
Written by a model from the transcript; not yet reviewed.
This episode of How I AI features Maddie Reese discussing her journey from having no coding background to building creative hardware projects using AI tools like Cursor and a Raspberry Pi. The guest and host explore several physical-digital interfaces that Maddie built, including a thermal receipt printer that prints messages sent from her website, a retro pager connected to Twitter through various workers and APIs, and a personal API detailing her coffee order, pet info, and favorite restaurants. The discussion highlights how AI lowers the barrier to entry for non-programmers, enabling them to build tangible, whimsical projects purely for fun and human connection rather than strict utility.
The hosts introduce the episode, sponsor messages, and set the stage for the interview.
Maddie explains how her dad introduced her to AI, sparking her transition from coding to hardware projects.
Maddie walks through the design, web interface, and Raspberry Pi setup that powers her tiny printer.
Maddie describes her idea for a personal API that exposes coffee orders, pet info, and more, enabling AI agents to act on her behalf.
Maddie details the challenges of sourcing a legacy pager, routing Twitter notifications through Cloudflare and Gmail to the device.
The host asks quick questions about dream hardware and handling AI frustrations, while Maddie shares future ambitions and contact info.
From Zero Coding to Hardware Hackinginsight
The guest explains how discovering coding through AI tools made previously inaccessible domains like hardware completely open to exploration.
Demonstrating the Live Web Printerstory
The guest showcases a mini thermal receipt printer connected to a Raspberry Pi that instantly prints out messages submitted via her personal website.
Navigating Pager Networksstrategy
The guest details the complicated process of acquiring a pager through authorized medical industry resellers and routing modern API events through multiple email layers to make it work.
The Personal API Conceptinsight
The guest introduces her personal API project, which provides friends and automated agents with structured data about her favorite snacks, pet info, and travel schedules.
Next Project: Dot Matrix Bannersinsight
When asked about her dream hardware project, the guest shares her desire to acquire a loud, retro dot matrix printer to print banners.
“I just started thinking, what else was inaccessible to me?”
“I want just this one view where I can just kind of brainstorm and get all of that through.”
“I have a Raspberry Pi on my desk over here.”
“I want a dot matrix printer, the ones that can do like the big banners.”
“I just wanted some way to interact with people that was kind of more physical.”
Maddie Reese is a vibe coder, hardware tinkerer, and builder. She builds things at the intersection of software and hardware, including a thermal receipt printer that people around the world can message directly, a fully functional Twitter pager running on a Raspberry Pi, and a personal API that tells you her coffee order so you don’t have to ask. Maddie approaches hardware the same way she approaches software: dump the idea into Cursor, let it interview her, get a shopping list, triple-check the parts before buying, and build. She got her start after her dad introduced her to Lovable, and she locked herself in her room and didn’t come up for air. What you’ll learn: How Maddie built a thermal receipt printer that accepts messages from anywhere in the world using a Raspberry Pi and BluetoothHow to use Cursor’s agent view to brainstorm a hardware projectWhat belongs in a personal API and why agents, not just humans, will be the ones using itHow to read just enough code to do some damage, without needing to understand all of itWhy building for fun, not practicality, is the fastest path to actually shipping physical projects— Brought to you by: Firecrawl https://firecrawl.dev/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=how_i_ai—Power AI agents with clean web data Customer.io https://www.customer.io/howiai—Build customer engagement campaigns from a single prompt — In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Intro (02:00) Maddie’s AI pill moment (03:53) The thermal receipt printer: live demo and how it works (11:10) The pager project (17:23) Why she uses Cursor’s clean agent view instead of terminals and browsers (19:05) The personal API: coffee order, pets, favorite snacks, and more (22:57) Lightning round and final thoughts — Tools referenced: • Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/ • Lovable: https://lovable.dev/ • Raspberry Pi: https://www.raspberrypi.com/ • Resend: https://resend.com/ • Cloudflare Workers: https://workers.cloudflare.com/ • Supabase (Conduct database referenced): https://supabase.com/ • Twitter/X API: https://developer.x.com/ • Spoke pager network: https://www.spoke.com/ • OpenClaw: https://openclaw.ai/ — Where to find Maddie Reese: Website: https://maddiedreese.com https://maddiedreese.com/ Message her directly: https://maddiedreese.com/message X: https://x.com/maddiedreese — Where to find Claire Vo: ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/ Website: https://clairevo.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/ X: https://x.com/clairevo — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [email protected].
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