Durable decisions
When making decisions, too many people write a pros/cons list when they should really write a durable decision.
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Latest posts
How I manage tasks in 2026
For five years, I had been loyal to Things for task management. It was clean, simple, and just worked.
Coding agents notify Apple Watch
Coding agents like GPT 5.2 Codex and Opus 4.5 are good enough now that I always run them in "yolo" mode.
Introducing MiniCrossword.Net
Earlier this year, I wondered what it would take to semi-automatically generate mini crossword puzzles with code.
Hard to explain, easy to verify
It’s January 2023, and— in the AI community— everything feels possible again.
Etch: Stable Diffusion client for iOS
Click here to download Etch from TestFlight
CSVFiddle for querying CSVs with SQL
When working with CSV files, I often want to query them with SQL. There are a lot of tools that make it technically possible to do this, but they fall short on user experience in a couple ways.
How to run a lockdown
lockdown /ˈläkdoun/ n. Infrequent, timeboxed sprint during which an organization deprioritizes everything else to pivot focus toward a goal
Hacks for engineering estimates
Engineers often have to ask each other for “estimates”– rough projections for how long projects will take. While some teams do rigorous estimation rituals to varying degrees of success, many situation
Show the case against
I often read product and engineering documents that detail reasons for why the team/org/company should do something– launch a new product, refactor a system, etc.
Debugging unaligned project teams
As an Engineering Manager, I frequently observe teams working on projects where something doesn’t feel right.
Be curious, not judgmental
The trigger
Writing documentation for your team
Most teams reach an inflection point where good documentation is essential to its productivity. Still, it’s hard to write documentation that is relevant, accessible, and ages well over time.
Rules for reading books
Or: How I learned to stop worrying and love reading again
Understanding is not agreement
People often interpret “I understand” to mean “I agree”, but they don’t mean the same thing.
Quick config management with Google Sheets
I recently discovered the convenience of managing configuration of hobby-grade software projects with Google Sheets.
Whiteboard interview mistakes
I’m going through interview training at my employer right now. Watching whiteboard interviews reminds me of mistakes I used to make when coding on a whiteboard:
The problem with high school computer science
I didn’t take a CS class in high school, but I often meet people who did. When asked about their experience, they usually answer one of the following:
Learning to negotiate
I often wish I were a better negotiator.
Brushing up on operating systems and C programming
If you were like me in college, you first learned about the C programming language in an introductory computer science course. Then, perhaps you took a really hard course in operating systems. Then, y
Google time machine
One of Google search’s underrated features is the ability to narrow search results by date. I recently rediscovered the joy of “reading back in time” to uncover long-forgotten news, opinions, and pred
Two sentences for better meetings
Someone told me that all great meetings start and end with the same two sentences.
It's easy to criticize other teams
In software engineering, it’s easy to criticize other teams.
Things I learned clearing disk space
Ushering one of computing's most mundane tasks
Save Kindle clippings with Dickens
I’m a big fan of the Amazon Kindle. Not only is it great for reading books and articles, but also it has a clever highlighting/commenting feature. I can drag my finger across the text to highlight it,
Links I recommend
Here are some articles by other people that I recommend. I don’t necessarily agree with every view in the links below, but I think they’re worth reading. I periodically edit this list.
Guide to teaching an E-Club hack class
Introduction
Bringing back the dictaphone
Don Draper speaks into a dictaphone in Mad Men Season 5, Episode 8
Why I use 'I'm Feeling Lucky' for every search
A week ago, I tried a fun experiment.
E-Ink word processing with Amazon Kindle
I love the Amazon Kindle’s E-Ink screen.
Lessons from teaching a hack class
Introduction
Software engineers should write
In elementary school, there were “math kids” and there were “English kids”. You were classified by the other kids’ impression of your prowess in each subject.
Reverse-engineering the Kayak app with mitmproxy
Introduction
How a course in operating systems changed me
There are few classes at Princeton that changed me like COS 318 (Operating Systems). It was challenging, time-munching, and exhausting, but looking back: I’m glad I took the course.
Tips for software engineering internships
Introduction
Life after Codecademy: setting up your development environment
Introduction
Jasper - open source voice computing platform
https://jasperproject.github.io/
PHONY: The Humans of New York Post Generator
The app itself got featured in Humans of New York in January 2014.
How I organize projects
A dead-simple spreadsheet that organizes tasks and shares knowledge for small teams and projects
Tale of a $1000 Facebook Bug Bounty
For some time a few months ago, I became obsessed with wireless sniffing. I didn’t want to sniff others’ wireless traffic so much as be able to detect smartphones by their wireless probes. There is in
Clarifications and advice for first-time programmers
A lot of first-time programmers ask me for “getting started” advice.
Visualizing printer activity at Princeton University
Why Printers
Who at Princeton has a web site?
I was curious how many students at Princeton had posted a web site and, if so, what those sites were about. Check out the Princeton Undergraduate Personal Web Site Surfer to stumble upon some cool pag