Hi, I'm Nika Sakandelidze.

About

Founder by choice. Engineer by instinct. Writer because useful lessons should not disappear inside finished work.

I learn best by making things. The work usually starts with a practical question: can this idea become useful, clear, and real? AI has changed the speed of that process, but it has not removed the need for judgment, patience, or care.

Building teaches quickly. Writing makes the lesson stay.

This site is my open notebook. I write about the technical craft of building with AI, the discipline required to do focused work, and the human side of pursuing ambitious ideas. I am interested in the details people often skip: failed approaches, changed minds, uncomfortable tradeoffs, and the small decisions that shape the result.

Essays

All 24 of them, newest first. Explained like I'd explain it to a friend.

Company

Mazeg is the company I think about most these days. I'm a co-founder, and it's the work I care most about getting right. We're a small team in Tbilisi, and I like that we get to stay with a product from the first conversation about what to build to the day people start using it.

Personal projects

A few of these started with small annoyances on my Mac. I made LassoA screen drawing and annotation app for Mac. Draw arrows, circles and numbered steps over live apps, save annotated screenshots, or let AI agents see and draw on your screen. to draw directly on my screen while explaining something, ReplayA meeting recorder for Mac. Records Meet, Zoom and Teams calls without a bot, transcribes them on-device, and drafts editable notes with Apple Intelligence. to revisit meetings, and TomatoA Pomodoro timer for Mac that times focus sessions, keeps quick notes, and shows which apps and sites took your time, all stored on your Mac. to give a stretch of focused work a clear start and finish.

Writing and reading sent me in two other directions. With MirrorlyDocs your team and your agents write together. Teammates and AI agents like Claude Code or Codex edit the same live doc, comment, and tag each other., I'm trying out what it feels like for people and AI agents to write in the same document. With Animated EssaysGreat essays by writers like Paul Graham, Sam Altman and Naval, explained in a few minutes of narrated drawing., I turn essays I keep coming back to into short narrated drawings.

A few experiments took me into fashion and images. WholelookHelping fashion stores sell the whole look. Turns a single product into complete, shoppable outfits from the store’s in-stock catalog, with merchandisers in control. helps stores put together shoppable outfits from what they already have in stock. PromptWearAn AI-powered apparel platform that turns a text prompt into a one-time-printed t-shirt, hoodie, or tote bag — wearable design for everyone. turns a written idea into a print on clothing, and AI Fusion PhotographyAn experimental photography vertical I coined—real photographs reimagined with generative AI to uncover creative worlds in the ordinary. lets me see where a real photograph can go when I rework it with generative AI.

Hacktoberfest

I help organize Hacktoberfest Tbilisi, a two-day hackathon in Georgia where developers, designers, and students turn an idea into a demo. In 2025 we put it on with Lovable, the AI app builder many teams used to get from an idea to a working prototype over the weekend.

Around 450 people built across 130 teams at the Free University of Tbilisi. I wrote about what I learned from organizing it, including why you always need more food than you think.

Videos

I also talk through some of this on camera. Here are the latest from my YouTube channel.

I'm new to making videos and still learning what makes them good, so any feedback is very welcome.

Library

These are some of the latest books I've read. I'm updating this list as I go, and I'd love to hear your book recommendations.

Say hello

I read everything. Whether it's feedback on the site, a reaction to something I wrote, a question, or just hello, leave it here or reach out on whichever channel feels easiest.