Archive
Complete archive of all blog posts by Jurij Tokarski.
SVG Animation Is Not DOM Animation
Rebuilding an old chart race challenge in React taught me five things SVG handles differently.
45 Tabs I Stopped Opening
A JWT decoder, a mesh gradient engine, an animation system, and everything in between. Three of them outgrew the toolkit.
npm Publish Without Tokens
Trusted publishing with OIDC replaces long-lived npm tokens. The setup has one undocumented requirement that returns a misleading 404.
It Works, But You Can't Ship It
Two AI providers fill the form correctly. Both route document data through global endpoints that don't meet every customer's residency policy.
Three Ways the Wrong Value Won
A race condition, a stale default, and a spread operator each delivered the wrong value to production. None threw an error.
An Empty AI Response Corrupted Chat History
Gemini returned HTTP 200 with zero content. I saved it. The conversation never recovered.
Software Engineering Principles for Startups
33 principles I use to ship software every week: a working system built from years of product development
Why Scrum Fails In Small Teams
Scrum was designed to coordinate large cross-functional teams. When your team is small enough to just talk, the ceremonies become the bottleneck.
Three Bugs That Were Actually My Prompts
Three debugging sessions where I spent hours chasing AI misbehavior — and each time discovered the model was executing my instructions exactly as written. The bug was me.
What a Freelance Web Developer Actually Charges
My actual pricing model, why hourly billing is broken, and what clients should expect when hiring a freelance web developer in 2026.
Nobody Finishes a 15-Minute AI Interview
How I decomposed a monolithic AI discovery interview into 8 standalone tools — each with its own deliverable, landing page, and search intent.
The Production Bugs That Never Threw an Error
Six bugs across OAuth, Next.js, launchd, n8n, browser APIs, and OpenAI. Every log said success. Every result was wrong.
Using Firestore Transactions to Handle Race Conditions
When two Cloud Function instances race to create the same external resource, a Firestore transaction decides the winner.
Merging Two Firestore Listeners for Cross-Field OR Queries
Firestore can't OR across different field types in a real-time query. Two parallel listeners merged client-side can.
SwiftUI Is Like React + CSS-in-JS
I had to jump into an iOS codebase with no SwiftUI experience. The fastest way in was mapping everything I already knew to the Swift equivalent.
Your Market Tells You Who You Are
Launched as an MVP shop. Clients stayed for 12 months. Eventually I listened.
Being Good To Be Referred
Split your business brand (clients) from personal brand (peers). Build referral relationships through authentic content, not polished marketing.
The Fourth Evolution of MVP
Frank Robinson invented MVPs in 2001. Eric Ries redefined them in 2011. AI is redefining them again in 2025.
Using Shared Packages in Firebase Monorepos
Firebase breaks with file:../shared deps. Use npm pack + tarball approach: preinstall script creates .tgz locally, gets included in deploy.
Build Apps Like LEGO Bricks
Use ports & adapters architecture to swap AI providers like LEGO bricks. Avoid vendor lock-in, optimize costs, test new models easily.
When "Polish Over Security" Costs Real Money
Client wanted to "polish features first, security later." Found exposed OpenAI API key in frontend code. Anyone could steal it and rack up unlimited charges.
Fidder Overengineering Made Me Pay
Reduced Fidder's maintenance costs $17/month → $1/month by fixing architectural mistakes, like expensive Firestore secutiry rules and unnecessary VPS-polling.
If You Throw Away Your MVP Code, It Wasn't an MVP
6-day "MVPs" are prototypes disguised as products. Real MVPs use foundation-first architecture for extension, not throwaway code.
When Optimization Culture Breaks Human Judgment (Digest)
A reading digest on how systems designed to optimize metrics are undermining the human capabilities that actually matter.
I renamed (again) my newsletter (and why)
Changed "Self × Tech" to "Jurij's Workshop" because of etymology and cultural connections; here's the messy process
"It Works" Isn't Enough for Commercial Software
Vibe-coding excels for personal projects but creates dangerous technical debt in commercial products that require human-designed architecture and oversight
How We Built a Zero-Cost CMS Portfolio That Actually Works
Using Next.js, Airtable, and Vercel's free tiers, we created a content-managed portfolio site with zero ongoing costs, hourly updates, custom image caching, and complete creator control
Simple E-Commerce Request Uncovered a Wholesale Business's True Need
What began as an e-commerce project revealed a deeper need: tracking products across the entire supply chain, not just processing orders
The Tiny App That Eliminated a Shipping Processing Bottleneck
Custom app cut shipping preparation time from 10 minutes to 60 seconds, slashed errors by 80%, and paid for itself in 30 days — all for $3/month
Building an Embeddable DIY Diamond Mosaic PDF Generator
Created a web app that transforms photos into diamond art patterns using client-side processing, eliminating server costs while enhancing UX
The Algorithm that Transformed Warehouse Chaos
Reduced shipment prep time by 70%, improved accuracy to 95%, and cut costs by 40%. Five years later, it's still the company's operational backbone.
Domain Experts Still Need Tech Partners (Even in AI Era)
Industry experts know the problems; tech partners know how to build solutions.
Newsletter Framework / Service Evolution / Open Source Journey
New weekly newsletter format, pivoting to rapid prototyping services, and open-sourcing Fidder and Content Pal (4 min read)
Messy Truth > Perfect Lie
Relaunching personal blog / sharing the vision for the future / being anti-right
Start Now; Iterate and Saturate Later
A project that survives starts with the core value, adapts to feedback, and improves over time.
A Story of Fidder: The RSS Reader Without the Noise
Subscribe to your favorite sites without the social media distraction
A Launch Story of MyCointainer: Ultimate Staking Service Platform
Choose favourite cryptoassets, transfer coins to staking wallet and profit off them
Deliver Ideas To Market With Applied R&D
Applied R&D allows entrepreneurs to innovate quickly, adapt to changing conditions, and solve real-world problems efficiently.
Workflow Automation Is Business' Superpower
Workflow automation transforms how businesses operate, replacing manual effort with technology to execute recurring tasks.
Smooth Operator of Software Development Lifecycle
Everything should have its place and time, and the engineering work should flow.
Streamlining Software Release Process: A Case Study
Automating releases transforms them from error-prone, anxiety-inducing events into confident, one-click routines that teams like to perform