036
AI May Be Your Neediest Reader of Code
Why coding agents may need more human-readable context, not less.
Index / Published writing
The Archive
A working collection of essays, technical notes, and field investigations. Organized by subject, but allowed to develop a few eccentric cross-connections.
All topics2022–2026Essays & notes36 entries
Most recent
Subject / date / reading time
035
Thou Shalt Not Destroy Your Own Value
If professional judgment is valuable enough to automate, it is valuable enough to keep developing.
034
What AI Predictions Reveal About Engineering Values
Sometimes a prediction about the future is a confession about what someone never valued in the present.
033
When the Metric Becomes Reality
What happens when an organization stops treating a metric as an approximation and starts treating it as reality.
032
AI Is a Cognitive Resource, Not a Replacement
Delegation is useful; surrendering the understanding that makes judgment possible is not.
031
When the Force Doesn’t Provide
What Queen Amidala and the Force can teach us about maintaining skill in the age of AI.
030
Your Brain Is a Cognitive Resource Too
Cognitive Resource Management in the age of AI.
029
Deploying a Version Is Not the Same as Applying a Change
Why state-dependent data changes are not merely another delivery pipeline.
028
Admitting You’re Wrong Isn’t Weakness
Good engineering depends on caring more about reality than ego.
027
RCA Still Matters Despite AI Assistance
An incident review demonstrates that engineers understand what happened.
026
Adaptive Complexity Lives Here Too
Mature systems contain accumulated adaptations that a feature inventory cannot capture.
025
Software Was Never Hard Because Humans Were Too Dim
AI did not abolish coupling, code rot, hidden assumptions, or the accumulated history of software.
024
Does It Actually Have to Work That Way?
Professional judgment gets sharper when informed product and engineering partners challenge constraints together.
023
The Art of Getting Out of Your Own Way
Mindset is most useful when treated as a practical thinking tool.
022
Why “Mindset” Works—And Why It So Easily Turns Into Corporate Fog
Useful ideas lose their power when organizations turn them into vague slogans instead of concrete guidance.
021
Planning Meets Reality
Healthy project management changes the plan when engineering work reveals new constraints.
020
Plato Accidentally Predicted Jira Dashboards
Engineering dashboards show artifacts of work, not the work itself—and the distinction matters.
019
Catching the Accessibility Bug
How one small interface change transformed reading, learning, and an understanding of accessibility.
018
An Interface Can Give Someone a Superpower
A good interface turns technical possibility into capability a person can actually use.
017
A User Interface Is an Expression of Empathy
An interface communicates how well a company understands and respects its users.
016
You Don’t Have to Put AI in the Product
AI can help build the thing without becoming the thing.
015
When “Growth” Means Shrinking Yourself
Some feedback exists to improve your work. Some exists to make your competence less uncomfortable.
014
Self-Awareness Over Self-Recrimination
Small systems for getting reoriented when cognitive overload or task initiation brings work to a halt.
013
How to Be Difficult
Responsible engineering sometimes means protecting the team and architecture by saying no, not like that.
012
Curmudgeon Bingo
What repeated advice about collegiality sounds like after decades of neurodivergent adaptation and professional practice.
011
Engineers Are Not Reference Manuals
The difference between asking an engineer for information and asking them to bless a decision you have already made.
010
It’s Okay to Rock the Fizz
Not every unusual working method needs to make sense to an observer in order to be useful.
009
Why Your Software “Breaks”
Before blaming the tool, make sure the thing it needs actually exists.
008
Treasure in the Stack(s)
Old systems contain unclaimed inheritance that has not stopped mattering simply because it is not new.
007
Your Code Isn’t Better Than You
AI can accelerate good engineering habits, but it can streamline bad ones just as efficiently.
006
Exceptionalism Isn’t the Prize
The better prize is creating a culture where excellence becomes accessible instead of exceptional.
005
Clearing the Path: The Hidden Work Behind “Simple” Code
The cleaner the path through a codebase, the easier it is to overlook the work that cleared it.
004
The Big Button Illusion
Accessibility cannot be outsourced to a widget, overlay, or magical compliance button.
003
Your Code Is a User Interface
The same principles that make interfaces understandable can make a codebase easier for people to navigate and use.
002
Kill Your Clever Focus States
Keyboard focus indicators are navigation tools, not a place to demonstrate subtle compliance.
001
What If There Is No “Best and Brightest”?
Teams that imagine they have exhausted the available intelligence may only have exhausted their own frame of reference.