Archive
Every post, sorted by year. You can also browse by topic.
2026
- Stop renting your to-do list
OpenTodo is a free, open-source task manager you run on your own server. It works offline on every device and has no subscription.
- I Built an E-Ink Weather Frame for My Kids Who Can't Read Yet
A little bear on an e-ink screen tells my three daughters what to wear, what's on today and how many sleeps until the next party. Parts, code and mistakes.
- Self-Healing Tests and AI Code Reviews: Cutting Friction or Masking Tech Debt?
AI code review and self-healing test pipelines promise less friction in the SDLC. Sometimes they deliver it. Sometimes they just hide the debt for longer.
- Goodhart's Law on Engineering Teams
Organizations ask engineers to own product decisions, then review them on PR volume. What that contradiction costs, and how to survive it.
- Leverage Over Commits
Management trades the tight feedback loop of shipping code for invisible impact. Redefining what a good day's work looks like.
- AI-Assisted Product Engineering: Orchestrating Claude Code Across the Software Development Lifecycle
Most LLM coding tools live inside a single editor session. Real product engineering doesn't. An architecture that orchestrates Claude Code across the full…
- I'm Bullish on AI-Assisted Coding. That's Exactly Why I Take the Risks Seriously.
The loudest AI enthusiasts are also the most allergic to discussing tradeoffs. That's the real risk. Honest enthusiasm is what keeps promising technologies…
- You Cannot Mandate Your Way to AI Adoption
Mandating AI tool usage, monitoring individual adoption, or ignoring it entirely. Three responses. All wrong. The AI adoption problem is a people problem,…
- The Gap Between Estimated and Delivered
The gap between estimate and delivery isn't an estimation problem. It's an organizational one.
- The Engineering Manager Role Is Mutating
Same title, different job. The EM role is mutating faster than the job descriptions can keep up.
- I Built a Game That Teaches Git by Making You Type Real Commands
Most git tutorials show you diagrams. Gitvana drops you in a terminal inside a pixel-art monastery and makes you earn your enlightenment one commit at a time.
- The AI Echo Chamber Is the New Agile Industrial Complex
I've seen this movie before. A useful tool gets swallowed by a content machine, and the people who should be paying attention tune out. It happened with…
- How I Built a Real-Time Geopolitical Event Pipeline with Embeddings and LLMs
A deep technical walkthrough of a 7-stage pipeline that ingests 100+ RSS feeds, clusters articles with vector embeddings, synthesises structured events…
- Building Global Crisis Monitor: A Real-Time Geopolitical Intelligence Dashboard
I built a system that ingests 80+ news feeds, clusters them with embeddings, synthesises events with AI, and surfaces a live map and briefings-plus…
- I built the tool my public-speaking anxiety needed
A zero-friction teleprompter for talks and Zoom: no signup, no backend, with a compact mode that keeps you looking at the camera instead of the script.
- How I Built My Perfect Family Budget App in Just 3 Days
Frustrated by budget apps that couldn't tell me where my money went, I built my own with Next.js and automation—and got real visibility in days.
2025
- The Year I Stopped Apologizing for the Chaos
Parenting young kids while leading a team: on guilt, the myth of balance, and finally refusing to apologize for being human.
- The Abundance Trap: Why We Are Renting the Future
AI doesn't abolish scarcity—it reorganizes it. Why cheap output hides who controls the real choke points: compute, energy, and capacity.
- The Paradox of AI-Acceleration: Why We Are Typing Faster but Shipping Slower
AI lets us generate more code—but cycle times aren't dropping. Why velocity without tests, review, and observability just adds mass and risk.
- Don't ask AI to build the house. Ask it to build the scaffolding.
The real value of AI in development isn't production code—it's support code: tooling, tests, and scaffolding that gets you to the hard part faster.
- Build for Today or Don't Build at All
Future-proof architecture often hides fear of shipping. Why building for today beats hedging with abstraction—and how to ship without the vanity.
- The Trap of the Hero
Being the person who saves the day feels like respect—but it's often a trap. Why the hero role becomes a bottleneck and how to let go.
- When the hard part was the point
Solving a problem in seconds with AI left me feeling robbed—of the struggle, the flow, and the identity built around enduring the friction.
- Betting on Engineering, Not Trends
The AI hype will fade but the tech won't. How to prepare your engineering practices and codebase for what comes next—without buying the noise.
- Why Empathy is a Hard Skill
Empathy isn't soft—it's what makes radical candor work. How caring personally and challenging directly build teams that perform and trust.
- Not All Technical Debt Needs to Be Repaid
Treating every tech debt as urgent leads to paralysis. Use the interest-rate test to pay down what hurts and leave the rest documented.
- The Most Valuable Code Is the Code You Never Write
YAGNI in practice: the best code is often the code you don't write. How to resist future-proofing and ship simple, adaptable solutions.
- Why Your Team's Docs Are a Strategic Asset (Not an Afterthought)
Good documentation is kindness to your future self and your team. Why treating docs as a high-leverage asset pays off in autonomy and stability.
- Navigating the Challenges of Cross-functional Teams: the Role of Governance and Common Goals
Cross-functional teams often struggle because of missing governance and unclear common goals. How to fix both so teams can deliver and people can thrive.
- From Attention Economy to Thinking Economy: The AI Challenge
As AI automates more tasks, the challenge isn't just jobs—it's protecting and developing our capacity for deep thinking and creativity.
- Imposter Syndrome for New Lead Developers: Overcoming Self-Doubt
Stepping into a lead role often brings imposter syndrome. How to shift from needing all the answers to enabling the team to find them together.
- Focusing on the 'Why', Not Just the 'How'
Avoid cargo-cult Agile by keeping teams focused on the spirit of agility—adaptability, value, and improvement—instead of rigidly executing the how.
- How Product Engineers drive SaaS growth
Product engineers bridge the gap between building and user value. How they drive SaaS growth through empathy, outcomes, and full-stack ownership.
- Building a Product-Minded Engineering Culture
How to foster product-minded engineers: outcomes over output, user contact, and alignment between engineering and product.
- From IC to Engineering Manager: First 90 Days
Your first 90 days as an engineering manager: what to do, what to avoid, and how to set yourself and your team up for success.
2024
- Using AI in the Software Development Lifecycle (Without Slowing Shipping)
Where AI helps in the SDLC—and where it doesn’t. How to adopt AI coding tools and automation without slowing down delivery.
2023
- What Is a Staff Engineer (or Principal Engineer) and How Do You Get There?
Staff and Principal Engineers shape technical direction and org impact, not just code. Here’s what the role is and how to grow into it.
- How to Run Effective Engineering 1:1s (Agenda, Frequency, Outcomes)
A practical guide to engineering 1:1s: how often to run them, what to put on the agenda, and how to turn conversations into clear outcomes and trust.
- How to Say No (and Yes) as an Engineering Leader
Saying no is part of the job. How to say no clearly and respectfully, when to say yes, and how to offer alternatives that protect your team.
- When to Hire Your First Engineering Manager
Signals that it's time to hire your first engineering manager, what to look for, and how to make the transition without losing velocity.