Why I built Akone

I think the rise of LLMs means that, as software engineers, we no longer have to use our brains the way we did before AI. I often feel unsatisfied with my work because of this. More than that, I feel like I’m getting less sharp, and I rarely get tasks that actually challenge me. I also think most coding platforms reward memorisation over understanding how code works. You win by spotting patterns you’ve seen before, not by being able to read and reason through code.

That’s why I built Akone. I wanted something that would:

• Help me learn to code and keep my mind sharp
• Challenge me in a way that coding with AI doesn’t

The challenges range from easy to hard. Some of them you won’t be able to solve straight away, and there’s nothing to do but sit there and figure it out yourself. That’s the point. I wanted to build something hard, something that forces your brain to work, because that’s fundamentally how we learn.

I hope you enjoy it.

— Bobby