what I offer increasingly rare.

And finally, there's the matter of remaining independent. The big AI companies have already tipped their hand. They are raising their prices; they will need to to recoop the billions of dollars in investments. Anyone who has become entirely reliant on AI, who has forgotten how to write software without it, will find themselves getting squeezed. I continue to be productive when others have run out of tokens.

If you need software written and want it done right, let's chat.

If you've tried vibe coding and weren't happy with the results, I can help.

Or if you simply are concerned about the environmental and existential risks posed by AI and want to support business not reliant on its use, hit me up.

What We Offer

Customer facing software

If you need an app or website for reaching your customers, we provide full-stack development. We do more than just building to order though. I'll meet with you and explore all your needs, and propose options you might not have known were even possible. With my method of working in small chunks, there will always be a working product (even if in the early going it's only minimally viable) with which you'll be able to interact and provide feedback. With this interative, collaborative approach, we will discover the best possible app for serving your customers.

Contact me to set up an initial free consultation.

Internally facing solutions

There are two ways to increase profits: make more revenue and reduce costs. High quality, bespoke software to automated internal business processes can help with the cost side of that equation.

I've worked mostly with startups over the years, and one thing I've seen consistently, and developed a knack for fixing, is inefficient business processes. Often there are tasks that need to be done repeatedly, in a similar manner each time but differently enough that any off-the-shelf automation is ill suited. And often the people performing these tasks feel the pain of doing them manually, but through habit and lack of an alternative keep suffering through it. Plus, usually people are too close to the problem to be able to see other options.

That's where I come in. I offer a fresh pair of eyes. I'll observe your current business processes and discovery where the pain points lie. Then I'll propose creative solutions and build automation custom tailored to your business's specific needs.

Contact me to set up an initial free consultation.