Building a Family OS: Why I Created Genesis

There’s a moment in every parent’s life when you realize you’re running a small organization. Schedules to coordinate, health to track, emergencies to prepare for, and endless logistics to manage. For me, that realization came with a twist: I’d spent 21 years in the Navy managing far more complex systems. Why couldn’t I bring that same systematic thinking to my own family?

The Problem I Couldn’t Ignore

My wife and I have two kids, Kenzie and Liam. Between school schedules, sports, health appointments, and the general chaos of family life, we were drowning in apps. A calendar here, a to-do list there, health data scattered across three different wearables, and emergency information stored in… where exactly?

At Mars Inc., I manage 47 facilities across North America with 8,700+ assets. I have dashboards that give me real-time visibility into everything. But at home? I couldn’t tell you when my son’s last pediatric visit was without digging through emails.

The irony wasn’t lost on me.

What Genesis Actually Is

Genesis is what I call a “Family Operating System” - a single platform that integrates:

Family OS (Central Hub)

• Real-time family dashboard and coordination
• Task management with age-appropriate assignments
• Document vault for important records
• Second Brain for family knowledge

Health Protocols

• Evidence-based protocols from experts like Dr. Andrew Huberman, Dr. Peter Attia, and Dr. Gabrielle Lyon
• Individual health tracking for each family member
• Integration with wearables we already use

Emergency Preparedness

• Over 100 emergency protocols developed from Navy SEAL and Green Beret methodologies
• LoRa mesh communication for when cell towers are down
• Offline-first architecture (because emergencies don’t wait for WiFi)

Why Military Methodology Matters

Here’s what two decades in the Navy taught me: systems save lives. When you’re transferring 2.2 million gallons of fuel across 14 ships in multinational operations, you don’t wing it. You have protocols. Checklists. Redundancies.

Families face emergencies too. Not usually at sea, but the same principles apply. The tornado warning at 2 AM. The medical emergency when you can’t remember your kid’s allergies. The fire evacuation when everyone is panicking.

Genesis takes the systematic approach I used leading 350+ personnel and applies it to family life. Not in a rigid, military way - but in a “we’ve thought this through so you don’t have to” way.

The Health Protocol Philosophy

One of the most ambitious parts of Genesis is the health protocols module. I’ve spent years following experts in longevity and performance optimization - not as a fad, but because I’ve seen what happens when you don’t prioritize health.

The Navy taught me that readiness is everything. You can’t accomplish the mission if your people aren’t healthy. The same applies to families. Genesis doesn’t just track steps - it implements actual protocols based on peer-reviewed research, customized for each family member.

Sleep protocols from Dr. Huberman. Nutrition frameworks from Dr. Lyon. Exercise science from Dr. Galpin. All distilled into actionable daily practices that the whole family can follow.

Offline-First: A Non-Negotiable

This might be the most Navy thing about Genesis: it works without internet.

Every emergency I’ve trained for assumes degraded communications. Cell towers go down. Power fails. Networks get congested. Genesis uses local-first architecture with sync capabilities, plus optional LoRa mesh networking for communication when everything else fails.

Your family’s safety shouldn’t depend on your ISP.

Building in Public

Genesis is still in development, but I’m building it in public because I believe in the concept of working openly. The patterns I’m using - the architectural decisions, the protocol frameworks - these could help other developer-parents solving similar problems.

You can follow the progress on my GitHub, and eventually Genesis will be available for other families who want to bring some operational excellence to their home life.

The Real Goal

At the end of the day, Genesis is about one thing: making family life more intentional. Less reactive, more proactive. Less scattered, more coordinated.

I didn’t spend 21 years learning to lead, manage systems, and prepare for emergencies just to let my own family wing it. Genesis is how I bring that experience home.

If you’re a parent who’s ever felt like you need a command center for your family, you’re not alone. That’s exactly what I’m building.

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Genesis is currently in development. If you’re interested in early access or want to follow along, check out my projects page or connect with me on LinkedIn.