Essays
Thoughts on software engineering, business, and the skills that matter when code writes itself.
Why I'm Returning My Strix Halo
The new Qwen benchmarks sit next to Opus. I ran six local models through a real software factory, and the best earned a B+. The machine is going back.
The End of "Clean Code" (Code as a Compile Target)
I still think clean systems are how codebases grow, especially under AI velocity. The literary version of clean is becoming a poor use of scarce human attention.
The Latency Paradox (Why Speed is Terrifying)
On high-stakes screens, 300 milliseconds can feel like you skipped the work. Visible effort is how people decide you actually checked.
Let Users Fail Loudly (The Myth of Preventative UX)
A disabled Submit button is not safety; it is a wall with no sign. Let people click, then explain what went wrong and how to fix it.
Agents Are Smarter Together: Model Fusion for Increased Intelligence
One AI agent brings one set of blind spots to its own work. A diverse, adversarial panel can expose those gaps and produce better reasoning.
The Agentic Engineering Formula: Plan, Develop, Validate
Stop treating coding agents like a slot machine. Agentic engineering is a short, repeatable formula: plan, develop, validate, and close the loop.
The 24/7 Engineer
Every other industry runs a night shift. Software finally has one: autonomous factories that ship tested code while you sleep, directed by humans who stopped typing.
Cursor Is the Most Correct Tool. So Why Am I Not Using It?
Cursor has the sharpest read on where software is going, and I'm still not using it. The model is the product; everything above it is rented.
Every Harness Has Its Quirks
The model is commoditized; the harness is the craft. Why your AI agent 'getting dumber' is almost never the weights, and what to actually do about it.
We Are Not in the Cheap Uber Era of AI
The 'AI is just Uber' doom thread gets the subsidy right and the ending wrong: gouging needs captive buyers, and open models mean you were never captive.
The Interface Tax
Chat doesn't replace your interface - it replaces navigation. Why the app you log in and live inside is dying, and what survives when agents stop needing a UI.
The Agentic Engineer
The era of the individual coder is ending. The engineers who survive aren't writing faster - they're building the factories that write for them.
Your API is a Product, and the UX is Garbage
Backend architecture sets the ceiling on every experience built on top of it. Your API is a product, and most of them are badly designed.
Stop Arguing About State Management and Look at the User
While engineering teams debate Redux vs. Zustand, users churn because the checkout button took three seconds. Look at the user.
Job Security is a Lie (And Technical Purity Won't Save You)
Between 2022 and 2024, 250,000 tech workers were laid off. Technical excellence didn't protect them. Here's what does.
Every Line of Code is a Liability (And Why Your Refactor is Killing Revenue)
Every line you write is a tax on the company's future. The functionality is the asset - the source code required to deliver it is the ongoing invoice.
Stop Writing Novels in Slack
Verbose communication is a systemic efficiency loss. How to format messages, ask better questions, and stop killing momentum.
The Most Expensive Bug in Your Codebase Isn't Code
Most catastrophic project failures aren't crashes or null checks. They're perfectly executed implementations of misunderstood requirements.