About this site

With the quality of the abstractions exposed by software systems today, believe it or not, an engineer can get surprisingly far without truly understanding what is happening inside any of them. However, as software becomes more complex, with more variables and higher stakes involved, that ignorance becomes much harder to get away with. When something goes wrong or behaves in an odd way, that mental model of what is actually happening within these systems becomes invaluable.

I think this matters even more now that AI agents are starting to play a bigger role in how we build software. As more of the implementation becomes automated, our ability to reason about problems and make sound architectural decisions becomes the real differentiator. Knowing what to ask for, spotting edge cases, and knowing where to look when something breaks require a solid mental model of the technologies involved, and that stems from understanding the fundamentals.

As for why this site exists, I've always found writing to be a way for me to organize my thoughts. This site gives me a place to do that beyond my notes, while also forcing me to confront my understanding of these concepts. My hope is that, in doing so, I can help someone, somewhere fill in some gaps in their own understanding.

My day-to-day work involves building payment systems that move money for millions of people. Over the course of my career, I've worked on software across a few different domains, each with its own unique set of problems and constraints. Every one of them has taught me valuable lessons that have shaped my perspective on engineering. I'm also a big fan of open source technologies and try to contribute to worthwhile communities when I can. When I'm not in front of a computer, you'll probably find me spending time with family or watching the Champions of England (The Arsenal) 😌.