Journals
Long-form writing on development, homelab, learning, and whatever else I'm thinking about.
Butter-Smooth Maps and a 3D Car That Won't Cooperate
I wanted a map that panned like butter and a 3D car that followed the road. A week later I had learned which one was lying to me.
9 min read#flutter
A Game About Laundry (That's Not Really About Laundry)
A laundrette game about the lives people leave in their pockets, and revisiting the game dev spark I thought I'd lost.
5 min read#game-dev
Build Localisation Before You Need It
Seek added Russian in an afternoon. Ascend added a bunch of languages after one Greek request and it hurt.
5 min read#i18n
Import Plans Before the App Opens
A GPT mini model on the web, deep links into the app, and the same pipe reused for Couch to 5K.
5 min read#product
The Stories I Tell Myself
The facts of my life don't change with my mood. The meaning I attach to them does.
5 min read#mindset
Onboarding Before Onboarding
The motivated moment happens before someone installs your app. Ascend doesn't save the plan until the user decides to stay.
4 min read#product
Why I'm Optimistic About Junior Engineers
AI didn't replace the junior engineer. It changed what learning and shipping look like for one.
6 min read#ai
Treat Demos Like Unit Tests
We automate tests, builds and deployments. So why are screenshots and GIFs still manual?
5 min read#automation
The Age of Suspicion: Why AI Made Authenticity Expensive
AI didn't just make content cheap. It made authenticity expensive.
6 min read#ai
Stop Giving AI More Context. Give It Better Examples.
I varied how much code an LLM could see. Token count barely changed. What changed was whether it copied or invented.
5 min read#ai
The Death of Code Reviews (As We Know Them)
AI made writing code cheap. Review is where the time goes now.
3 min read#ai