Simon Mayes
I'm a UK-based software engineer and the solo-founder of Untether, a digital-minimalism software company. Our launch products are a suite of Garmin watch apps designed to let you stay connected without reaching for your phone — quick actions and notifications on the watch, the phone left in your bag.
Most of my engineering time goes into Untether. The articles here are mostly about software quality as a behaviour — the ingrained kind, where teams care about the craft and the quality of what they ship. The developer experience that makes that sustainable, and where AI is reshaping the work.
I'm a climber. Type II Fun is a climbing term — it means the kind of fun that's miserable while it's happening and enjoyable in retrospect. It seemed like the right name for a working record of building things.
Elsewhere
- untether.watch — the company
- GitLab — where my code lives
- LinkedIn — for the formal record
- RSS — if you read in a feed reader
Advisory
I take a small number of advisory engagements per quarter — helping teams build software quality as a behaviour, improve developer experience, and work with AI without losing what mattered before. More on the advisory page.