Who I am
I'm Zack. I started tinkering with code in 1996, and turned it into a career in 2003 — over two decades writing software that ships, in an industry where quality isn't optional.
Schwenk Technology Group is my side business. Principal Task is its first product.
Why this app
In 2019, I needed a task manager that could work as a simple to-do list on an easy day and a full GTD system on a complicated one — without switching apps or compromising either mode. Everything I found made a choice. Apps aimed at simplicity couldn't handle the days that got complicated. Apps built for GTD required setup and overhead that made casual use feel like homework.
The gap was obvious. So I built Principal Task.
The iterations
This product has been through several ground-up rewrites. The web app is built in Vue.js. The iOS and Android apps are built in Flutter. Deliberate choices, made after building in other stacks first and learning what the product needed.
Each rewrite made Principal Task more capable without adding complexity. That constraint — more capable, not more complicated — is the whole design philosophy. It's easy to add features. It's hard to add features that don't make the app harder to use.
Task Velocity is the clearest example: a single number that answers "am I keeping up?" It took several iterations to get to something that simple. Simple is almost never the first draft.
On AI in development
I use AI tools in development — Claude, mainly. It's part of the workflow now, the way a good IDE or a pair-programming session is. It moves me faster.
What I don't do is generate code I don't understand and ship it. The judgment — what to build, how to build it, what to cut, why something is wrong — doesn't get outsourced. AI accelerates the work. It doesn't replace the engineer doing it.
Every line ships after I've reviewed it. The codebase has one author.
The guarantee
Principal Task is my primary task manager. I use it every day to manage work across two jobs, a family, and everything else. If something is broken or missing, I'm the one who notices.
Questions, feedback, or just want to say hi — I answer my own email.