Hey vibe crew — time for the origin story of Altitude.
If you've been following the revival posts, you know this started as a wild "life/business/task management with actual vision" experiment.
But how did we get from brain-dump chaos to a working dashboard? Let's rewind.
The Spark: From Life Advice Overload to "I Need Altitude"
It hit me after devouring yet another book/video on life hacks — "Do this to level up!" But next day? Back to grinding freelance code, launching SaaS, juggling kids' school runs.
I work hard, but sometimes it's all cylinders firing in the wrong direction. No high-level view. No 30,000 ft perspective to remind me: Why am I even doing this?
Enter AI coaching vibes. Chatting with Claude about "what do you really want?" shifted everything. Turns out, freelancing is just the bridge to real freedom: Building SaaS for passive income, which in turn is a bridge to freedom to do some things I really want to do.
Keeping that "vision" front-and-center? Game-changer for focusing on the right stuff.
But my weeks were pure chaos — homeschooling echoes, 4 SaaS in flight, endless tasks. Needed a planner that actually works for me.
So, mash it all up: High-level vision + brutal daily/weekly planning = One big system.
The Vibe-Coding Chaos Phase: 18 Markdown Files & Counting
Kicked off with Claude: "Hey, let's build a life coach app."
Ideas poured out — domains like work, health, family, financial, personal. Focused on "work" first (most pressing).
Copy-pasted X posts/YT gems straight in: "Implement theory of constraints!" "Add this day-planning ritual!"
Claude loved it, fleshed it out, argued with me (in a good way). Ended up with 18 Markdown files expanding like a black hole.
No name yet. Just vibes.
Distilling the Mess: Specs, Debates, & Build Plans
Told Claude: "Summarize all this into specs."
Then asked Codex to do the same — compared, debated, iterated until they agreed. 4-5 solid spec files.
From there: "Give me an app architecture." Models/DB structure. Build plan for the "work" vertical.
It was massive — AI integrations, nudges, domains galore.
Decided: Start stupid-simple, bolt on later.
Incremental Builds: From Ugly Prototype to Sky-Blue Polish
Went block-by-block: "Build this now." "Add that feature."
Reviewed specs/originals: "What's missing for tasks?" Added energy check-ins, "The One Thing" focus.
Halfway in: UI was erratic/ugly from all the add-ons.
Vibed a redesign: "Rearrange the goals page. Make it blue-sky themed (for those levels: 30ft daily, 3k ft goals, 30k ft vision). Add ASCII art everywhere."
Iterations were hit-or-miss (Claude/Codex roulette), but landed on something clean.
Surprise: In the header redesign, Claude just invented the logo (ASCII mountain) and name "Altitude."
Symbolism? Peak = vision (30k ft), dot = goals (3k ft), underscore = daily grind. Perfect.
Last 2 Days: Planning Magic & Brutal Feedback
Focused on daily/weekly planning, time blocking, goal feedback loops.
Check-ins ask: "Energy level today?" "What's your ONE Thing to move the needle?"
Soon: AI analyzes check-ins/completions, shouts at you for procrastinating (brutality slider for snowflakes).
Attached a fresh dashboard screenshot — simple but functional. Tasks, goals, vision all in one spot. Energy: High today!
The Vibe-Coding Power: Built Exactly How I Want It
This is pure vibe-coding: No fancy stack, just prompts + agents iterating on my chaos.
Only "work" domain so far — health/family/financial/personal coming. Tons more features queued.
If this resonates: What's your chaos?
#Altitude #VibeCoding #LifeOS