Pascal Polleunus

Self OS
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#SecondBrain #Methodology #Productivity #PersonalAssistant #AI

Andy – Starting with a Blank Canvas

Course correction: from over-analysis to lean execution

Two days ago, I shared my vision for “Project JARVIS”. Yesterday, a wake-up call: Am I going astray? Today: Let’s start with nothing, adding features and investigating as needed.

The Wake-Up Call

Two days ago, I published Project JARVIS – Building My Self OS – a comprehensive vision for creating my personal operating system powered by AI dream teams.

Then yesterday: Wait. Am I on the right track or going astray once again?

Classic me: Exciting vision ⇒ big plans ⇒ over-engineering and jumping into investigation… before even starting 🙄

The track was right but the approach was wrong – trapped in over-analysis (old habits) and scattered by butterfly investigations (unconscious design). Fortunately, this time I noticed it quickly.

The New Approach

Two complementary ideas surfaced:

  1. Create a tool for users to drive development by saying “I want this, here, because”.
  2. Start extremely lean – explain the vision, zero features, one question: “what do you want here?”

Today, I’m applying this to myself:
Let’s start with a blank canvas and I’ll add features as needs appear, with targeted investigation.

Concretely, the new plan is:

  1. ✅ Write the vision and explain the context – see below
  2. ✅ Create a GitHub repo
  3. ✅ Initialize Claude Code
  4. Add needed features in the backlog
  5. Implement features based on my most important needs

The Vision

The vision remains unchanged – just better formulated.

Andy is your Self OS – an AI-powered system structuring how you capture, process, organize, retrieve, and act on ideas and information.

Andy is your exobrain – an exoskeleton for mental aspects.

Andy is your second brain and an army of specialized skilled AI agents.

Andy is your:

  • J.A.R.V.I.S. – anticipates needs, manages complexity, always available
  • Pepper Pots – organizes chaos, keeps you focused, handles what you shouldn’t
  • MacGyver – improvises solutions from whatever’s available
  • A-Team – specialized skills working together, squad for impossible cases
  • whatever-you-need – a Genie with unlimited wishes!

Why Andy?

  • 1986: Les Rita Mitsouko started singing “Hey, Andy? Hé, Andy!”
  • 1996: I was listening to that song a lot in a lot of university parties
  • 2006: Anne Hathaway 😍 played Andy Sachs in “The Devil Wears Prada”
  • 2016: Google unveiled the “Hey Google” wake word ⁽¹⁾
  • 2026: I’m starting this project

⁽¹⁾ That’s actually wrong but how I remember it. Apple introduced “Hey Siri” in 2014 and Google “OK Google” in 2016. Anyway, 2016 fits better in this chronology 😉

The Context

The problems that triggered this journey:

  • I’ve way too many things floating around in my mind!
    • I need centralized information and a single gateway.
    • I need collaborators… even multiple teams – but I’ve no money.
  • My Notion is a mess accumulated over many years.
    • I still have notes and data in multiple other apps.
    • I struggle to retrieve all the information I know I’ve somewhere.
    • I struggle to create structured final knowledge and plans.
  • Collaborating with Claude doesn’t scale to my needs.
    • 1300+ Notion pages can’t connect to Projects effectively.
    • Multiple interconnected projects need reconciliation.
    • Current tools create friction instead of flow.

The realization that made me started:

  • Claude has the potential to finally be able to have what I’ve always dreamed of.
  • Claude can be my assistant, collaborator, mentor… even my dream team!
  • So I could finally free the Tony Stark I’ve trapped in me for way too long 😁

Are You Interested?

Just curious? Or willing to use it?

What do you want Andy to be capable of?

or watch, star, fork the GitHub repo.