A Monorepo Is a Knowledge Graph
A graph-aware monorepo turns source and build relationships into working infrastructure for developers, continuous integration and AI.
Views from a Different Shelf
Essays on software engineering, product and performance. Reflections on how teams and technology shape the experience of consumers.
Latest posts
Sweating the Bar and Raising the Details
Management meetings were built for an older information system. Poor writing keeps the machinery alive, and one calendar invitation can commit thousands before anybody acts.
Your Managers Are Not a Distribution List
Cascading a message through management loses reach, meaning and accountability. Policy owners should publish directly, notify proportionately and put repeated rules into the workflow.
Smaller Delivery Units, Wider Management Spans
AI extends the reach of engineering judgement. Product delivery units can become smaller, management spans can become wider, and collective stewardship can remain.
The Code Is No Longer the Scarce Part
Better models do not remove the need for expertise. They can make bad judgement harder to recognise and give good judgement far more reach.
The Product Development Team Is No Longer the Smallest Unit of Delivery
AI lets one engineer carry work that might once have required a cross-functional product development team. Delivery units can shrink, management spans can widen, and the community can still own the product.
Your Manager Has Six Reports Because Management Stopped Thinking in 1933
AI has reduced the cost of coordination across software engineering. Our management structures should probably notice.
The Answer Without the Question
A case study in how AI can encourage confidence when the limits of the analysis are not made clear.
What It Takes for a Web App to Feel Premium
Building a premium experience on the web is harder than it looks, but it scales everywhere once you get it right. This is what that discipline actually involves.
The Five Second Contract
Queueing looks harmless at first. A slow call holds a few threads, then a few more, and if left unchecked it can tip the whole system over.
The Other Production
Players only see production. Engineers live in the systems behind it. When those systems fail, the product fails later. The two worlds are closer than they look.
Let the Browser Do the Heavy Lifting
Most slowdowns in an SPA come from one place. Too much work ends up hanging off a single thin thread inside the browser, and the moment it strains, the whole product feels it.
Making a Big Repo Feel Small
Sparse checkout as the everyday way to work in a monorepo.
Keys to the Kingdom
Finding the Keys That Matter
What Would It Take to Go Live Next Week?
Sometimes the fastest way to find out what’s broken is to try to ship it.
The Myth of Multiplying Yourself
Sometimes the things that once made sense deserve another look.