Notes are generally longer-form pieces of writing that are in-the-moment, incidental, and may not receive longer-term maintenance.
#writing/notes
1 min read
Recent Posts
You can pry my dashes from my cold, dead hands
— A bit of self-reflection on dashes in my writing to decide if LLMs have rotted my brain, or if my brain was already beyond saving from the start.
The Season of Stamps
— The kickoff post for my Season of Stamps: exploring new places, meeting new people, and putting the final stamp of approval on a back catalog of projects worth publishing.
Chipotleware
— A brief side-rant about the (former) burrito-style economics of junior-level software engineering
Security Alert: Softlock and ACE via Natural Language Overload
— I think I’ve found a pretty large CVE that has gone without a formal report, despite absolutely saturating the field of software engineering. It’s subtle and…
Privacy Policy
— When it comes to collecting data, there's a fine line between making a good site and making an invasive product. To make this site more useful, I want to collect enough data to improve, but never enough to undermine anybody's privacy.
About Me
— The ultimate CAPTCHA: proof that I am a human, and how to get in contact with me!
How to Run Your Own Hostage Negotiation
— LLMs: Are we doomed to die, or born to garden? I'd like to make the case that AI is less like Terminator, and more like tomatoes.
AI Policy
— I may not have any control about how AI affects me, but I can at least make a policy for how I use it.
Kickoff: Season of Systems
— I'm learning to live with the systems that stole my beloved em-dash. A season dedicated to negotiating how to live with the agentic models that have turned my career upside-down.
Review: Season of Rhythm
— Looking back at my year-long attempt to build up long-lasting habits. A retrospective on routines, remote work transitions, and learning the art of slow-and-steady.
Feeling Right, Nothing Done: Don't Be the Death of Consensus
— Classifying opinions as "strong" or "weak" to stop wasting hours in fruitless engineering debates. How consensus can beat being "right", and an open letter for the tactically apathetic.
Before You Slabtop Your Laptop: A Brief Warning
— PSA: Check if your laptop needs an LCD for POST before removing the screen. Learned this the hard way after 5 hours and a fried motherboard. Learn from my dumb mistakes.
Turning SelfControl into Self Restraint
— Building a Raycast plugin to schedule website blocks — because checking news "just one more time" destroys flow. Automate SelfControl and self control: take your laptop back.
Caveat Lector: Reader Beware
— I'm embracing being wrong on the internet in an effort to learn in public. A disclaimer on digital gardening, dead pixels, and the fear of terminal online-ness.
Some initial thoughts about time tracking
— Initial thoughts on using tools like Apple Shortcuts and Timery/Toggle for tracking how I spend my time -- every minute of every day.
The Quest to Slay The Goblin
— My life devolves into sleep-eat-procrastinate cycles without structure—I call this "The Goblin." Productivity tools, hating on hustle culture, and a new definition for horticulture.
Quantitative Analysis of Markets & Organizations
— My time at the University of Utah was longer than I'd planned, cut shorter than expected by COVID-19. I was very lucky to have mentorship to push me across the finish line.
Breaking Ground on Digital Gardening
— Why I stopped hoarding 60%-done drafts and started publishing messy thoughts instead. Embracing digital gardening, from-chaos-to-cultivated, and a healthy dose of imperfection.
In Review: The (bad) 2017 Robloxaville Remaster
— How over-engineering killed a 3-month remaster of an old ROBLOX game. Looking back at the depth of Dunning-Kruger, and how good code doesn't make a good game.
Kickoff: Season of Rhythm
— "Fight or flight" is a rough way to treat white-collar life. My Season of Rhythm is dedicated to transitioning from constant sprints to slow-and-steady.
The Over/Unders of Over- and Under-Engineering
— I've learned so much in my career — so why do I finish fewer projects than I used to? Over-engineering: it's easier to be bad at something on accident than on purpose.
Don't Double Down: Structured Streaming to Wrangle Data
— Stop reprocessing your entire dataset every time new data arrives. A practical guide to Spark Structured Streaming with code examples and cost logic.
How to Write a Resume in Typst
— A beginner-friendly and guided resume starter for Typst users! Great for anybody looking to easily maintain and adapt their resume to new applications.
Littlefield Simulator: The Art of Laziness
— Efficiency: spending six hours building a web scraper to avoid five minutes of daily work. Automating a business simulation because checking in is for chumps.
Say Goodbye to Untitled (5) — GitHub Actions for Resumes
— Set up continuous integration to auto-update your resume everywhere. Overleaf, GitHub, and LaTeX automation for the perpetually disorganized.
College Admissions and the Stability of Marriage
— My college presentation on the Gale-Shapley paper, recorded on an iPad, like a true professional. Non-market environments, matchmaking lattices, and gratitude for good professors.
Reading the Room with Beethoven
— A HackTheU 2019 project for real-time live captioning using remote microphones.
Core Posts
Breaking Ground on Digital Gardening
— Why I stopped hoarding 60%-done drafts and started publishing messy thoughts instead. Embracing digital gardening, from-chaos-to-cultivated, and a healthy dose of imperfection.
How to Run Your Own Hostage Negotiation
— LLMs: Are we doomed to die, or born to garden? I'd like to make the case that AI is less like Terminator, and more like tomatoes.
About Me
— The ultimate CAPTCHA: proof that I am a human, and how to get in contact with me!
Quantitative Analysis of Markets & Organizations
— My time at the University of Utah was longer than I'd planned, cut shorter than expected by COVID-19. I was very lucky to have mentorship to push me across the finish line.
Don't Double Down: Structured Streaming to Wrangle Data
— Stop reprocessing your entire dataset every time new data arrives. A practical guide to Spark Structured Streaming with code examples and cost logic.
The Quest to Slay The Goblin
— My life devolves into sleep-eat-procrastinate cycles without structure—I call this "The Goblin." Productivity tools, hating on hustle culture, and a new definition for horticulture.
The Over/Unders of Over- and Under-Engineering
— I've learned so much in my career — so why do I finish fewer projects than I used to? Over-engineering: it's easier to be bad at something on accident than on purpose.
AI Policy
— I may not have any control about how AI affects me, but I can at least make a policy for how I use it.
Review: Season of Rhythm
— Looking back at my year-long attempt to build up long-lasting habits. A retrospective on routines, remote work transitions, and learning the art of slow-and-steady.
Caveat Lector: Reader Beware
— I'm embracing being wrong on the internet in an effort to learn in public. A disclaimer on digital gardening, dead pixels, and the fear of terminal online-ness.
College Admissions and the Stability of Marriage
— My college presentation on the Gale-Shapley paper, recorded on an iPad, like a true professional. Non-market environments, matchmaking lattices, and gratitude for good professors.
The Season of Stamps
— The kickoff post for my Season of Stamps: exploring new places, meeting new people, and putting the final stamp of approval on a back catalog of projects worth publishing.
Security Alert: Softlock and ACE via Natural Language Overload
— I think I’ve found a pretty large CVE that has gone without a formal report, despite absolutely saturating the field of software engineering. It’s subtle and…
Kickoff: Season of Systems
— I'm learning to live with the systems that stole my beloved em-dash. A season dedicated to negotiating how to live with the agentic models that have turned my career upside-down.
Feeling Right, Nothing Done: Don't Be the Death of Consensus
— Classifying opinions as "strong" or "weak" to stop wasting hours in fruitless engineering debates. How consensus can beat being "right", and an open letter for the tactically apathetic.
Some initial thoughts about time tracking
— Initial thoughts on using tools like Apple Shortcuts and Timery/Toggle for tracking how I spend my time -- every minute of every day.
In Review: The (bad) 2017 Robloxaville Remaster
— How over-engineering killed a 3-month remaster of an old ROBLOX game. Looking back at the depth of Dunning-Kruger, and how good code doesn't make a good game.
Kickoff: Season of Rhythm
— "Fight or flight" is a rough way to treat white-collar life. My Season of Rhythm is dedicated to transitioning from constant sprints to slow-and-steady.
How to Write a Resume in Typst
— A beginner-friendly and guided resume starter for Typst users! Great for anybody looking to easily maintain and adapt their resume to new applications.
Littlefield Simulator: The Art of Laziness
— Efficiency: spending six hours building a web scraper to avoid five minutes of daily work. Automating a business simulation because checking in is for chumps.