[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":178},["ShallowReactive",2],{"navigation":3,"about":26,"mdc--507dr6-key":46},[4],{"title":5,"path":6,"stem":7,"children":8,"page":25},"Blog","\u002Fblog","blog",[9,13,17,21],{"title":10,"path":11,"stem":12},"From Mockup to Market: My End-to-End Product Design Process","\u002Fblog\u002Ffrom-mockup-to-market","blog\u002Ffrom-mockup-to-market",{"title":14,"path":15,"stem":16},"How I Built My Design System from Scratch","\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-i-built-my-own-design-system-from-scratch","blog\u002Fhow-i-built-my-own-design-system-from-scratch",{"title":18,"path":19,"stem":20},"The Psychology of Color in UI Design","\u002Fblog\u002Fpsychology-of-color-in-ui-design","blog\u002Fpsychology-of-color-in-ui-design",{"title":22,"path":23,"stem":24},"The Case for Slow Design in a Fast-Paced Digital World","\u002Fblog\u002Fslow-design-in-fast-paced-digital-world","blog\u002Fslow-design-in-fast-paced-digital-world",false,{"id":27,"title":28,"body":29,"content":30,"description":31,"extension":32,"images":33,"meta":40,"navigation":41,"path":42,"seo":43,"stem":44,"__hash__":45},"about\u002Fabout.yml","About Me",null,"Hey, I'm **Terry** 👋 I'm an AI engineer in Malaysia who builds things that probably shouldn't work — until, somehow, they do. Give me a half-baked idea, an LLM, and a deadline, and I'll turn it into something people can actually use (or at least a very convincing demo).\n\n### How I actually got here\n\nReal talk: I coasted through most of school. ChatGPT dropped and I basically copy-pasted my way through everything — learned almost nothing, and I knew it. What *actually* taught me to code was [Codédex](https:\u002F\u002Fwww.codedex.io) and a dumb little airline booking system I built by hand — no AI, just me figuring out Python line by painful line. That project is where it finally clicked: how code really works, how to *design* a system instead of duct-taping snippets together. Everything I do now traces back to that one.\n\n### The hackathon problem\n\nI'm addicted to hackathons, full stop. There's nothing like starting with an empty repo at 9am and having a working demo — held together with hope and duct tape — by the next morning. I've built an AI marketplace that haggles and closes its own sales, a prompt-injection detector that swats attacks in under 100ms, and a hospital finder that genuinely helped people find hospitals. Some won, some flopped. Winning's nice, but honestly I'm just there for the 24-hour chaos.\n\nDay job? I'm an **AI Engineer at Finknight** — auth flows, Python automations, and shaving milliseconds off page loads because slow websites piss me off on a personal level.\n\n### How I work\n\nShip first, philosophise later. I'd rather push an ugly thing that works than polish a beautiful thing that dies in a \"coming soon\" folder. Most of my favourite projects started as a stupid *\"wait… what if\"* at 2am. I break a lot of stuff. I fix most of it.\n\n### When I'm not at a keyboard\n\nI play guitar — badly, loudly, and with three of them, including a Hello Kitty Squier that has watched me butcher Metallica riffs it was absolutely not built for. Heavy metal, hard rock, a bit of cantopop when nobody's looking. When the guitars are down I'm usually deep in a AAA game — RDR2, God of War, The Last of Us, basically the whole cinematic sad-dad-simulator genre. And coffee. Always coffee.\n\nIf any of this sounds like your kind of energy, [poke around my projects](\u002Fprojects) or just [say hi](mailto:terryong30@gmail.com) — I'm always down to build something weird.\n","The unfiltered version — how Terry Ong went from copy-pasting his way through school to building AI systems, losing sleep to hackathons, and playing Metallica on a Hello Kitty guitar.","yml",[34,37],{"src":35,"alt":36},"\u002Fgallery\u002Fsetup.avif","My usual coding setup",{"src":38,"alt":39},"\u002Fgallery\u002Fhello-kitty.avif","My Hello Kitty Squier",{},true,"\u002Fabout",{"title":28,"description":31},"about","3Jmqf7h1ALKgMx-iqnC7FlHdSgyABlp7RN0Y5iUlqHU",{"data":47,"body":48},{},{"type":49,"children":50},"root",[51,67,74,105,111,116,128,134,146,152,157],{"type":52,"tag":53,"props":54,"children":55},"element","p",{},[56,59,65],{"type":57,"value":58},"text","Hey, I'm ",{"type":52,"tag":60,"props":61,"children":62},"strong",{},[63],{"type":57,"value":64},"Terry",{"type":57,"value":66}," 👋 I'm an AI engineer in Malaysia who builds things that probably shouldn't work — until, somehow, they do. Give me a half-baked idea, an LLM, and a deadline, and I'll turn it into something people can actually use (or at least a very convincing demo).",{"type":52,"tag":68,"props":69,"children":71},"h3",{"id":70},"how-i-actually-got-here",[72],{"type":57,"value":73},"How I actually got here",{"type":52,"tag":53,"props":75,"children":76},{},[77,79,85,87,96,98,103],{"type":57,"value":78},"Real talk: I coasted through most of school. ChatGPT dropped and I basically copy-pasted my way through everything — learned almost nothing, and I knew it. What ",{"type":52,"tag":80,"props":81,"children":82},"em",{},[83],{"type":57,"value":84},"actually",{"type":57,"value":86}," taught me to code was ",{"type":52,"tag":88,"props":89,"children":93},"a",{"href":90,"rel":91},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.codedex.io",[92],"nofollow",[94],{"type":57,"value":95},"Codédex",{"type":57,"value":97}," and a dumb little airline booking system I built by hand — no AI, just me figuring out Python line by painful line. That project is where it finally clicked: how code really works, how to ",{"type":52,"tag":80,"props":99,"children":100},{},[101],{"type":57,"value":102},"design",{"type":57,"value":104}," a system instead of duct-taping snippets together. Everything I do now traces back to that one.",{"type":52,"tag":68,"props":106,"children":108},{"id":107},"the-hackathon-problem",[109],{"type":57,"value":110},"The hackathon problem",{"type":52,"tag":53,"props":112,"children":113},{},[114],{"type":57,"value":115},"I'm addicted to hackathons, full stop. There's nothing like starting with an empty repo at 9am and having a working demo — held together with hope and duct tape — by the next morning. I've built an AI marketplace that haggles and closes its own sales, a prompt-injection detector that swats attacks in under 100ms, and a hospital finder that genuinely helped people find hospitals. Some won, some flopped. Winning's nice, but honestly I'm just there for the 24-hour chaos.",{"type":52,"tag":53,"props":117,"children":118},{},[119,121,126],{"type":57,"value":120},"Day job? I'm an ",{"type":52,"tag":60,"props":122,"children":123},{},[124],{"type":57,"value":125},"AI Engineer at Finknight",{"type":57,"value":127}," — auth flows, Python automations, and shaving milliseconds off page loads because slow websites piss me off on a personal level.",{"type":52,"tag":68,"props":129,"children":131},{"id":130},"how-i-work",[132],{"type":57,"value":133},"How I work",{"type":52,"tag":53,"props":135,"children":136},{},[137,139,144],{"type":57,"value":138},"Ship first, philosophise later. I'd rather push an ugly thing that works than polish a beautiful thing that dies in a \"coming soon\" folder. Most of my favourite projects started as a stupid ",{"type":52,"tag":80,"props":140,"children":141},{},[142],{"type":57,"value":143},"\"wait… what if\"",{"type":57,"value":145}," at 2am. I break a lot of stuff. I fix most of it.",{"type":52,"tag":68,"props":147,"children":149},{"id":148},"when-im-not-at-a-keyboard",[150],{"type":57,"value":151},"When I'm not at a keyboard",{"type":52,"tag":53,"props":153,"children":154},{},[155],{"type":57,"value":156},"I play guitar — badly, loudly, and with three of them, including a Hello Kitty Squier that has watched me butcher Metallica riffs it was absolutely not built for. Heavy metal, hard rock, a bit of cantopop when nobody's looking. When the guitars are down I'm usually deep in a AAA game — RDR2, God of War, The Last of Us, basically the whole cinematic sad-dad-simulator genre. And coffee. Always coffee.",{"type":52,"tag":53,"props":158,"children":159},{},[160,162,168,170,176],{"type":57,"value":161},"If any of this sounds like your kind of energy, ",{"type":52,"tag":88,"props":163,"children":165},{"href":164},"\u002Fprojects",[166],{"type":57,"value":167},"poke around my projects",{"type":57,"value":169}," or just ",{"type":52,"tag":88,"props":171,"children":173},{"href":172},"mailto:terryong30@gmail.com",[174],{"type":57,"value":175},"say hi",{"type":57,"value":177}," — I'm always down to build something weird.",1784586840651]