5 min read
March 2026: A Fixed Bedtime, Two Inbox Checks, One Tool to Ship
March plan: turn February's two drifting goals, sleep and email, into fixed rules, keep what held, and ship the side project I've already built.
Personal
34 articles
7 min read
February 2026 Scorecard: Four Commitments, One Short Month
Grading my four February commitments: 29 posts in 28 days, two no-tech Sundays, one new engagement against two noes, and sleep stuck at 6.5 hours.
5 min read
Fifty-Five Days In: Being Wrong in Public and Writing on Empty
Fifty-five days of daily posts: calibrating my opinions by being wrong in public, letting go of saved-up ideas, and why the empty-tank days are worth it.
5 min read
The Code Review Comment That Wasn't About the Code
Seven years ago a tech lead answered my pull request with one question about who it was for, and it still shapes how I review code.
4 min read
Second No-Tech Sunday: Two Phone Reaches and Better Questions
Our second family day without screens: fewer phone reaches, kids who didn't argue, a sharp observation from my wife, and the work anxiety that still shows up.
6 min read
Last Known Good: A Debugging Lesson From My Son's LEGO Set
My nine-year-old fixed a stuck LEGO build by going back to the last step that worked. It's the debugging discipline I'd let slip on a Fabric pipeline.
4 min read
Valentine's Day, Phone in the Car: Giving My Wife My Attention
A production alert on date night taught me my wife doesn't need grand gestures. She needs my attention, and my phone was taking it.
6 min read
Three Filters I Use Before Saying Yes to a Project
Why I stopped saying yes to every consulting project, the three filters I now run each offer through, and how to decline without burning the relationship.
5 min read
Writing as Thinking: Forty-One Days and the Delete Step
Forty-one days of daily blogging taught me I write to find ideas, not share them, and that cutting half the draft is where the thinking happens.
7 min read
Teaching My Kids About Technology: Makers, Not Just Users
When Andriel asked what I do at work, I wrote down what I want my kids to learn first: critical thinking, privacy, boundaries and making things.
3 min read
Our First No-Tech Sunday: Four Phone Reaches and a Creek
The first family day with phones, laptops and tablets put away: the itch in the first hour, the fake-urgent work thoughts, and why we're doing it again.
5 min read
February 2026: Fewer Threads, Sundays Off, Seven Hours of Sleep
February plan after 31 days of daily writing: keep the habit, take Sundays off tech, narrow to two focus areas, and stop running on five to six hours of sleep.
5 min read
January 2026 Closed Out: What Held, and Three Experiments That Didn't
The final tally on January: 31 posts in 31 days, one working Saturday, three habit experiments that failed, and the short list I'm taking into February.
4 min read
Grading My January Commitments Before the Month Ends
A mid-course report card on four January commitments: weekend boundaries, being present, daily writing and AI focus, plus three small goals for February.
5 min read
The Five-Minute Father: Phone Down When My Kids Talk
Andriel showed me a Pokémon drawing and I answered without looking up. The one rule I set afterwards: when my kids talk, the phone goes down.
4 min read
Autism Meltdowns: What Doesn't Help, What Does, and Prevention
What our family has learned about our son's autism meltdowns: what makes them worse, what helps, how we prevent some, and why it isn't bad parenting.
8 min read
The Myth of Continuous Learning: Depth Beats Keeping Up
Trying to learn every new framework and model leads to fatigue, not growth. Why depth, deliberate rest and relevance beat keeping up.
7 min read
The Weekend I Stopped Answering Slack
How I went from working every weekend to zero weekend work: the setup, the team pushback, what changed after eight weeks, and the exceptions I still allow.
8 min read
Why I Still Blog in 2026: Owning the Place I Think Out Loud
Why I still keep a blog when everyone posts on LinkedIn and X: ownership, clearer thinking, and a searchable record of my work.
8 min read
What My Son's Autism Taught Me About Predictable Systems
Andriel needs routine, not just likes it. Living with that has changed how I design functions, error messages, API deprecations and change for my teams.
7 min read
The Tech Parent's Dilemma: Home All Day, Present for None of It
My seven-year-old asked why I'm always on my computer. How remote tech work erased my boundaries, and the rules I'm putting back in place.
6 min read
Explaining ChatGPT to My Sons: Very Good Guessing, Not Thinking
How I explained ChatGPT to my sons, aged seven and 10: autocomplete, educated guessing, and why sounding confident is not the same as being right.
5 min read
New Year, Same Foundation: Why I Don't Do Resolutions
Why I stopped making New Year's resolutions, what I'm building on in 2026, and the four questions I'll use to judge the year as a father and practitioner.
7 min read
Capture, Plan, Execute, Refine: My Knowledge Work System
The four-stage personal workflow I use as a knowledge worker, and the tools behind each stage: reMarkable, Drafts, Readwise, Obsidian, To Do and Outlook.
1 min read
My Tech List 2022
Here is a list of all the relevant technology set up that I use personally at work, home, and everything in between. I grouped them on different groups…
6 min read
Message to the young
I recently gave a graduation speech to my high school alma matter. Compared to my usual technical talks, this time it's about inspiring the younger…
7 min read
Why You Should Try Being Self-Employed at Least Once
Five reasons running your own business is worth trying at least once, from the MBA you earn by doing to finding out what clients will actually pay you.
8 min read
Five Ways I Get Unstuck When Procrastination Wins
Five habits I use when I know what I should be working on but can't start: cut distractions, shrink the task, commit to a peer, schedule it and be kind.
5 min read
From Non-Reader to ~100 Books: How I Built a Reading Habit
I barely finished a chapter before 2018. Since then I've read close to 100 books. Here's what changed, how I read, and how I choose what to read next.
6 min read
Why It's Okay to Be an Ordinary Developer
The 10x engineer myth, vanity metrics and social media make good developers feel small; aim to beat your past self, not the top 1%.
5 min read
Digital Intentionality: Don't Click That Next Button
Autoplay on YouTube, Netflix and Facebook decides what you watch next. Five tricks I use to stop letting the next button make that choice for me.
6 min read
My Only Goal for 2021: Digital Intentionality, Not Minimalism
Instead of chasing another tech trend in 2021, I'm working on one habit: using every device and app with a clear purpose, then putting it down when I'm done.
3 min read
I'm Going to Start Writing Again
Why I stopped blogging, why I'm starting again, and why I want a corner of the internet I own: no ads, no walled garden, just my own words and time.