I've always found it more interesting to understand why something works than to just use it.
When you use an application, you usually don't think about what's happening underneath. You click a button, something loads, data gets saved, an API returns a response, and you move on.
But as a developer, I tend to wonder about the stuff behind that button.
How was it built?
Why did the developer choose that database?
Why this framework instead of another one?
What happens when the application gets bigger?
What happens when something breaks?
And, probably most importantly, what can I learn from it?
That's basically why I started Software Journal.
š softwarejournal.blog
So, what is Software Journal?
It's a small independent software and technology publication where I write about things I'm interested in building, using, and understanding.
There's no complicated concept behind it.
I just wanted a place where I could write about software without everything having to fit into a short tutorial or a "10 best tools" article.
Some articles are about programming.
Some are about AI.
Some are about databases or security.
Others are simply breakdowns of interesting projects.
The common theme is software and the things around it.
I like learning by building
One thing I've noticed about programming is that reading documentation only gets you so far.
You can read about SQLite for an hour and understand the basic API.
Then you build something that actually uses SQLite and suddenly you discover ten new things you didn't think about.
The same thing happens with AI.
It's easy to write:
response = model.generate(...)
But building a real application around that call is a completely different experience.
You have to think about errors, user input, data, security, interfaces, costs, deployment, and everything else that isn't visible in the first few lines of code.
That's the kind of stuff I like exploring.
Some of the projects I write about
I've written about projects using technologies such as Python, Flask, SQLite, Tkinter, NumPy, SciPy, and Google Gemini.
For example, I've looked at projects involving things like:
- AI-powered applications
- Desktop applications
- Database tools
- Scheduling and optimization
- Security-related utilities
- Web applications
What I find interesting isn't just the final result.
It's the decisions that went into getting there.
A small project can actually teach you a lot about software engineering when you take the time to look at how all the pieces fit together.
I'm not trying to create another "AI news" website
AI is obviously a huge part of software right now, and I'll probably write about it quite a bit.
But I don't want Software Journal to become another site that publishes an article every time an AI company releases something.
I'm much more interested in the practical side.
What can you actually build with these technologies?
How do these applications work?
What are the limitations?
What happens when the demo becomes a real product?
Those questions are much more interesting to me.
Sometimes the simplest projects are the best
I've also started to appreciate something that I probably overlooked earlier:
You don't always need a huge project to learn something useful.
A small SQLite application can teach you about data persistence.
A simple desktop application can teach you about UI state.
A tiny API can teach you about authentication and error handling.
A basic AI experiment can teach you about prompting, embeddings, or model limitations.
You don't need to build the next billion-user platform to learn something valuable.
Sometimes a weekend project is enough.
Why the name "Software Journal"?
Honestly, because that's what I want it to feel like.
A journal.
Not a corporate publication trying to predict the future of technology.
Not a news site chasing every trend.
Just a growing collection of things I've learned, interesting software I've found, projects I've worked with, and ideas worth exploring.
Some articles will probably be better than others.
Some experiments will fail.
Some technologies that seem exciting today will probably be forgotten later.
That's fine.
The point is to keep learning and document some of that process.
There's a lot more I want to explore
There are still a ridiculous number of things in software that I want to understand better.
Distributed systems.
Better database design.
AI agents.
Search and retrieval.
Compilers.
Networking.
Security.
Infrastructure.
Different programming languages.
Open-source projects.
And a lot of things I haven't even discovered yet.
So Software Journal is still very much a work in progress.
I'm basically building the library while I'm learning.
If you're curious too
If you enjoy programming, experimenting with new technologies, reading about how applications work, or simply taking software apart to see what's inside, you might find something interesting there.
You can start here:
Or browse the articles directly:
https://softwarejournal.blog/blog/
I don't know exactly what Software Journal will look like a year from now.
That's actually part of the fun.
For now, I'm just going to keep building things, breaking things, learning things, and writing about them.
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