Umut Keltek — solo builder

Building isn’t productivity.It’s system exploration.

I build instruments to understand the systems I’m curious about — and the good ones turn into products. Seventeen of them, so far.

See what I’ve builtRead the essays
a map of what I think about — move across it to look closer
About — how the work happens

I build the instrument first. The product comes later.

Almost everything here started as a tool I wanted for myself — a way to make sense of something I was stuck on. An emulator that only plays the cartridges I own. A paycheck calculator that actually accounts for night shifts. A way to keep three years of messy notes from turning into noise.

I build the thing to understand the problem; the ones that turn out useful to other people become apps. I’m wary of organizational theater and of being valued only for being useful — which is why I work alone, and why each of these is a small, finished object rather than a pitch deck.

Build to understand. Ship what turns out useful. Stay small on purpose.

the working principle

Things I’ve built — 17

Products that fell out of system exploration.

Each one started as an instrument I wanted for myself. Every link goes to the thing itself.

Essays

Writing on building, systems, and the parts of AI I can’t stop thinking about.

longform · written occasionally, when an idea won’t leave