#Writing
The craft of writing itself, for blogs, docs, and the rest of the work.
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The 10 Things I Stopped Saying in My AI Prompts
A concrete list of the 10 words and phrases I cut from my AI prompts, with before/after examples, the measurable difference each cut made, and the 1 phrase I will never cut.
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The 3-Line Cron Expression That Saved My Marriage
A real story about a 3-line cron expression that fixed a recurring conflict, the 6 weeks of arguments it ended, and the surprisingly small amount of code that did it.
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The 3 Words I Use More Than Any Others
A small reflection on the 3 words I find myself using in every conversation, every post, and every email. The 3 words, the 1 I would not cut, the 1 I have been overusing, and the 1 I have been underusing.
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What I Learned From Buying 4 AI Courses in 1 Year
An honest review of the 4 AI courses I bought in 2025, what each one taught me, the 1 I would re-buy tomorrow, the 3 I would skip, and the 1 I would build instead.
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The 5-Line Bash Script That Runs My Life
A real, copy-pasteable, runs-every-day bash script that backs up my laptop, prunes old logs, and tells me when something is wrong. Plus the 3 hours I spent getting the error reporting right.
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How to Run a 5-Minute Code Review
A practical 5-step code review workflow, the 4 questions I ask, the 1 thing I do not do, and the real reason most code reviews take longer than they should.
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The 5-Page Project Plan That Beats the 50-Page One
A real case for short planning docs, the 7 sections that go in a 5-page plan, the 4 things you cut from a 50-page plan, and the 1 situation where a 50-page plan is actually right.
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The Email I Almost Did Not Send
A real story about a 1-paragraph email I almost did not send, the 4 things that would have been different if I had not sent it, and the 1 question I ask myself before every hard email now.
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A List of Lists That Is Actually Useful
An organized catalog of the 12 prompt lists I keep, the 3 I use daily, the 4 I revisit quarterly, and the 5 I am embarrassed to admit I have.
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The Postmortem of a Postmortem I Wrote
A meta-postmortem on writing the 4-Failed-Blogs post, what worked in that post, what flopped, and the 3 things I would do differently if I were writing a similar post today.
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The Quiet Update That Doubled My Email List
A real story about a 1-line change I made to my site that doubled my email list, the 90 days of data, the 3 things I tried that did not work, and the 1 thing I would tell past-me.
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Why I Stopped Reading Hacker News Every Day
An honest account of my 7-year daily HN habit, the moment I quit, the 3 things I lost, the 4 things I gained, and the 1 thing I would tell anyone considering a similar change.
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The README That Replaced a Sales Call
A real story about a 1-page README that did the selling for me, the 3 calls I stopped taking, and the 4 sections that made the README actually work.
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A Weekend Project That Made $0
An honest case study of a side project that made $0, what I learned from the project that I could not have learned from the $300 project, and the 1 thing that made the $0 worth shipping.
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The 1-Page Project Plan (Why I Write It Before Anything Else)
A 7-section, 1-page template for any project before I start building. Plus the 3 questions that determine whether the project is worth starting at all.
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My 2026 Tool Stack (and What I Would Change)
A real, no-affiliate, what's-actually-on-my-Mac list of the 14 tools I use daily, plus the 3 I would change tomorrow if I had to start over.
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How I Wrote 30 Days of Blog Posts in One Weekend
Not by writing faster. By removing every step that was not writing. Here is the exact pipeline, the prompt pack that runs it, and the honest part about what it does not do.
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The 30-Minute AI Audit: What to Keep, What to Kill, What to Try
A practical workflow for triaging your AI tool stack every 90 days. Includes the prompt that runs the triage, the scoring rubric, and the decision matrix.
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The 30-Minute Morning Routine That Doubled My Output
A 4-step morning routine, the version that worked, the 2 versions that did not, and the 1 thing I would tell past-me.
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My Postmortem of 4 Failed Blog Attempts
An honest postmortem of the 4 blogs I started before this one, what each one got wrong, and the 1 thing the 5th one got right.
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The 5-Minute README Test
A simple test for whether a project is actually documented or just has a README file. Plus the 5 things every README needs to pass.
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The 80/20 of Writing a Blog Post (and Why Most of It Is Not Writing)
A breakdown of where the time actually goes in writing a 1,200-word post. Plus the 4 prep steps that determine whether the writing takes 40 minutes or 4 hours.
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Stop Using Cron the Hard Way: A Practical Automation Stack
Cron is fine. Cron alone is the problem. Here is the small stack I use to turn 'I should run that every morning' into something that actually runs, logs, and tells me when it broke.
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How to Debug an AI Output That Is Almost Right
The hardest AI output to fix is the one that is 80% right and 20% wrong. A 5-step debugging protocol for the almost-right output, with worked examples.
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Why I Stopped Using 'Helpful' and Started Using 'Useful' Instead
A single-word swap that makes AI output measurably better. The why, the how, and the prompt that does it.
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The Hidden Cost of AI Tools You Don't Use
You are paying for four AI tools and using one. The three you are not using are not free. Here is the real cost, and what to do about it.
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How to Read RSS in 2026 (and Why You Should)
The case for RSS over social media, the 4 readers I have tried, the 2 I kept, and the 5-minute setup that gets you off the algorithm.
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I Built a Blog Writing Factory So I'd Actually Write
I built a blog writing factory in Python last weekend. Not because I wanted to write a blog — I have a Notion graveyard of half-finished posts to prove I do not — but because every time I sat down to write one, the same 30 minutes of 'where do I save the draft, what tone am I using, do I have a checklist' ate the actual writing.
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JSON vs YAML vs TOML for AI Prompts (and When to Use Each)
Structured prompts beat prose prompts. The next question is which structured format. Here is the field guide, with copy-paste examples for each.
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How to Cross-Post a Blog Post to LinkedIn Without Sounding Desperate
A 4-part template for turning a 1,500-word blog post into a LinkedIn post that does not feel like a cross-post. Plus the part most cross-posts skip.
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The Newsletter I Do Not Send (and Why That's the Right Call)
A short post on why I have not started the email newsletter, the cost of starting one, and the trigger that would change my mind.
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What I Learned From Posting My AI Outputs Publicly
3 months of posting my AI outputs on social media, what worked, what flopped, and the 3 things I learned about sharing work in public.
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Self-Hosting Email: 6 Months In, 3 Things I Learned
A real, honest account of running my own email server for 6 months. The 3 things I learned, the parts I would do differently, and the verdict on whether you should do it.
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How I Run a Side Project Without Burning Out
The 4 rules I use to keep a side project fun for 18+ months. Includes the one rule that prevents the project from becoming a second job.
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A Weekend Backup Script That Has Saved Me Three Times
A real, working, copy-pasteable backup script with cron, logging, and a 30-day retention policy. Plus the three times it has saved me, with dates.
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A Weekend Project That Made $300 (and the Parts That Did Not)
An honest case study of a small side project: what worked, what flopped, the 7 days of work, the $300 in sales, and the 3 things I would do differently.
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What I'd Do Differently If I Started This Blog Today
An honest re-do of the 5th blog launch, with the 6 things I would change and the 4 things I would keep.
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Why I Write 1,000-Word Posts (and Not 2,500)
A case for the medium-length post: the SEO, the readability, the shareability, and the one thing 2,500-word posts do that 1,000-word posts do not.
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Why Your AI Prompts Suck (and the 3-Field Fix That Works)
Most prompts fail for the same three reasons. The fix is not a longer prompt. The fix is a structured one. Here is the smallest structure that actually moves the needle.
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Why I Pivoted from WordPress to a Static Site (and What I Lost)
The real reasons I left WordPress, the parts I gave up, and the parts I was surprised to find I did not miss.