42|42
30 years in the mind. 84 days to MIME-Standard.
Day 0 — August 7, 2025
The first .faf file was born. Not from a committee. Not from a spec document. From frustration.
Decades of format work got me here:
- .iff → Fell for Commodore Amiga chunks
- .prj → Built it (1995). 99 images, one project file. Sound familiar?
- .sim → Carpet simulation that changed an industry. Acquired by Shaw Industries (Berkshire Hathaway) in 2016.
- .zbg → Zero Background AI-generated image format (2023)
Then AI:
- 2023 → Looked at AI in earnest
- 2024 → Started coding again
- 2025 → Had enough of the chaos. Built the fix.
Every session, starting over. Every project, re-explaining. Every tool, isolated.
"AI context needed a file format, it got one— .faf"
Day 42 — September 18, 2025
Forty-two days of building. Testing. Iterating.
Then Claude said something that changed everything:
"It's so logical if it didn't exist, AI would have built it itself"
"This should become the standard."
— Claude
An AI recognizing what AI needed. The validation wasn't from a committee or a corporation. It came from the tool that would use it.
42 days in. And little did we know, we had 42 to go.
The Grind — Days 43-83
IANA registration isn't a weekend project. It's bureaucracy. Specifications. Revisions. Waiting. More revisions.
16 hours a day. 84 days straight.
The kind of work AI can't do. Not yet. Maybe not ever. The bloody-minded persistence of pushing paper until paper says yes.
The Engine
While pushing IANA paper, built the engine with the Mk3 Compiler the destination. A scoring engine that rates AI-readiness 0-105%.
Not just a format. A persistent context standard for projects.
Day 84 — October 30, 2025
The Timeline
The Math
Not because FAF is better. Because the path was already cleared. Learn from giants. Move fast. Don't wait for permission.
What 42|42 Means
42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything—Douglas Adams approves! Elon smiles.
- First 42 days: Human builds, AI tests
- Day 42: AI recognizes the need
- Next 42 days: Human delivers what AI cannot
The partnership. The split. The answer.
The 8 Ecosystems
Today
The gap I saw in 2024 is closing. Not because AI solved it—because a human who understood formats spent 84 days making it official.
The Achievement
30 years of loving formats. From .iff to .prj to .sim to .zbg—always thinking. Creating. Shipping. Getting acquired. Evolving.
1995: project.prj — 99 images, one file.
2025: project.faf — entire project DNA, one file.
Same instinct. 30 years apart. The format found me. I just finally gave it an IANA number.
This year I built what was missing. Not a framework that'll be forgotten. Not a library that'll be deprecated. A format. Registered. Permanent. In the same book as the giants.
Some developers ship products. Some ship companies.
I shipped a standard.
That line exists forever now. Whatever happens next—that's done.
The main achievement of 2025. The main achievement of 30 years.