Blog

17 articles

ToolingDeveloper Experience

The Development Setup That Stays Out of Your Way

The best tools are the ones you stop noticing. Here is how I configure my environment so that friction is tool friction, not my own.

Soft SkillsEngineering

What It Actually Means to Own a System

Ownership is not about being the only person who can touch the code. It is about being the person who thinks about it even when nothing is on fire.

DebuggingProblem Solving

Debugging Is Mostly Asking Better Questions

The engineers who debug fastest are not the ones who know the most. They are the ones who stop guessing earliest and start hypothesizing.

Soft SkillsEstimation

How to Give Honest Estimates as a Backend Engineer

Estimation is a skill, not a gift. Most engineers underestimate because they estimate the happy path. Here is how I think about it differently.

GitWorkflow

A Git Workflow That Makes Code Review Worth Doing

Code review only works if the commits are readable and the branch is scoped. Here is the workflow I follow on every project.

Google Apps ScriptAutomation

Google Apps Script: The Best Automation Tool Nobody Talks About

When the automation lives in a Google Workspace and the stakeholder is a non-technical user, Apps Script is often the fastest path from problem to working solution.

Payload CMSTypeScript

Why I Use Payload CMS for Everything Now

Payload gave me a CMS that generates my TypeScript types, runs in the same Next.js process, and lets me write real access control without fighting the platform.

WordPressHeadless CMS

WordPress as a Headless Content Backend: The Case For It

WordPress has the best editorial UX in the industry and a content editing community that knows it. You do not have to use it as a frontend to take advantage of that.

PHPBackend

PHP in 2025: What the Language Gets Right That Others Do Not

PHP has absorbed years of criticism, much of it deserved for older versions. Modern PHP is a different animal. Here is what it genuinely does better than its alternatives.