The full story
Several careers behind me, and the through-line is simpler than it looks: I've always learned new skills alongside other people—in forums, group chats, and communities that stuck.
If you've joined online communities to get better at something, backed a Kickstarter for gear you'll optimize for years, turned a corner of your home into a productivity room, and shipped product as a founder, PM, or designer with a hundred ideas and no way to code them yourself—you're who I'm writing this for.
AI changed that last part. Not "add ChatGPT to your old workflow" changed—rethink how you work changed. Intelligence gets cheaper every month. The question is what you'll build at the speed of thought. That takes reskilling, openness, and people doing it together—not another slide deck.
That's why I started FunCode.club—a free community for product people who'd rather ship a prototype than wait for permission. Play Rooms, not gates. Product Brain is the optional governance layer we use ourselves; belonging never depends on it.
It started when my uncle wanted a website. I sold him one for €500—I was twelve. PHP and MySQL. I couldn't afford a €2,500 kite, so I kept building online, learning whatever I needed to fund the next thing I wanted.
At 17 I traveled the world as a professional kitesurfer for five or six years—discipline, preparation, and what it feels like to push against your limits, with people I met along the way.
A knee surgery meant time off—not the end of my career. A friend took me to a poker game; I came fourth—bubble position—and was hooked. While recovering, I dove deep: game theory, optimization, strategic thinking. In Brazil for winter training, I decided to stay—poker professionally, kitesurfing for fun. Five years of numbers, psychology, pressure, and decisions based on systems rather than gut feel.
In 2014 I moved back to The Netherlands and spent seven years building digital communities, growth systems, product work, and org design—Holacracy-style structure and strategy at a consultancy.
Different chapters on paper. Same pattern in practice: forums, group chats, trips, circles—people I met online who later traveled together, had kids, solved each other's problems, built careers, and often ended up working side by side.
I think in systems—software architecture, org decisions, how things break and evolve. Now I'm building Product Brain and this site with AI assistance: governed entries on the Chain instead of a pile of docs. The barriers aren't technical; they're clarity and governance.
On organizations
Most organizations operate like project factories: false certainty, deadline theater, features shipped without outcomes achieved.
Product organizations are different. They ship outcomes, evolve structure continuously, and make decision rights explicit.
The shift isn't about tools—it's about how you make decisions and who has authority to make them.
On technology
AI has changed what's possible. Non-developers can now build production systems.
The skill isn't prompting. It's governance — making reasoning explicit enough that agents can act on it. Entries on the Chain with WHY and relations, not another doc that goes stale.
Product Brain is where that meets product work. My org design background is why ratification and decision archaeology matter — not as bureaucracy, but as the layer agents need to stop undoing your past.
On teams
Trust is the foundation. Without it, you get politics, silos, and CYA behavior.
Autonomy + transparency drives performance. Not surveillance, not micromanagement.
Team results always trump individual triumph.
On work
Comfortable ≠ Peace. Comfort can be a signal of misalignment, not success.
I'd rather have overflow of opportunities and say NO than chase scraps and say YES to everything.
Building in public isn't marketing—it's how I think and learn.
My Chart
- Type: Manifestor
- Strategy: To Inform
- Authority: Emotional (Solar Plexus)
- Profile: 3/5
- Signature: Peace
- Not-Self: Anger
What this means
I'm wired to initiate and inform. I don't wait for permission to start. My emotional authority means big decisions need time to settle—I can't rush into clarity. The 3/5 profile means I learn by experimenting, and people often project "savior" energy onto me that I need to be careful about. Peace is my signpost for alignment. When I feel angry, it's a signal I'm responding to chaos instead of initiating.
Genius
- → Wonder
- → Invention
I question what exists and create what doesn't exist.
Competency
- ○ Discernment
- ○ Enablement
I can evaluate and support, but it drains my energy.
Frustration
- ✕ Galvanizing
- ✕ Tenacity
I'm not here to rally troops or push through to completion. I need partners for that.
Come build with us—or dig into what I'm shipping.