Every Rule Has a Scar
The rules file is for how to work. Everything else has a home, and putting it in the wrong one is how a rules file turns into a junk drawer.
The VM That Never Sleeps
Last year I wrote a whole post about letting a jump box kill itself, because I couldn't be trusted to shut it down. The agents clean up exactly as well as I did. Same answer: don't ask, enforce.
The Only One in the Room
I've been the only technology person in the room for most of my career, and I never learned to write software. This year I built an environment where AI agents do most of the development, plus the rails that keep them from doing damage. This is the record, not a victory lap.
I Gave Up Too Early. The Problem Was One Line.
Three months of Google Analytics on a blog I built to avoid Google Analytics. The problem was one Caddy directive. I stopped looking too soon.
Untangling Email (and a few other things)
A five-hour evening spent untangling email, contacts, and identity. What started as a Fastmail migration turned into a reckoning with legacy systems, quiet dependencies, and the parts of my digital life I was finally ready to let go.
Buying a Laptop Shouldn’t Be This Hard
I argued with myself for months over a decision that should’ve taken an afternoon. This isn’t about specs — it’s about letting go of an old identity and choosing a tool that stays out of the way.
Letting a Jump Box Kill Itself
I wanted an ops host I could start when I needed it and forget about when I didn’t. What I built instead was a jump box that shuts itself off when I stop paying attention—and taught me more about cost, discipline, and designing for human failure than I expected.
Transformation Without Narrative Is Easy to Erase
When nothing breaks, no one notices. This is about the quiet failure mode that follows successful transformation—and how narrative preserves continuity.
I Didn’t Set Out to Learn Mermaid. It Just Kept Showing Up.
A reflection on how diagramming crept into my work—not as a goal, but as a way to think more clearly about systems and decisions.
Standing Up a Control Plane
What I learned the hard way about control planes, SSH, and trust—written as a snapshot of real decisions, not a step-by-step guide.
