Solo founder · builder · maker of too many things

Sora Kalden

I build apps and businesses, write worlds, run games, and learn hard things in 30-day sprints — and I'm looking for talented, curious people to make the next ones with.

Here are a few of mine. Scroll through, and let's build the next one together.

// move the cursor — the metal recoils
scroll, or touch a bead → the mass parts
01 The Maker · Building

~160 ideas and
counting

A lead project and a few shipped things. The domains change; the move underneath stays the same — find the right thing to build, then build the honest version.

// "~160 ideas and counting — and the ones that ship."

Flua

Lead · language learning · tryflua.com

Flua's lesson sheet view — an expertly ordered deck of vocabulary and phrases.
A single Flua study card with native audio and spaced-repetition controls.

The fastest honest path to a new language: one expertly-ordered deck, real native audio, and spaced repetition that does the thinking for you. He taught himself Japanese to A1 in ~20 focused hours with the method, then spent a year building the app that strips out every ounce of the friction that makes people quit.

See Flua ↗
Weave — a minimalist weight-and-habit tracker, the graph front and center.

Weave

A minimalist weight-and-habit tracker built so the graph does the nagging. His mom lost 17 lbs with it.

Super Zen — a focus and calm tool with a quiet, well-made interface.

Super Zen

A focus / calm tool — the small, well-made kind of app he likes to ship.

Small tools

Sharp utilities

A metronome that actually feels good; a tool to find the episode where a show finally gets good. Small, useful, made with care.

The idea engine

~160 catalogued · ~28 games

~160 catalogued app, game, business, book and product ideas — each ranked, named and MVP-scoped — and a habit of turning the best ones into real, shipped things. The invitation is open: grab one off the shelf and build it with me. More apps live at kalden.me ↗

02 The breadth

The eight sides

Eight facets of one engine. Each is its own lobe of the same liquid mass — what I've done, and what I want to do next. The verbatim lines are his own.

01 · The Maker

The Maker

Apps, ~160 ideas, and the one move underneath all of them: find the right thing to build, then build the honest version. The domains change; the method doesn't.

The domains change. The method doesn't.— from the notes
02 · Worlds & Stories

Worlds & Stories

He's built worlds since he was 11 — a fantasy novel he faked his way into finishing and published at 14, a 150k-word dark epic in progress (The Swords of Darkness), a homebrew D&D world with its own playbook, and a manga he still wants to make.

Because I had to fake progress, I accidentally built a real habit. It makes me wonder how many things we could actually finish if we just tricked ourselves into starting.— on the teen novel
03 · Learning & Teaching

Learning & Teaching

How he learns anything fast, and why he's building the courses he wishes someone had taught him — math, statistical and computational thinking, built for real understanding instead of the exam.

Being called smart my whole childhood made it part of my identity — and I was more afraid to lose that title than I was to fail a class.— About Me
04 · Games & the Table

Games & the Table

Take a system apart, find the fun, build it back better — a Balatro-inspired dice roguelike in design, a board game in progress, and D&D run as systems.

Any time the best strategy isn't the most fun strategy is, I believe, a failure of the game's design.— from my consumables essay
05 · The Modern Bard

The Modern Bard

Singing, standup, improv, voice acting, speaking — the half of himself he rebuilt on purpose, charisma treated as a built skill.

I could not sing. I could not dress well. I was not particularly fit or especially charismatic. I was a very well-compensated specialist with a B-minus in everything else.— how I became superhuman in 2 years
06 · Photography & the eye

Photography & the Eye

One camera, a single 23mm prime, golden hour. He shoots portraits, fits, and the cities he lives in — and it's the visual half of the same brain that obsesses over color grading and type. See the gallery ↓

You can't study the color wheel for two hours and understand it. You have to train your eye over a long time.— on color
07 · The Athlete

The Athlete

The same engine he points at apps, pointed at his own body — and the sports (soccer, badminton, volleyball) that are how he makes friends in a new city.

Prioritize control and intention over speed.— his own soccer training notes
08 · The Mind

The Mind

A reading life run like a syllabus — philosophy, history, business — all read through one lens: read to build, not to collect.

Everything is interconnected. Singing makes you a better speaker; games train you to perform under pressure. Each skill feeds the next. If you want to be truly unstoppable, learn everything.— from the notes
03 The 30-day sprint

The Method

Pick a skill, go all-in for 30 days. Japanese to A1 in ~20 focused hours. Tone-deaf to singing from memory in a month. Badminton, YouTube, shipping.

The trick isn't grinding harder — it's refusing to start until he's found where the common advice is wrong, then building the shortest honest path and letting sleep do the heavy lifting.

01

Find the wrong advice

Research where common wisdom is wrong before lifting a finger.

02

Build the shortest honest path

Strip the friction; design a tight feedback loop, not a grind.

03

Go all-in, 30 days

One skill, full focus, real reps — long enough to compound.

04

Let sleep do the lifting

The heavy consolidation happens overnight, not at the desk.

04 Things I haven't built yet

Dreams

The ones still beading off the main mass — not done, but named.

01 · Screen

Write a TV show — he's watched thousands of hours of film and anime, only the best, mostly to take apart why they work.

02 · Page

Finish the manga — the "next Death Note or Game of Thrones": a complex plot that's somehow easy to follow.

03 · World

Make Westworld real, as a game you can actually live inside.

04 · Room

Open a café that's a third place for serious makers — writers, artists, builders, one room.

05 · People

Find the talented, curious people he'd do all of the above with.

06 The blog

Writing

Distinct from the work — ideas, not portfolio.

01

How I Learn Anything in 30 Days

Not willpower — a method: find where the common advice is wrong, build a feedback loop, and let sleep do the heavy lifting.

02

The year I walked away from $250k

At my financial peak I was lonelier than I'd ever been — so I quit, lost almost everything, and spent a year figuring out what a life is for.

03

What Actually Makes D&D Peak

After 100+ hours behind the screen, the magic isn't the dice or the lore — it's a handful of frameworks for a world that's already moving when players walk in.

04

Why the best schools taught me to forget

I optimized for the grade at every school I attended, and it worked — which is exactly the problem.

05

I Used My CS Degree to Debug My Weight Loss

I'd done everything right for six months and the scale wouldn't move — until I stopped treating it like willpower and started treating it like a bug.

07 For myself

The quiet line

And some things I do purely for myself — painting like no one will ever see it, building and painting Gundam kits, singing in the mornings, the occasional cosplay. No goal. Just the doing.

08 Let's build something

I'm looking for people who are excellent at something and curious about everything.

Collaborators, co-conspirators, friends. If any of these worlds is also yours — or you just want to scheme — say hi. The best things in my life started as a five-hour first conversation with a stranger.

Sora
Kalden

Solo founder, builder, maker of too many things. I build apps and businesses, write worlds, run games, and learn hard things in 30-day sprints — and I'm looking for talented, curious people to make the next ones with.

The Maker — Building

~160 ideas and counting — and the ones that ship.

Flua — tryflua.com

The fastest honest path to a new language: one expertly-ordered deck, real native audio, and spaced repetition that does the thinking for you. He taught himself Japanese to A1 in ~20 focused hours with the method, then spent a year building the app that strips out the friction that makes people quit.

Flua lesson sheet view. Weave weight-and-habit tracker.
Weave

A minimalist weight-and-habit tracker built so the graph does the nagging. His mom lost 17 lbs with it.

Super Zen

A focus / calm tool — the small, well-made kind of app he likes to ship.

Small tools & the idea engine

A metronome that feels good; a tool to find the episode where a show gets good. And ~160 catalogued app, game, business, book and product ideas — each ranked, named and MVP-scoped, with ~28 games. Grab one off the shelf and build it with me. More apps at kalden.me.

The Eight Sides
The Maker

Find the right thing to build, then build the honest version.

"The domains change. The method doesn't."— from the notes

Worlds & Stories

Worlds since age 11 — a novel published at 14, a 150k-word dark epic (The Swords of Darkness), a homebrew D&D world, a manga still to make.

"Because I had to fake progress, I accidentally built a real habit. It makes me wonder how many things we could actually finish if we just tricked ourselves into starting."— on the teen novel

Learning & Teaching

How he learns anything fast, and the courses he wishes someone had taught him — built for understanding, not the exam.

"Being called smart my whole childhood made it part of my identity — and I was more afraid to lose that title than I was to fail a class."— About Me

Games & the Table

Take a system apart, find the fun, build it back better — a dice roguelike, a board game, D&D run as systems.

"Any time the best strategy isn't the most fun strategy is, I believe, a failure of the game's design."— from my consumables essay

The Modern Bard

Singing, standup, improv, voice acting, speaking — charisma treated as a built skill.

"I could not sing. I could not dress well. I was not particularly fit or especially charismatic. I was a very well-compensated specialist with a B-minus in everything else."— how I became superhuman in 2 years

Photography & the eye

One camera, a single 23mm prime, golden hour. Portraits, fits, and the cities he lives in.

"You can't study the color wheel for two hours and understand it. You have to train your eye over a long time."— on color

The Athlete

The same engine pointed at his own body — and the sports that are how he makes friends in a new city.

"Prioritize control and intention over speed."— his own soccer training notes

The Mind

A reading life run like a syllabus — read to build, not to collect.

"Everything is interconnected. Singing makes you a better speaker; games train you to perform under pressure. Each skill feeds the next. If you want to be truly unstoppable, learn everything."— from the notes

The Method

Pick a skill, go all-in for 30 days. Japanese to A1 in ~20 focused hours. Tone-deaf to singing from memory in a month. The trick isn't grinding harder — it's refusing to start until he's found where the common advice is wrong, then building the shortest honest path and letting sleep do the heavy lifting.

Dreams

Write a TV show — thousands of hours of film and anime, taken apart to learn why they work. Finish the manga — the "next Death Note or Game of Thrones," complex but easy to follow. Make Westworld real, as a game you can live inside. Open a café that's a third place for serious makers — one room. Find the talented, curious people he'd do all of it with.

The Gallery

Portraits, fits, and the cities I've lived in — Osaka, Tokyo, Kōyasan, Budapest, Lisbon, Nagpur. One camera, a single prime, natural light, graded by hand.

Portfolio portrait at golden hour. Kōyasan temple town in autumn. Lisbon hillside streets in warm light.
Writing

Distinct from the work — ideas, not portfolio.

How I Learn Anything in 30 Days

Not willpower — a method: find where the common advice is wrong, build a feedback loop, and let sleep do the heavy lifting.

The year I walked away from $250k

At my financial peak I was lonelier than I'd ever been — so I quit, lost almost everything, and spent a year figuring out what a life is for.

What Actually Makes D&D Peak

After 100+ hours behind the screen, the magic is a handful of frameworks for a world that's already moving when players walk in.

Why the best schools taught me to forget

I optimized for the grade at every school I attended, and it worked — which is exactly the problem.

I Used My CS Degree to Debug My Weight Loss

I'd done everything right for six months and the scale wouldn't move — until I started treating it like a bug.

The Quiet Line

And some things I do purely for myself — painting like no one will ever see it, building and painting Gundam kits, singing in the mornings, the occasional cosplay. No goal. Just the doing.

Connect

I'm looking for people who are excellent at something and curious about everything. Collaborators, co-conspirators, friends. If any of these worlds is also yours — or you just want to scheme — say hi. The best things in my life started as a five-hour first conversation with a stranger.

© 2026 Sora Kalden · Sora Kalden is the name I go by. Legally, Swarnim Kalbande. · [email protected]

← sorakalden.com