Writing

Notes, write-ups, and the occasional multi-part series. Some pieces stand alone; others are meant to be read in order.

Origins

before any of it was code. surveying, a skidder, an engine that needed fixing.

A Recipe Is a Point, a Technique Is a Space

Jul 7, 2026 · 6 min read

i learned fermentation off a dough truck at a national pizza chain, and i learned to cook without a recipe off a Wikipedia table about curry. once the fundamentals click, a recipe stops being the thing you follow and becomes one point in a space you already know how to move through.

CookingFundamentalsSystems ThinkingEssay

Earning Trust in Data

how i get from 'data is hostile until proven otherwise' to actually using it.

I Asked Three Rival Models to Kill My Spec

Aug 1, 2026 · 8 min read

before writing a line of code for a new system, i ran the spec through four adversarial review passes: my own, then three frontier models from three vendors, cold context, sequentially. 25 recorded fixes later it froze with zero open decisions. what the process caught, what it got wrong, and why the misses were still worth money.

LLM SystemsDeterminismProcessBuild Log

Is What I'm Seeing Real?

Jul 7, 2026 · 7 min read

how do you earn the right to trust a remote-sensing instrument about ground you have never walked? you check it, relentlessly, against ground you know in your body. calibration, not trophies. the affirmative half of 'data is hostile until proven otherwise.'

GeospatialEpistemicsTALONEssay

The Model Doesn't Get to Decide

Jul 5, 2026 · 4-part series

This is one argument in four parts, built to be read in order, though each part stands on its own. The running question, every part, is the same: on this axis, does the model get to be the auditor, or the judge? The diagram at the foot of each part grows by one box, because the shape earns itself as you go.

LLM SystemsDeterminismEssay

From the Field

field notes and build logs from the work itself, tested against real ground.

The Box on My Desk Was Better Than the One I Was Renting

Jul 7, 2026 · 8 min read

TALON was my first real full-stack app, and Render was the right way to start. then i noticed i owned a 3090 while paying monthly for compute that felt starved. a build-and-migration diary.

InfrastructureProxmoxTALONBuild Log