Agent Memory Is in Early Release
My new O'Reilly book, Agent Memory, is now in Early Release. Chapters 1 and 2 are live, new chapters land every four to six weeks, and the version you read now is the one your feedback can still change.
Economic Notes
Exploring Economics, Technology, and Life
Latest posts
Tools and Strategies for Agentic Development (Into the Hopper Podcast)
A conversation with Tim Hopper on spec-driven development, Beads for task tracking, and how AI agents have changed my planning habits.
Building DSA Dojo: A CLI-Driven Approach to Learning Data Structures and Algorithms
I'm building my own data structures and algorithms course—a CLI-driven, ladder-based system where mastery comes through doing, not watching. Here's a first look at DSA Dojo.
2025: My Year In Review
Reflections on a year of milestones—getting engaged in Florence, publishing with O'Reilly and the AEA, raising a Series A at Workhelix, and overcoming health challenges. Plus, my goals for 2026.
Adding Text-to-Speech to Your Blog: Building an OpenAI TTS Pipeline with Smart Chunking and AWS S3
A technical deep-dive into building a production-ready text-to-speech pipeline for blog posts using OpenAI's TTS API, smart text processing with NLP, automatic chunking for long content, and AWS S3 for scalable audio hosting.
Extending 'GPTs Are GPTs' to Firms
A new paper on the impact of AI on labor demand at the firm level.
Host Your Own Local LLM / RAG Behind a Private VPN, Access It From Anywhere
A step-by-step guide on hosting your own private Large Language Model and RAG system using Synology, Tailscale, Caddy, and Ollama—all protected behind a lightweight VPN and accessible anywhere.
2024: My Year In Review — AI, Archery, and Goals
Reflections on a year of growth, experimentation, and resilience—covering professional wins, personal pursuits like archery and lifting, and the challenges of navigating health setbacks. Plus, my goals for 2025.
2023: My Year In Review
A reflection on a year of growth, gratitude, teaching, travel, and paying off the final student loan. Here’s what I accomplished in 2023 and what I’m hoping to do in 2024.
What Are AI Agents? An Introduction to AI Agents and LLMs
I wrote a book for O'Reilly Media about AI agents and LLMs, exploring what they are, how they're different from traditional AI, and when to use them. The report breaks down these concepts in an approachable way for newcomers to the field.
Publishing for O'Reilly
A reflection on the upcoming release of 'What Are AI Agents?' and the significance of joining the ranks of O'Reilly authors—a milestone shaped by library visits, borrowed books, and years of persistence.
I Paid Off $194k in Student Loans in Six Years. It Wasn’t Easy.
I graduated with $150k in debt and paid back over $194k in six years. This is the story of how I got there, what I learned, and what came next.
I Waited 9 Years to Write This: On The Death of a Friend
On the ninth anniversary of Sarah McCausland’s passing, a reflection on grief, memory, and the enduring questions that follow the loss of a friend taken too soon.
2022: My Year in Review
A personal recap of the milestones, memories, and goals that shaped 2022—from paying off loans and co-organizing NormConf to hiking Sequoia and building a PC—with a look ahead to ambitions for 2023.
Building an HTTPS Model API for Cheap: A Step-by-Step Guide to Deploying APIs to AWS on Your Own Domain
A straight-to-the-point guide for deploying a Dockerized FastAPI app on AWS using ECS, ECR, Route 53, and an Application Load Balancer—ideal for developers looking to get an HTTPS API live without overspending or overengineering.
The *Right* Way to Maintain Multiple GitHub Accounts Using 1Password's SSH Key Agent
A walkthrough for managing multiple GitHub accounts with 1Password's SSH key integration, covering common pitfalls and offering a cleaner setup than the official docs.
Legacy Naming Conventions Are Holding Us Back
A case for naming internal services with intention—favoring names that are intuitive, easy, and specific over clever or obscure references. A little clarity can go a long way in reducing cognitive overhead and improving team communication.
Pandas Functions: Advanced Groupbys with Grouper, Assign, and Query
A technical walkthrough on advanced uses of Pandas groupbys, showcasing time-based aggregations, lambda expressions, and inline data manipulation with assign, all framed around real-world Covid19 data.
On the Origin of Time-Sharing Computers, Round-Robin Algorithms, and Cloud Computing
An exploration of time-sharing's origins—from Cold War military investments and Project MAC to the round-robin algorithm—and how these foundational ideas helped shape cloud computing as we know it.