Archive
2026
- Spec-Driven Development: Skeleton Coding
This paper shows that the level of correctness in programs generated by agents improves when an engineer specifies the structure of the desired program in addition to its behavior. Written by folks connected to AWS.
- Components of Agent Memory
Written by Anthropic staff, this article covers the information architecture of Claude's memory system as well as various attempts to measure and improve it.
- The October 2026 Inflection
October 2026 represents a new inflection point in the attitudes toward agentic development we see among leading personalities in the field.
2025
2024
- The Dative of Possession
Was your name given to you or created by you?
- Ματαιότης in Romans 8 and Ecclesiastes
- βίβλος and βιβλίον
- Working with AI, State of the Union June 2024
Exploring a new concept with Claude Sonnet 3.5
- A Canticle for Leibowitz
- Rebooting My Writing Practice
2022
- On 10 Years of Making Software
A Retrospective
2020
- Heroes and Housekeeping
Balancing long-term projects and short-term demands
- Flatten the Cost-of-Change Curve, you must.
A healthy codebase is inexpensive to change.
2019
- Healthy Codebase Habit: Regular Dependency Updates
Keep your team, project, and personal development healthy by updating your codebase's dependencies at a regular interval.
- 'Who You Are' is 'What You Do'
Motivation fuels methods and methods birth products. It is a mistake to think that we can avoid thinking about values and just 'deliver' software.
- The Software Developer's Path to Wisdom
A description of the stages one undergoes when adopting a proposition.
- A Software Engineering Manifesto
A snapshot of my best practices and preferences related to software engineering/development.
- An Atlas for Learning React
A guide to learning the concepts and ecosystem of react (a somewhat popular javascript library)
- Linux, Entropy, Random Number Generation, and you
Random number generation is important in cryptography. Application developers: make sure you are using a randomness source that provides the needed level of performance.
- Refactoring Doesn't Require Domain Knowledge
The code never lies
- IDEs are dead. Long Live Development Environments. (Part 3)
Five steps to getting away from your IDE, mastering your tools, and building your own development environment.
- All Web Abstractions Leak
Leaky abstractions make men old and grumpy
- The One-Hand Approach to Production Support
Preserve developer focus, nurture developer autonomy
- IDEs are dead. Long Live Development Environments. (Part 2)
The benefits of stepping away from your IDE.
- IDEs are dead. Long Live Development Environments. (Part 1)
Why you should step away from your IDE.
2018
- How does DNS work?
A primer for software developers who want to know more.
- The Bad Plus
A jazz trio you might be able to love even if you hate jazz
- The Serverless Sea Change
Serverless architecture might have a shot