writings

Musings and thoughts.

A winding path through a misty landscape, representing the uncertain but hopeful journey of software engineers adapting to the AI era

7 min read

What Now? Be So Good They Can't Ignore You

In the face of AI disrupting software development, engineers across all experience levels are asking the same question. From Steve Martin to Rick Rubin and the value of taste, the path forward hasn't changed.

A sunflower standing in the badlands, showing the resilience needed to thrive in the evolving landscape of AI engineering

5 min read

Context Engineering

The evolution from prompt engineering to context engineering reveals what AI Engineers really do-they're data engineers building the information ecosystems that give foundation models their competitive advantage. The new job is the old job—data is still your only defensible moat.

The Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco

7 min read

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.

A no parking sign in front of a concrete wall

Photo: Cody Yantis

8 min read

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.

Photo: Andrew Neel

4 min read

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.

Photo: Julien Moreau

4 min read

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.

12 min read

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.

The "Oculus" at World Trade Center station in New York City

Photo: Wes Hicks

7 min read

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.