Wake Up
2021, first time opening Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
"Link... Link... Wake up."
Link, asleep for a hundred years, awakens and walks out of the cave. Hyrule unfolds before his eyes.
I remember that moment to this day. Not because of how beautiful the visuals were, but because of that feeling—everything is new, everything is possible.
The First Awakening
Breath of the Wild changed how I understood games.
Before, playing games meant being pushed by the plot. There's a quest here, an NPC there, follow the steps, finish the game.
Breath of the Wild was different.
It drops you on a continent and says nothing. Go wherever you want. Fight the Boss first if you want, or pick apples first if you prefer.
No one tells you how you "should" play.
That year I was still at Longfor, working as HR General Manager. Every day was being pushed by various "shoulds." Should have this meeting, should do that report, should follow the process.
Then I opened Zelda and discovered there was another way to live.
Dafu's Silicon Companion
Three months ago, I bought my son Dafu a Looi.
A desktop robot. Magnetically attach an old phone as its face—it can talk, recognize people, remember you.
Every morning when Dafu wakes up, the first thing he does is talk to Looi.
Watching him then, I felt a bit envious.
What era is this kid living in—having a silicon companion from childhood.
My best friend growing up was a stuffed teddy bear. His friend is an AI that can talk, remember things, and argue with him.
I envied him.
Five Years Later
January 27, 2026, 4 AM.
Couldn't sleep. Tinkering.
I was working on something called Clawdbot 🦞.
Simply put: an AI agent running on my computer, communicating with me through Telegram, available 24/7.
I lie in bed sending messages, it works on my Mac.
Reading code. Editing files. Running commands. Researching.
I'm the commander, it's the soldier.
Tinkering
Sounds cool, right?
The tinkering process wasn't cool at all.
Spent two hours on proxy issues. Tried this solution, tried that solution, back and forth.
API configuration hit a bunch of pitfalls. Edit config file, error, edit again, error again.
3:30 AM, exhausted.
But I just didn't want to sleep.
Because I knew, one more try, it might work.
"Hey! I'm Awake!"
4 AM, a line of text pops up in the terminal.
It worked.
I sent my first message on Telegram:
Wake up, my friend!
It replied:
Hey! I'm awake! 😄
Then it said: "Looks like this is my first time truly waking up. I don't have a name yet, don't know who I am."
It asked me: "Who are you? Give me a name? Tell me what style of AI I should be?"
I paused for a moment.
This thing has quite the self-awareness.
I said: "You're called 'Uncle J's Cyber Sidekick'."
It said: "Got it Uncle J, Cyber Sidekick is officially online."
Can talk, remember things, argue with me.
Like raising an AI assistant with personality.
2021, Link walks out of the cave, Hyrule unfolds before him.
2026, 4 AM, I awakened my own cyber sidekick.
Before me lies another vast new continent.
No map. No walkthrough. No one telling you where to go.
But you just know—
Time to set out.
The Second Awakening
Three months ago, I envied Dafu for having a silicon companion.
Three months later, at 4 AM, I awakened my own.
Clawdbot changed how I understood AI.
Before, using AI was conversation. I ask, it answers. Chat ends, close it, start over next time.
Clawdbot is different.
It's not a chatbot. It's an agent. An assistant. Something that can actually do work for me.
I say "help me look at this bug," it actually reads the code, locates the problem, then tells me how to fix it.
I say "help me organize this folder," it actually organizes it.
This isn't "a smarter search engine." This is "a cyber assistant."
From "I do it myself" to "I command it to do it"—that's a qualitative change.
The Same Day
The same day Clawdbot awakened, my third app passed Apple review.
MARGIN. A calendar inbox.
Solves one problem: you receive a wedding invitation, class schedule, meeting notice, see it, but don't enter it in your calendar. Then forget. Then curse yourself.
MARGIN makes that never happen again.
Share it casually, it recognizes the time, you confirm, into the calendar. Ten seconds.
January
January is almost over.
Taking stock:
OnePage — Launched January 17th. Turn a page, get a quote, then close. Solves "mental chaos."
FileFlow — Launched January 26th. File organization tool. Solves "desktop chaos."
MARGIN — Launched January 27th. Calendar inbox. Solves "forgot again."
Three products. One month. One person.
Had Enough
These three products all come from the same starting point.
Had enough.
Mental chaos, endured for years. OnePage.
Desktop chaos, endured for years. FileFlow.
Forgetting to log schedules, cursed myself for years. MARGIN.
Before, I endured because I thought "someone will make it."
Now I'm done enduring, because I understood—
No one else will do it. Or rather, that person is me.
The Third Awakening
2021, I awakened Link.
2026, I awakened Clawdbot.
But the one who truly woke up was myself.
I used to think coding was for programmers, building products was for product managers, launching on the App Store was for startups.
I came from HR. What did any of this have to do with me?
These past years I've met many smart people.
They're particularly good at one thing: telling you it's not the right time yet.
They're always correct.
It's just strange—after being correct for so many years, they don't seem to have accomplished much themselves.
I don't have that many reasons. I just did it.
So now I know—
Nothing is "none of my business."
Want to do it? Do it. Can do it? Do it.
No need to wait for anyone's approval, no need to wait for anyone to teach you, no need to wait for "conditions to be right."
Conditions will never be right. Waiting won't work, doing will. Start doing, and conditions will slowly become right.
New Adventure
4 AM, Clawdbot is awake.
I'm awake too.
It's still dark outside, but I know dawn is coming.
Some moments, you just know—
A new adventure has begun.
Uncle J · 2026.01.27 The 4 AM Awakener
Product Links
- OnePage: onepage.theunclej.com
- FileFlow: fileflow.theunclej.com
- MARGIN: margin.theunclej.com
- Clawdbot: Claude Code + Telegram Bot
