Writing

Essays on the AI transformation, software, and the web.

The Structure of Engineering Revolutions 2026-03

Kuhn's paradigm shifts, playing out in the argument about AI-assisted coding.

I See Dead People 2026-02

AI is automating away whole kinds of work — and what we do about that is a choice.

Now problems vs. forever problems 2026-01

Telling AI's temporary limitations apart from its permanent ones.

There is no spoon 2026-01

The biggest barrier to doing things with AI is usually believing you can't.

Photoshop 1.0 and the landscape of possibilities 2025-12

Transformative tools tend to arrive before anyone knows what they're for.

A (kind of) farewell to the web 2025-01

How a framework monoculture turned front-end work into an assembly line.

Are you a Carpenter or a Surgeon? 2025-01

As AI takes over execution, judgement matters more, not less.

The Machine-Testable Future 2025-01

AI's biggest gains land where the output can be checked automatically.

Stack Collapse 2025-01

The front-end framework stack solved problems AI is quietly making obsolete.

The Home-cooked Computer Club 2024-01

A golden age of small, home-made software, built by "barefoot developers".

The (other) Web we lost 2013-01

How we re-fragmented the web through frameworks and abstraction.

Semantics in HTML5 2009-01

HTML5's new elements didn't go far enough — we needed a way to extend HTML ourselves.

A Dao of Web Design 2000-04

The web isn't paper — and its flexibility is the point, not a problem.

Web Pages Aren't Printed on Paper 1999-01

The web's fluidity is a strength, not a flaw — an early version of the argument.