Field Notes & Long Reads

The Blog

Written slowly. Edited harder. Ideas on technology, systems, and how builders actually think — not how they're supposed to.

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The Illusion of Fast: Why Most Software Feels Slow Even on Fast Hardware

We keep shipping faster CPUs and slower experiences. This is a post about the gap between hardware capability and software discipline — and why the problem is cultural, not technical.

Systems Performance Opinion

March 2026
Mar2026

On Writing Code Nobody Else Can Read

Clarity is a choice. Most engineers pick cleverness. Here's why that trade-off costs more than you think.

CraftEngineering
Feb2026

AI Won't Kill Junior Developers. But It Will Change What "Junior" Means

The entry point is shifting. What used to take two years to learn now takes six months — and that's not entirely good news.

AICareers
Feb2026

The Redis Design Decision I Still Think About

One of the most instructive moments in open source history — not because it was right, but because of how the tradeoff was reasoned.

Open SourceDesign
Jan2026

Why I Stopped Using Frameworks for Side Projects

Not a contrarian take. Just a record of what happened when I removed the scaffolding and had to think again.

ToolsBuilding
Dec2025

Signals Over Noise: How to Read the Tech Industry Without Getting Used

Most tech journalism is hype with a byline. Here's the reading practice that actually keeps you calibrated.

MetaMedia
Nov2025

The Quiet Craft of Debugging at 2am

There's a kind of thinking that only happens late at night with a broken system and nothing else open. This is about that.

DebuggingCraft

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