--- title: Making it Go Faster description: Discover how TimeSentry AI is accelerating development with a transition to React and Tailwind, creating a faster and sleeker product. Learn about our dev journey, customer discovery progress, and the future of timekeeping innovation. --- [Skip to content](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/making-it-go-faster#main-content) [![timesentry_rebrand copy-2](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/hubfs/timesentry_rebrand%20copy-2.png)](https://www.timesentry.ai) ![menu-toggle](https://21645388.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/21645388/menu-toggle.svg) ![menu-close](https://21645388.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/21645388/menu-close.svg) Book a Demo # Making it Go Faster [By - Joseph Frantz,](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/author/joseph-frantz) Jan 17, 2025 Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up. We spent a lot of time on dev this week. In between coding sessions, I happened to read Paul Graham’s essay, Hackers and Painters. In it, he writes: ###### *“A programming language is for thinking of programs, not for expressing programs you've already thought of. It should be a pencil, not a pen. Static typing would be a fine idea if people actually did write programs the way they taught me to in college. But that's not how any of the hackers I know write programs. We need a language that lets us scribble and smudge and smear, not a language where you have to sit with a teacup of types balanced on your knee and make polite conversation with a strict old aunt of a compiler.”* As the CEO of the business, I spend a lot of time thinking about the commercial aspects of the business, but I also spend a lot of time thinking about programming languages, development frameworks, and questioning how we can create a better engine to sit at TimeSentry’s core. At this stage, it’s our internal engine that comprises the vast majority of the enterprise value of the company (or the **2.5M+** lines of code that comprise the prototype...) The faster we can build, the faster we can eventually build into market pull. Coming from an analytical background, I prefer coding in python to anything else. In my mind, pythonic is a compliment. That’s why I wrote v1 and v2 of the beta in python. But the speed limits we were hitting with server-side rendered templates and vanilla JavaScript was unfortunately too slow for the competitive landscape in this modern age. I thought a light frontend framework (Jinja templates + JavaScript) was enough because the analytical functions of TimeSentry could live “under-the-hood” as python microservices, but I was wrong. There is simply too much front-end work to be done and a more robust framework with reusable components is needed. The breakpoint was trying to implement a drag-and-drop functionality on some analytical dashboards in Jinja. And that’s where I think we pushed Jinja to its limit. As such, it is with a twinge of sadness that I say goodbye to server-side templates and with them, Jinja as an application templating language ☹ Super exciting and related: We are about a quarter of the way refactoring our front-end into React and our backend into an API. The good news is that React has much cleaner libraries for almost all front-end functionality. We unfortunately have to rebuild quite a few features, but compared to the first build we are FLYING (side note: we also switched from Bootstrap to Tailwind for finer-grained control of the look & feel of the product – expect a much sleeker look once we exit beta if you are a customer). I estimate we’ll be done in a few weeks and at that point we will be much, much faster on the dev side. I believe taking it on the chin dev-wise and making this change now hurts for two weeks but will serve Taylor and I both for years to come. For now, we are still running v2 of the beta with a few added features for demos, etc. Meanwhile, we continue to pursue customer discovery and book meetings. I met a number of prospective customers across a few events and we had several new people complete the signup flow on the website, presumably from word of mouth (as I didn’t meet them directly). That was awesome. All of them came from large enterprise firms so I’m going to reach out and see if in any case they can champion a meeting. **Asks:** - Set up a time to demo the new algorithm, I’m curious how well we can do on your timesheet! - Send us your favorite influencers in the professional services space so we can experiment with influencer marketing Onwards, Joseph   ###### Category ###### Popular Post - [AI, Legal Services, and Jevons Paradox](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/ai-legal-market-expansion-jevons-paradox) - [Making it Go Faster](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/making-it-go-faster) - [TimeSentry joins Techstars Boulder!](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/timesentry-joins-techstars-boulder) - [The Efficiency Paradox: Why Tech Makes Us Busier](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/technology-efficiency-paradox-time-pressure) - [Thinking Outside the Box](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/thinking-outside-the-box) ###### Subscribe ### Leave a Comment ### Similar Blogs [![8-Ball, Corner Pocket: Moving 1000 pounds Forward](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/hs-fs/hubfs/God_playing_pool.jpg?width=352&name=God_playing_pool.jpg)](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/8-ball-corner-pocket-moving-1000-pounds-forward) #### [8-Ball, Corner Pocket: Moving 1000 pounds Forward](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/8-ball-corner-pocket-moving-1000-pounds-forward) By [Joseph Frantz](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/author/joseph-frantz) 16 January 2025 [READ MORE](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/making-it-go-faster) [![TimeSentry is in Boulder, Colorado](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/hs-fs/hubfs/1_Horizontal_Athletics_Solar_Roof_Close_Hi_Res_ret_e1d77cc4-e241-4926-ad65-afa095c5eb35.jpg?width=352&name=1_Horizontal_Athletics_Solar_Roof_Close_Hi_Res_ret_e1d77cc4-e241-4926-ad65-afa095c5eb35.jpg)](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/timesentry-is-in-boulder-colorado-growth-through-immersion) #### [TimeSentry is in Boulder, Colorado](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/timesentry-is-in-boulder-colorado-growth-through-immersion) By [Joseph Frantz](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/author/joseph-frantz) 16 January 2025 **Published: Jun 5 2024** [READ MORE](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/making-it-go-faster) [![NYC summer is hot but TimeSentry is hotter](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/hs-fs/hubfs/timesentry-timessquare.jpeg?width=352&name=timesentry-timessquare.jpeg)](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/timesentry-ai-summer-recap-2024) #### [NYC summer is hot but TimeSentry is hotter](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/timesentry-ai-summer-recap-2024) By [Joseph Frantz](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/author/joseph-frantz) 16 January 2025 Fellow Time Enthusiasts, [READ MORE](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/making-it-go-faster) [![timesentry_rebrand copy-2](https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/hubfs/timesentry_rebrand%20copy-2.png)](https://www.timesentry.ai) TimeSentry provides all the basic features and benefits of existing time tracking and billing software while adding a meta-layer of AI to autopopulate timesheets; so your firm can spend less time billing and more time billing. ###### Get In Touch info@timesentry.ai Copyright © 2026 TimeSentry AI [Privacy Policy |](https://timesentry.ai/privacy) [Terms & Condition](https://timesentry.ai/terms-of-service) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Joseph Frantz", "url" : "https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/author/joseph-frantz" }, "dateModified" : "2025-10-21T18:49:43.453Z", "datePublished" : "2025-01-17T04:49:09.000Z", "headline" : "Making it Go Faster", "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/blog/making-it-go-faster", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://thoughts.timesentry.ai/hubfs/timesentry_rebrand%20copy-2.png" } } } ```