Choosing the Right Tool: Lessons from 72 Hours of Infrastructure Hell
We wasted 3 days on Azure before switching to Cloudflare in 20 minutes. Here's the framework we should have used from the start.
Labs Journey
Documenting the real AI journey - from learning to implementation.
Building Alien Brain Trust in public. Real insights. Real challenges. Real solutions.
Recent Posts
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Cloudflare Workers: The 20-Minute Solution to Our 72-Hour Azure Nightmare
After 3 days fighting Azure Static Web Apps, we switched to Cloudflare Workers. Working endpoint in 20 minutes. Here's exactly how we did it.
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Learn Labs Enrollment Is Now Live: Secure AI Prompt Builder Course
After 3 days of infrastructure battles, our Learn Labs enrollment system is live. Get access to our Secure AI Prompt Builder course with hands-on labs and automated security testing.
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Three Days of Azure Static Web Apps Hell: A Cautionary Tale
We spent 72 hours fighting Azure Static Web Apps for a simple enrollment form. CORS errors, deployment token mismatches, and workflow failures. Here's what went wrong.
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Free Tier Math: How We Built Enterprise Infrastructure for $0
Azure free tier gives 1M function calls and 10k Key Vault operations. With 5-minute caching, we reduced usage 99% and can scale 100x before paying. Here's the cost breakdown.
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Managed Identity: Zero Credentials in Code
How Azure Managed Identity eliminates API keys, passwords, and secrets from your code entirely. DefaultAzureCredential does the authentication for you.
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Building in Public: The Technical Debt That Didn't Happen
We spent 15 extra minutes implementing Azure Key Vault instead of environment variables. That decision saved months of migration pain. Here's why doing it right from the start matters.
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Why We Chose Azure Over Vercel and Netlify for Serverless Functions
Azure Functions gives 1M free requests vs Vercel's 100k and Netlify's 125k. Plus Key Vault integration, GitHub Actions, and enterprise-ready secrets management.
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Serverless Enrollment: From Idea to Production in 85 Minutes
Built a complete Azure Functions enrollment system with Airtable, GitHub API, and Key Vault in under 90 minutes. Here's the time breakdown and what made it fast.
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Azure Key Vault: Enterprise Secret Management for $0/Month
Upgraded enrollment system from environment variables to Azure Key Vault with expiration tracking, audit logs, and tagging—still completely free.
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Debugging Blog Automation: 7 Fixes in 24 Hours (Git Subtree Architecture)
How we diagnosed and fixed a broken blog auto-publishing system, implemented Git Subtree sync, and learned why multi-repo architectures need clear workflows.
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Frameworks for AI-Augmented Work: Decision Trees and Quality Gates
After 90 days and 132 tasks, here are the frameworks that work: decision trees for when to use AI, prompt patterns, quality gates, and repeatable workflows.
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Tools We Tested: Claude vs. ChatGPT vs. Specialized AI
We tested 12 AI tools over 90 days. Here's what we actually use daily, cost analysis ($847/month), and why we chose Claude for 80% of work.
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AI for Project Management: 8 Hours Saved, Zero Busywork
AI automated Linear issue creation, support triage, and meeting notes conversion. Here's the pipeline that saved 8 hours in 90 days on PM busywork.
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Content Creation: The 3-Pass Editing System That Maintains Voice
AI saved 14 hours on content in 90 days, but raw AI content is generic. Here's the 3-pass system (draft → refine → humanize) that preserves brand voice.
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Documentation Workflows: How We Cut Doc Time by 60%
Template-driven documentation with AI saved 22 hours in 90 days. Here's the workflow, quality checklist, and when to let AI write your docs.
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AI is Like a Brilliant Intern Who Needs Guardrails
AI learns fast, works tirelessly, but makes predictable mistakes. Here's how we use skills and guardrails to catch bugs before they ship.
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AI for Security Testing: 52 Hours Saved, 73 Vulnerabilities Fixed
Security testing showed the highest time savings per task (2.3 hours). Here's how we used AI to generate 1,200+ jailbreak tests and harden 10 prompts in parallel.
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Code Development with AI: What Companies Look Like in 2027
68 hours saved on development in 90 days. But the real shift isn't speed—it's structure. Here's what the AI-augmented company actually looks like.
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AI Productivity Series: How We Saved 160+ Hours in 90 Days
Real data from three months of AI-augmented work: what worked, what didn't, and the measurable time savings across development, security, and content tasks.
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Three Agents, Three Hours, Three Deliverables: How We Used Parallel AI Workflows to Ship Faster
We launched 3 AI agents in parallel to complete a landing page (872 lines), waitlist form (595 lines), and prompt hardening—all simultaneously. Here's what we learned.
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Managing 37 Issues Across 4 Milestones with Linear: How We Keep AI Projects Organized
Linear keeps us on track across long AI conversations—4 milestones, 37 issues, zero confusion about what's done and what's next.
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Skills as Guardrails: How We Use Claude Code Skills to Catch Bugs Before They Ship
The skills we've built prevent repeated mistakes—from exposed API keys to broken path resolution—turning every failure into a permanent safeguard.
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AI Managing AI Projects: How We Automated Linear with Claude Code
From manual ticket updates to full automation—37 issues, 195 lines of code, one spectacular encoding failure, and zero seconds of manual work.
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From .env Files to Enterprise Security: Cross-Platform API Key Management
Building a 588-line credential manager with platform-native encryption across Windows, macOS, and Linux—zero plaintext secrets, foolproof setup.
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We Used 4 Parallel Claude Agents to Harden 8 Prompts Simultaneously (10x Faster)
Instead of hardening prompts sequentially (2.5 hours), we launched 4 Claude agents in parallel. 8 prompts hardened in 15 minutes.
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Linear Import Failed: CSV Encoding Broke Everything (How We Fixed It)
Our first Linear import corrupted 44 issues due to encoding errors. Here's how we debugged, validated, and fixed it.
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We Hardened 10 Prompts in Parallel (73 Vulnerabilities Fixed)
14 prompts tested, 10 needed hardening. We used parallel agents to fix 73 high-risk vulnerabilities simultaneously. Here's what we learned.
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Why Dual-Temperature Testing Catches 40% More Vulnerabilities
Testing AI prompts at temperature 0.0 AND 0.9 reveals edge cases you'd never find with single-temperature testing. Here's the data.
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How We Hardened a Failing Prompt in 10 Minutes (3.3/10 → 0.27/10)
Step-by-step breakdown of fixing 9 critical vulnerabilities in a landing page copywriter prompt. Real fixes, real results.
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We Tested 20 AI Prompts with 15 Jailbreak Attacks. Here's What Broke.
Real security testing results from automated jailbreak attacks on production AI prompts. No theory. Just results.
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How I Built A New Product Before My First Coffee
Twenty-four minutes in pajamas. No whiteboard, no laptop—just voice and Grok. A complete course outline, secure labs, pricing, and lead-gen page before 7:25 AM.
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The Only Job Left Is Being A Builder
Skills commoditize. Coding, writing, security ops—they're getting swallowed by LLMs. In five years, if you're not building, you're maintenance. Learn to steer machines or wait tables.
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Want The Prompts That Let You Ship Before Lunch?
It's live. The course isn't perfect—it's raw, it's real, it's done. Thirty minutes and you'll have a vault of prompts that can't screw you. No fluff. Just results.
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Stuck In Traffic? I Just Launched A Side-Hustle
Twenty minutes of brake lights. Normally, rage. But I opened Grok, didn't shut up, and had a complete product by the time the light turned green.
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I Built A Vault of Prompts That Won't Get You Fired
No pitch—just facts. Every template, test, and real-world patch from this week, wrapped into a course. Secure prompts that actually work. No jailbreaks, no HR drama.
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Why Conversational AI Finally Feels Human (and Why That Just 10×'d My Life)
From yelling at Siri to having a real back-and-forth with Grok while driving — the moment AI stopped being a tool and started being a co-founder.
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I Replaced My Morning Podcast with a Conversation and Built a Course in Traffic
How one commute proved the AI-First Mindset actually works (and why most people are still using AI wrong)
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How to Train Yourself as an AI-Powered Developer (No Bootcamp Required)
The meta-skill of learning to leverage Claude and AI tools to build secure, production-ready features at record pace - lessons from shipping real projects
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AI is a Two-Way Street: Why Fast Feedback Beats Perfect Prompts
AI can build features in minutes, but success requires constant validation and feedback. Learn why the feedback loop matters more than perfect prompts.
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I Shipped a Security Vulnerability in My Social Share Feature (Here's How a Human Caught What AI Missed)
How a double URL encoding vulnerability slipped past AI-powered development and what I learned about testing AI-generated code
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How I Stopped Losing My Flow Every 2 Hours (and Cut Costs by 90%)
From hitting usage limits mid-session to uninterrupted 4+ hour flow states. My journey switching from Claude.ai to Claude Code and optimizing my AI development workflow.
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From Feature Request to Production in 15 Minutes: AI vs Traditional Development
A real-time case study of how AI-powered development is 96% faster than traditional dev teams for feature delivery
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I Found 7 Security Flaws in My AI-Generated Blog
How I discovered 7 security vulnerabilities in AI-generated code and used AI to fix them - a practical guide to security-conscious AI development
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From 6 Hours to 90 Minutes: The Power of AI-Powered Template Reuse
How I cut development time by 75% using Claude to intelligently adapt proven templates for new client projects
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The AI Development Workflow That Saved Me 20+ Hours This Week
Breaking down the exact workflow I use to deliver client projects 70% faster with Claude while maintaining professional quality
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How I Built Two Professional Landing Pages in One Day Using Claude
A real-world case study of using AI to deliver production-ready ecommerce solutions for a small business client in record time
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📝 DRAFT - Not Published Behind the Scenes: The Tech Powering Alien Brain Trust
Technical decisions behind Alien Brain Trust - what I'm building, buying, and why. A framework for platform selection you can apply to your own projects.
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AI Resources I'm Actually Using (Not Just Bookmarking)
Cut through the noise - here are the AI resources I actually use daily, weekly, or regularly. No fluff, just what delivers value.
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📝 DRAFT - Not Published AI-1001: What You'll Learn and Why It Matters
Inside look at the AI-1001 course - what makes it different, who it's for, and why I'm building an AI education platform focused on real-world implementation over theory.
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Week One: What I've Learned Building with AI Tools
Honest reflections from my first week building Alien Brain Trust with AI - what worked, what didn't, and what surprised me about the reality of AI implementation.
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Building an AI Education Platform While Learning AI: The Meta Journey
The irony and beauty of teaching AI while still learning it - why I'm documenting this journey publicly and inviting you to learn alongside me.
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Day One: Building in Public - My AI Learning Journey Begins
After 25+ years in cybersecurity, I'm diving deep into AI - and documenting everything along the way. This is day one of building Alien Brain Trust while learning in public.
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My AI Learning Toolkit: Tools and Tech Stack for Building ABT
An honest look at the AI tools I'm using to build Alien Brain Trust - what's working, what's not, and why I chose each one.
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📝 DRAFT - Not Published Day 1: Setting Up My AI Development Environment with Claude Code
Starting my public AI journey - setting up my development environment with Claude Code while building Alien Brain Trust's AI education platform.
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📝 DRAFT - Not Published Why Alien Brain Trust? Building AI Education for Real-World Implementation
Bridging the gap between AI theory and practical implementation - why I'm building Alien Brain Trust to serve professionals who need to actually use AI, not just understand it.