Creator System Series #6 | Baka Knows Best (So I Built Her an App)
There are frameworks for everything now. And then there's Baka.
My grandmother never read a book about productivity.
She never took a course on mindset, never downloaded a habit tracker, never optimized her morning routine. She woke up before dawn, made coffee, and said things that cut straight to the bone — in five words or less.
“Pamet u glavu.” Use your brain.
“Bez muke nema nauke.” No pain, no learning.
“Nemoj reć hop prije nego što preskočić.” Don’t say hop before you’ve jumped.
That last one is hers. My Oma’s. I’ve been carrying it for thirty years and I still use it more than any framework I’ve ever studied.
Here’s what I’ve been thinking about lately: we are drowning in systems. Content systems. Business systems. AI systems. And most of them are just elaborate ways of saying what Baka already knew. In fewer words. With better coffee.
How a late-night rabbit hole became an app
It started, as most things do, with me going somewhere I didn’t plan to go.
I found Google’s new AI Studio feature — you can now describe an app and Gemini builds it. I sent a screenshot to Claude at 23:00 and said something like: maybe we can build something simple.
What if Baka was the AI?
That was the idea. Not a productivity app. Not another tool. Just daily Balkan grandmother wisdom — real proverbs, family sayings, the kind of one-liners that have no business being as useful as they are — delivered every day, shareable, in three languages.
We named it Baka Knows. Obviously.
What happened next is the part I didn’t expect. I thought we’d sketch something quick. Instead, I found myself arguing about whether the design was Balkan enough (it wasn’t), whether the colors had soul (they didn’t), whether an emoji Baka was acceptable (it was not, we needed a real one with a marama and reading glasses and a coffee cup that says Baka on it).
I found myself writing humor I’d been carrying since childhood. “Bez Vegete — sve je tužno. Sa Vegetom — sve je moguće.” Without Vegeta seasoning, everything is sad. With Vegeta, everything is possible.
Three languages. Čipka lace borders in SVG. Wine red and gold because Baka’s kitchen didn’t do pastels. A share card that generates a 1080x1080 image so you can post her wisdom directly to your Stories.
I built an app. For my baka’s voice. At midnight. Because it felt right.
The thing I actually want to tell you
Here’s what the whole thing cracked open for me.
We talk a lot about authentic voice in content. But authentic voice isn’t a style guide. It’s not a tone document. It’s the stuff that was already there — before the strategy, before the brand, before anyone told you what your content was supposed to look like.
For me, that’s the Balkans. It’s the directness. The humor that doesn’t soften the truth but somehow makes it easier to hold. The wisdom that comes not from optimization but from having lived through things and refusing to dramatize them.
Baka didn’t say “embrace the discomfort of the growth process.”
She said “Plači koliko hoćeš, samo ne ovdje.” Cry as much as you want. Just not here.
Same thing. Completely different energy.
The best content you’ll ever make is the stuff that comes from that place. Not the trend. Not the framework. The thing you’ve been carrying so long you forgot it was even yours.
Try it yourself
Baka Knows is live. One daily wisdom, four categories — life, work, love, food. Croatian, German, English. And yes, you can share it directly to your Stories with the Baka photo included, because what’s the point otherwise:
One thing worth knowing: not everyone gets the same wisdom each day. Baka personalizes. Because she always knows what you specifically need to hear.
Come back and tell me: what does Baka have in store for you?
Drop it in the comments. I want to collect them. 🧡
-Anita
Creator System Series documents how I build fun and playful things with AI — the tools, the experiments, the things that work and the things that absolutely don’t. ← Previous: #5 | If Your Substack Were a Café
i love this so much! This is what Baka told me: Nothing beats Baka's kitchen. Don't even try. and then her blessing: Good. Now call your mother. (i would if i could!). this is such a cool and unique idea to honour your Baka and her wisdom!