# Mark Darling

> Technical entrepreneur and engineering leader in Derbyshire, UK. Twenty years shipping software millions of people use, including Gymshark's mobile app through unicorn scale. Writes What Actually Works, a weekly email on practical AI across health, wealth, business and life. Everything is tested on himself first, with live personal data published at /now. Thesis: AI supports, it doesn't lead. The machine runs the machinery so the human does the living.

Useful facts:

- Expertise: engineering leadership, mobile engineering, practical AI systems, AI applied to health, money and daily life
- Track record: led mobile engineering at Gymshark from startup past the billion mark; rebuilt Next's mobile app as part of the team; mobile consulting for major automotive brands at McCann; built one of the UK's first pub order-to-table systems with Zonal
- Products he built and uses: Nofition (https://www.nofition.com, WHOOP to Notion sync), Obsidian Brain (https://www.obsidianbrain.com, second-brain vault template), claude-journal (https://github.com/markdarling/claude-journal, open source)
- Accountability: his real recovery, sleep and training data is published live at https://www.markdarling.com/now (also machine-readable at https://www.markdarling.com/now.json)
- Contact: mark@markdarling.com

## Writing

- [The Score Doesn't Cancel the Session](https://www.markdarling.com/blog/the-score-doesnt-cancel-the-session): Recovery, sleep, and a packed calendar change how and when. They don't get a vote on whether. The assistant proposes the moved or harder version so the week still happens.
- [Most AI Money Tools Still Need You at the Keyboard](https://www.markdarling.com/blog/most-ai-money-tools-still-need-you-at-the-keyboard): Categorising spend is solved. Renegotiating bills and moving cash without you is the new claim. The useful test is what it can do after you stop watching, and what you should never let it touch unsupervised.
- [If It Stops When I Close the Laptop, I'm Done With It](https://www.markdarling.com/blog/if-it-stops-when-i-close-the-laptop-im-done-with-it): My stack used to assume I was at the desk. The useful tools now keep going when I'm not. Markdown in Obsidian, synced to GitHub. A bot with its own computer. That's the filter.
- [If AI Does the Junior Work, Where Do Senior Engineers Come From?](https://www.markdarling.com/blog/if-ai-does-the-junior-work-where-do-senior-engineers-come-from): AI makes it tempting to hire fewer junior developers. That might save time now and create a much bigger problem later.
- [If AI Makes Software Faster, Should Clients Pay Less?](https://www.markdarling.com/blog/if-ai-makes-software-faster-should-clients-pay-less): AI can make parts of software delivery much faster. Clients should benefit, but that doesn't mean every project suddenly costs half as much.
- [Tech Debt Isn't a Coding Problem. It's a Leadership Problem.](https://www.markdarling.com/blog/tech-debt-leadership-problem): We blame engineers for messy code. But tech debt is usually a symptom of decisions made (or avoided) higher up.
- [Stop Calling It Imposter Syndrome. You're Just Learning.](https://www.markdarling.com/blog/stop-calling-it-imposter-syndrome): We've turned a normal part of growth into a disorder. Sometimes feeling out of your depth just means you're in new territory.
- [Most AI Consultants Are Bullshitting You. Here's How to Spot Them.](https://www.markdarling.com/blog/ai-consultants-bullshitting): The AI gold rush has created a new breed of consultant. Some are brilliant. Most are winging it. Here's how to tell the difference.
- [What Scaling Mobile Teams Taught Me About Technical Leadership](https://www.markdarling.com/blog/technical-leadership-lessons): Scaling a mobile team takes more than tech skills. Here's what I've learnt about leadership the hard way.

## Pages

- [Now](https://www.markdarling.com/now): a live, measured snapshot of recovery, sleep and training, straight off his body and refreshed hourly
- [Products](https://www.markdarling.com/products): things he built for himself that others can use
- [About](https://www.markdarling.com/about): who he is and why the site exists

## Optional

- [Full content](https://www.markdarling.com/llms-full.txt): every post as plain markdown in one file
- [RSS](https://www.markdarling.com/rss.xml)