Hi, I’m Maryan.
I grew up in Ukraine, lived in England, and now live in Berlin. I study software engineering at CODE and build Hivemind and Brainjuice at Aether.
I really enjoy coding. Working through a problem myself and finally understanding it is a big part of why I do this. I like simple software: the kind I can understand, change, and leave alone when it works.
Coding, learning, and agents
I’m skeptical of AI, and I also use coding agents extensively. I see them as engineering tools. I want to keep learning to write code and solve problems myself, even when I can delegate an implementation.
I use compound engineering to structure that work: planning, implementation, review, and carrying useful lessons into the next task. I want agents to check their work, and I want to understand the result well enough to question it.
My defaults are TypeScript, React Native, and Python, with whatever else the project actually needs. Small implementations, useful tests, and a stopping point. I wrote more about how I work with agents.
Bouldering, ballroom, and philosophy
I’ve started bouldering too. Part of the appeal is figuring out a problem for myself. I’m still learning.
I started ballroom dancing when I was around six. It gave me plenty of time to think about practice, motivation, and the help that makes effort possible.
Lately I’ve been spending more time with philosophy. I’m interested in memory, identity, and what it means to have an experience. Thinking about Her is one way into those questions.
Some ideas end up as fiction instead: two objects left in an empty house, or visitors arriving on Earth. I’m making room for that writing here too.
Family, university, and an art exhibition
Sladent is my family’s dental clinic in Ternopil. I built its website with plain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. That was enough.
fuxam-local handles courses and bookings from a terminal. Week Tally puts hour targets inside a calendar. Video Bouncer adds a little friction to opening videos on X.
I also help organize HOME/HOMELAND, an international student art exhibition, and built its submission and gallery website.
Still figuring things out
In high school, I made a pathfinding visualizer in Java. More recently, I built an unofficial Qiskit study companion. Now I’m learning C++ for a student cubesat. The hardware has just arrived.
I like being a beginner at something alongside the work I already know how to do. At the moment, that means hardware on my desk and philosophical questions in my notes.
