Notes from distributed systems in production.
Essays and field reports from building and operating high-traffic, polyglot platforms — Kubernetes, AWS, incident response, iGaming scale.
Feature Flags: How They Actually Work in Production
Feature flags sound simple — "on/off switch." Done badly, they fill your codebase with zombie code over a year. Six years of production experience on what they're for and what they aren't.
Code Review Culture: The Practice That Makes or Breaks a Team
Done well, code review raises a team's standard over time. Done badly, it kills motivation. Thirteen years of lessons on what actually matters in review.
Why Software Estimation Is Hard — And How to Be Less Wrong
Software estimates are wrong constantly. The cause isn't your skill — it's the nature of the problem. The cone of uncertainty and the practical estimation discipline I use in production.
How AI Is Reshaping Software Development — For the Better
Cursor and Claude Code have roughly 5×'d my output over the past year. Here's what actually changed in production work, which skills got commoditized, and which got more valuable — a senior developer's field report.
Working With Legacy Code: Don't Fall Into the Rewrite Trap
Every senior engineer faces legacy code repeatedly. "Let's rewrite" is tempting and dangerous. Strangler fig, test-before-refactor, evolving in small steps — lessons from years of practice.
Being a Developer Isn't Just Writing Code
Your real value isn't in the code you write — it's in understanding what the code is for. Why understanding the business is the threshold for senior-level work, and how to build that muscle.
The Evolution of the Software Developer: 2012 to 2026
In fourteen years the developer role has shifted nearly four times. From specialist to full-stack, from full-stack to product engineer, now into an AI-augmented role. What changed at each stage, and what stayed the same.
Working With AI While Writing Code: What Actually Matters
I've been using Cursor and Claude Code in production for a year. As important as the speed gains are the rules I keep — hallucination, context hygiene, security, and production stability.
Your Code Works Locally. Now What?
"Works on my machine" isn't a meme — it's a culture problem. What's the distance between when you think a feature is done and when it's actually done? A senior's end-to-end shipping checklist.
What Does It Mean to Be a Senior Engineer?
The senior title isn't assigned by years. What should change from junior to senior, which habits arrive, which behaviors are left behind? Concrete criteria from real production work.
Technical Debt: When Do You Clean Up in Production?
Technical debt is inevitable. Which debt do you live with, which do you pay with a sprint, when do you do a large refactor? A framework built from real production decisions.