hi, i'm mert erbil.
Weekday product person and consultant, weekend startup advisor, and every now and then a speaker and mentor.
I make merbil.fm, a YouTube channel of monologues (in Turkish) about tech, modern life and adulthood, and this is where the written versions live.
more about me →latest posts
- 2026-10-27why big companies get hacked so easilytechHacked Danfoss fridges, empty Albert Heijn shelves, an AI-found PHP flaw and PS5 piracy, and why Gabe Newell's line on piracy explains all of it.
- 2026-10-051000 days on duolingo, and why greater than zero is enoughtechA 1,000-day Duolingo streak in Dutch, and why it feels like fatigue: habits work, gamification is a tax, and the owl treats adults like kids.
- 2026-09-30what gta 6 will and won't begamesGTA 6's $1–2B budget, the Netflix trailer bet, what it means for AAA studios, and why I expect an old formula done really well, not a tech leap.
- 2026-08-23why we should talk about music moremusicMusic used to build friendships. Spotify turned it into furniture and a 30-second economy, but young rock fans are still out there. Why I'll talk albums.
- 2026-08-15made by google '26, and why i can't leave appletechMade by Google '26, the Pixel Watch's predicted blood pressure and insulin resistance trends, and why leaving Apple for a Pixel feels like a migration.
talks, projects & startups
- 2026-10merterbil.comweekend projectThe site you're reading. A static Astro site built with Claude Code, written for search engines and AI models as much as for people. Live since October 2026.
- 2026-10tv prompterweekend projectA free, open-source teleprompter for Android TV. The TV shows a little address, you paste your notes there from your phone or laptop, and it scrolls them very slowly.
- 2026-10glowweekend projectA free, open-source Mac menu bar app for Philips Hue lamps. Click to switch, drag to dim and right-click for colors, without Siri, Alexa or your phone.
- 2026-05product discovery with ai at surepayworkshopA Product Discovery with AI workshop for the product team at SurePay, going back to Netnography, Pre-mortem and JTBD and how AI changes each one.