Writing

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

The Structure of Engineering Revolutions 2026

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

I See Dead People 2026

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

Now problems vs. forever problems 2026

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

There is no spoon 2026

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

Photoshop 1.0 and the landscape of possibilities 2025

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

A (kind of) farewell to the web 2025

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

Are you a Carpenter or a Surgeon? 2025

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

The Machine-Testable Future 2025

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

Stack Collapse 2025

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

The Home-cooked Computer Club 2024

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

The (other) Web we lost 2013

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

Semantics in HTML5 2009

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

A Dao of Web Design 2000

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

Web Pages Aren't Printed on Paper 1999

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