writings

Lack of Conviction in the Age of AI

AI tools, for all their power, can tempt us to shortcut the process of forming real conviction that comes from wrestling with ideas, and building genuine understanding through the necessary friction of debate with colleagues. This matters.

Five Questions: A Compass for Healthy Projects

I’ve learned that project health isn’t about metrics, it’s about whether a team has enough shared understanding to solve problems together. This post shares my framework of five questions designed to cultivate that conviction and trust.

DevOps for Blogging

I and many software engineers wish we blogged more often. We benefit from the blogs our peers write, and we are inspired to contribute to the community. But I write code more effectively and consistently than blog posts. I hope to change that by learning from my code-writing self and introducing some classic DevOps practices into my process.

A Framework for Organizational Culture

How often do you stop to consider the organizational cultures that surround you? Having a clear definition of your organizational culture is incredibly helpful for new and existing community members. In this post, I share a framework to help you identify the representative parts of a culture. I define culture in five parts arranged on a spectrum from theoretical ideas to practical actions to help you identify the right questions and ideas to consider when defining organizational culture.

Scaling Teams with GraphQL - Why Relationships Matter

Explore how GraphQL impacts technical architectures, team collaboration, and software development lifecycles, focusing on the crucial role of relationships within data and organizations.

6 Principles for Designing Software Architecture

After concluding a few successful software architecture design and implementation phases, I want to take a moment to write down some of the principles I have learned, and how they can simplify the architectural design process.

Top Takeaways from GraphQL Conf 2019

I have 10 hours on a train, 3 days worth of notes and very little sleep but plenty of excitement about GraphQL so here are my takeaways from GraphQL Conf 2019 and the first ever Prisma Day.

What even is a PWA?

TL;DR They're just best practices that maximize the value in every interaction.

What are Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), and how do they solve for many of the challenges brands experience in user engagement accessibility, and utility? In this post, we’ll explore how and when PWAs are used, what characteristics define them, and most importantly, whether you should be considering a Progressive Web App for your own company’s needs.