2026-10-16

This article is a really good summary of one of the things that has me most worried about AI-fueled development going into the long term.

https://blog.redezria.net/blog/the-gardener-vs-the-winnower/

I am more or less required to use AI in my current role, so I've been experimenting with it more, and this framing of the Winnower resonates.

For example, I find it genuinely useful to talk through an implementation plan for a feature before I start working on it, because I'm not really inventing anything new (building a business app - just data in and data out in various formats), so AI is good at surfacing questions that I may not have thought about properly, and would otherwise probably end up rethinking part way through the project.

But I have a lot of experience to judge the plan, ask questions of my own, navigate around gotchas that the AI just doesn't surface. I learned from errors and mistakes and rework over years. If I were picking up AI-assisted coding as a junior dev, all this would do is help me build a bad solution faster. I think we'll need a very strong culture of design thinking and devs QA testing their own work with a critical eye to edge cases and real-world data. It's something I'm still pondering.

2026-10-16

I really liked this framing of the problems with design handoffs. (Probably because my career has straddled both design and development, and I have seen how well it works to have both roles working together, and especially to have developers who understand design, and designers who understand development)

https://matthiasott.com/articles/design-and-engineering-as-one

2026-05-04

I spent a lovely Sunday morning wandering around Tohono Chul with my new camera lens. I really got it for wildlife photography, but it is a pretty solid choice for flowers.

More photos, including more from this visit, on the main page: Tohono Chul

2026-03-06

Over the last couple of weekends I made a couple of quick tours around Saguaro National Park. The winter was unusually warm - I don't think we got even as much as a frost - and everything is blooming well ahead of usual. It's awfully pretty.

Check out the whole page for more (and larger) photos and commentary.

2025-11-29

I hosted a lovely, traditional little Thanksgiving dinner, just my mother and a couple of friends.

My mother brought over a turkey ready for the oven, then headed off to Phoenix to pick up a friend at the airport. It was my first time cooking a turkey, but it turned out delicious.

I made dinner rolls for the first time. I used a recipe from Preppy Kitchen: Dinner Rolls They were soft and delicious, and actually really easy. I've added the recipe to my recipes page to use again later. Even if you've never made bread before, I bet you can make these! His video is excellent.

I also made mashed potatoes, and then friends brought stuffing and made gravy, and sliced up a can of cranberry jelly. And of course, I made apple pie.

It was a small get-together, but warm and friendly and happy. 10/10, would Friendsgiving again.