I came across an article recently that references something called Crocker's Rules. I had never heard of them by name, but when I read the definition I realized I've been operating this way for most of my career without knowing there was a term for it. The short version is this: if you declare Crocker's Rules you...

There is something quietly remarkable about the people who built the foundations of modern computing. Not their technical achievements, though those are extraordinary. What is remarkable is where they came from before they ever touched a machine. Tony Hoare, who inspired the writing of this essay, studied Classics...

In World War Z, Israel survives the zombie apocalypse because of a simple rule: if nine intelligence officials agree on something, the tenth must assume they're all wrong and explore alternatives. Not to be difficult. Not to play devil's advocate. But because consensus is dangerous and groupthink kills. I've spent...

In 1995, I built my first website. It was a Metallica fan page. Black background, red text, animated GIFs of pixelated flames, a MIDI file that autoplayed "Enter Sandman" whether you wanted it to or not. I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever made and I was only 14. I had no idea what I was doing. I just knew...

There's a particular kind of engineer I've been noticing more and more lately. They show up in Slack channels with half-formed questions. They post screenshots of error messages on Twitter asking "anyone know what this means?" They copy-paste compiler errors into ChatGPT and treat whatever hallucination comes back...

I am surprised I haven't written this sooner, especially since I have written about How I Write HTTP Clients. It was inevitable this post was going to be written. With that said, I want this post to follow the same format so a lot of this will read very similar since I copied a lot of the language from it and just...

There's been a recurring thought I've been having as I've gotten older and I'm coming up on being in tech for 30 years. Granted, that would make me 14 when I started, but yes, I was that young when I realized I wanted to make this my career. As I've seen a lot change in those three decades, I've come to care less...

2025-10-20 Squat: 6 @ 390# (RPE 6) 6 @ 405# (RPE 7) 6 @ 420# (RPE 8) RDL: 8 @ 375# (RPE 6) 8 @ 390# (RPE 7) 8 @ 405# (RPE 8) Split Squat: 10 @ 75# (RPE 6) 10 @ 85# (RPE 7) 10 @ 95# (RPE 8) Calf Raises: 15 @ 95# (RPE 6) 15 @ 100# (RPE 7) 15 @ 105# (RPE 8)

2025-10-13 Squat: 8 @ 375# (RPE 7) 8 @ 390# (RPE 8) 8 @ 405# (RPE 9) Shoulder Press: 8 @ 140# (RPE 7) 8 @ 145# (RPE 8) 8 @ 150# (RPE 9) Wide Grip Bench 10 @ 195# (70% of 1RM) 2x12 @ 175# (63% of 1RM) DB Lateral Raises 3x12 @ 25# 2025-10-14 Deadlift: 8 @ 435# (RPE 7) 8 @ 450# (RPE 8) 8 @ 465# (RPE 9) Bench Press: 8 @...

Does this happen to you? Someone shows you something they built. You look at it carefully, think through the implications, and give specific, considered feedback. They walk away deflated. Later, someone tells you that you "seemed dismissive" or "came across as negative." You were not dismissive. You were engaged and...

It had occurred to me that I haven't really solidified my position on coding with "AI" so I thought I would jot down some thoughts on the subject. Come to think of it... It's the exact opposite of... Hmmm... Wait, I already have written about it!

I don't sit down to design systems with complexity as the point. But I've met some that engineers do. They'll never say it outright, but you can see it in their work. They write layers on top of layers, abstractions stacked on abstractions, and clever tricks that only they can explain. Complexity makes them feel...