Forem: G. Horton

Code Is Cheap. Thinking Is Everything.

G. Horton — Sat, 07 Feb 2026 14:19:51 +0000

I’ll never forget the first time I heard Linus Torvalds say, “Talk is cheap. Show me the code.” It was 2000, and he was firing back at someone bragging about some tricky Linux kernel trick. Me? I was a gangly teen copy-pasting Perl and VB snippets, thinking I was a wizard.

Back then, the message was clear: ideas are nothing without actually building them. Writing software was just mentally exhausting. Even with a solid plan, a project could take weeks, months, sometimes years. Humans were the bottleneck: our brains, our schedules, our sheer burnout set the limits. Most great ideas stayed on a never ending to do list.

But now? LLMs can spit out production code, tests, and docs in seconds. Stuff that once took weeks of grinding can now happen in hours. The old markers of careful commits, clean READMEs, thoughtful architecture, they don’t carry the same weight. Code is everywhere. Code is cheap.

The real skill now is thinking. Developers who can understand the problem, map out a system, and tell AI exactly what they want have a huge edge. Typing fast? That barely matters anymore.

It’s exciting, but there’s a catch. For juniors, leaning on AI too early risks building a generation that can write code but doesn’t really get it. The AI can crank out anything, but without learning how to debug, architect, or reason about systems, you’re missing the foundation.

For the experienced dev it’s liberating. Ideas that would have taken months can be prototyped in days. Code is cleaner, faster, and frees you to focus on design, architecture, and innovation. “Programming is 90% thinking, 10% typing” isn’t just a saying anymore, it’s reality.

So, what actually makes code valuable in a world where anyone (or any AI) can generate it? It’s not the lines themselves, it’s the human thought, accountability, and intention behind them. A PR written by a human carries experience, empathy, and effort. AI? Functional, sure, but emotionally neutral.

We’re stepping into a new era: code is cheap, thinking is priceless. For seniors, it’s a chance to level up creativity. For learners, it’s a reminder: master the basics before letting the genie do the work.

The game has changed. Coding is easier than ever, but the ones who’ll shine are the thinkers, designers, and communicators. Typing speed? That’s just a footnote now.

Comparing AI To-Do List apps

G. Horton — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 19:07:31 +0000

I've been hopping between AI task planners lately so I've decided to set up a proper, fair comparison once and for all.

The plan was simple: put each AI through the classic test. Type in a painfully vague goal and see which assistant can turn it into actionable tasks. Along the way, I'd measure the usual parameters: speed, UX, and its overall effectiveness at turning goals into a plan I might actually follow.

Speed

Google Notes AI
Normal latency overall, but the UX makes it feel slower than it is. The number of clicks required just to get a response is surprisingly annoying.

Planndu AI
Fastest response I've seen so far. One click, instant to-do list. Responsive experience and simple UX overall.

Superlist AI
Decent speed, but occasionally it gives very long loading spinner. The generic chat-like UI also makes it feel less like a focused to-do generator and more like yet another chatbot.

Notion AI
Definitely the slowest of the four. Notion always feels like it’s running something in the background. Could be useful sometimes, but unnecessary when you just want a quick task list.

Winner: Planndu, easily. The speed is ridiculous.

Handling Vague Goals

I tested all tools with prompts like:

“Make a YouTube video.”

“How to stop procrastinating.”

“Be more consistent with gym and coding.”

“Finish the big project I keep avoiding.”

Google Notes AI
Not handling vague goals well. If often won't return any result at all.

Example output:
“Try breaking big tasks into smaller ones.”

Planndu AI
Shines here. It turns vague generic goals into concrete, step-by-step actions.

Example output:
☐ Define the tasks you've been avoiding ☐ Set a 10-minute timer and start the first one ☐ Remove distractions (mute notifications, tidy workspace) ☐ Prioritize tasks for today ☐ Schedule 30–60 minutes of focused work ☐ Review progress at the end of the day

Superlist
It returns Chat-GPT story like responses, not to-do lists with checkboxes as I'd expect.

Example output:
“To stop procrastinating, reflect on why the task feels overwhelming. Create a supportive environment and imagine the satisfaction of completing your goals…”

Notion AI
Will generate nicely formatted notes. But it misses the actual point and generates a very long AI slop.

Example output:
“To stop procrastinating, begin by developing a deep understanding of your internal resistance. Start with a comprehensive self-reflection process where you evaluate emotional triggers, environmental obstacles, and personal productivity archetypes. Once you’ve identified these factors, create a multi-layered organizational framework to support future momentum. Consider building a dashboard that integrates habit tracking, thought-logging, energy-level mapping, and daily micro-goal systems...“

Winner: Planndu, without question.

Final Ranking

Planndu AI 4.8/5

Fastest responses
Best at interpreting vague goals
Requires minimal prompting to be effective

Notion AI 3.1/5

Slightly slow
Great when providing solid context
Excellent long story like texts

Google Notes AI 4.1/5

Decent speed
UX feels overly complicated
Not ideal for vague or open-ended goals

Superlist AI 2.5/5

Good but Inconsistent
Nice looking UI
Works best for deep technical structuring

So yeah, after bouncing between all these tools, it's nice to finally pick one. And Planndu is the one I'd actually stick with.

The Apps I Use While Working From Home

G. Horton — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 11:33:00 +0000

Staying productive can be difficult, especially while working from home. Luckily there are a lot of apps that are here to help you communicate, stay organized, and get things done faster. Here I have assembled a list of awesome apps that can help you deal with remote work and get on top of any day.

Task management: Planndu
What makes Planndu one of my favorite task management applications is the fact that it has all the features I need to manage my whole workflow. You can create a list of tasks, prioritize them, schedule, and even focus on specific tasks with a Pomodoro timer. It also allows drag & drops to change the status and the priority of tasks, which I find very convenient. So once a task is done, all I have to do is drag the task to the “done” section. Most of the features are free but to unlock the advanced features you must have a premium account. It costs $2.95 a month (billed annually) which I think is an excellent value for the features provided.

Meetings: Zoom
It’s the ideal tool for meetings and screen sharing. Thanks to those features the platform grew exponentially and became so popular. Even though they had a bunch of security problems at the beginning, now it’s a solid and stable software that you should use. It’s mostly free but there’s a limit of 40 minutes of meetings and 100 participants. The paid plans get a little bit pricier, starting at $14.99/month per person.

Chatting: Slack
The best app for communication with colleagues and quick code sharing, it has many features such as channels, personalized chats, and formatting that is suitable to code. It’s very commonly used in enterprises, but I also use it for remote work mainly because it has a free plan of 10k messages. Slack has a Pro plan for $6.67/per user per month if you want more features. They also have more features with their Business+ plan for $12.50/user per month (billed annually).

Collaboration: Zeplin
It’s an excellent collaboration tool that helps designers share their work with developers. It automatically adds many tooltips on top of the design, allowing any person to understand the specifications within the design itself. It also lets you comment right on top of the design, and saves a lot of time explaining things to each other. The downside is that it allows creating only 1 project for free with up to 6 project members. But you can unlock the full version of Sketch for $6 / month.

Remote work is the new standard. There’s no way it will change soon. If you are in the same situation as me, and you are a freelancer working from home full time, remember that there are many tools that could help you in the process. Don’t try to solve everything by yourself, and make sure you try new things until you find what works for you.