“Just Started” is a weekly essay about what it actually looks like to build with AI tools after a career in something else.

I’m Dennis Hoffman. I spent nearly forty years in technology, the last twenty-two at Dell, most recently running a business there. In March 2026 I retired and, without knowing how to code, I built a consumer AI product called The Retirement Strategy. A second product, My Reset Plan, followed. I’m 62.

The question I kept hearing from peers was: how did you just start? And I kept answering: I just started. That answer is true and useless at the same time. It doesn’t tell you anything about the moment of sitting down at a blank screen, not knowing what to type, half-sure you’re too late, half-sure you’re too old, fully sure someone will find out you don’t belong. Nobody writes about that part. That part is where everyone gets stuck.

This publication is what comes after “I just started.” It’s the specific decisions, the dead ends, the things I got wrong, the things I’m still getting wrong. It’s what it looks like to build at 62 using tools that didn’t exist two years ago.

The Retirement Strategy and My Reset Plan are the ongoing experiments. The Substack is the narration.

If you’ve been standing on the edge of trying something with AI and can’t figure out how to step in, this is for you.