The Gro
Thinking out loud.
Essays, experiments, and field notes from the studio. On building better websites, shipping AI that earns its keep, and the crossover where the real work happens.
What 'vibe coding' is, and where it breaks.
Vibe coding turns the AI into the developer and you into the editor. It's brilliant for the first 80% and a slow-motion disaster for the last 20. Here's the line we draw with our clients, and what we use AI for instead.
AI in 2026: the boring wins.
Every AI hot take is about agents, autonomous workflows, or whatever's on the front page of Hacker News this morning. The wins we've actually shipped this year are far more boring. They're also the ones that compound.
SEO after AI Overviews: the three levers that still move the needle.
AI Overviews killed half of organic CTR for informational queries. SEO didn't die, it just got harder to fake. Here's what's still working for our clients in 2026.
Shopify vs headless: a framework for choosing in 2026.
The Shopify-vs-headless debate has become reflexive. The truth is usually less interesting: the right answer depends on six questions nobody's asking.
Five AI integrations that paid back in their first month.
Most agency AI builds are theatre. But a handful have paid back their build cost in week four, not month four. Here's what actually worked.
The hidden cost of CMS complexity, and why less is faster.
Most CMS rebuilds aren't about features. They're about complexity. Somebody built for every possible future need, and now nobody can update the homepage without a ticket.