Now

This is a /now page — what I'm focused on at this point in my life. Last updated February 2026.

Living off-grid outside Whitehorse, Yukon. Partner, daughter, two dogs, too many computers.

Working on

  • Anlek Consulting — Back to consulting after leaving a voice/AI startup in January. Ruby/Rails and Elixir/Phoenix, mostly.
  • This site — Built on Phoenix LiveView. One codebase runs both this and Anlek’s site with different themes.
  • Home automation — Battery monitoring, temperature alerts, generator management. All self-hosted on Home Assistant with an AI assistant keeping an eye on things.

Learning

  • Elixir/Phoenix patterns I haven’t needed until now (OTP supervision trees, distributed systems)
  • What makes AI agents actually useful vs. just a cool demo
  • How to get real work done with a three-year-old in the next room

Reading

  • Derek Sivers — still working through his back catalog
  • Whatever rabbit hole I fell into at 2am last night (usually distributed systems or battery chemistry)

Thinking about

  • Whether I want to stay in consulting or build a product again
  • How “off-grid” and “technologist” aren’t the contradiction people assume
  • What software looks like when you build for durability instead of scale

Now page. Updated February 2026.

Thoughts from the Yukon

© 2026 Andrew Kalek