I’m a Writer and Software Engineer
“There is a fundamental inefficiency at the heart of American business. It is right in front of all of our faces, and yet we fail to recognize it. It’s the fuzzy, terrible writing we slog through every day at work. And it’s costing American businesses nearly $400 billion every year.”
As a Writer…
I write software-related things—incident reports, bug reports, user stories, technical guides, user docs, error messages—with empathy for my audience, and a strong preference for jargon-free plain English. Engineering organizations with a strong commitment to a writing culture have much greater resiliency, higher trust, and lower bus factor (excellent article here).
I write non-software-related things—short fiction, AI-generated fiction and cut-ups (William S. Burroughs style, but with Markov chains, not scissors 🤣); I write essays on technology, free will, politics, science literacy, magic tricks, fitness, jiu jitsu, parenting, squirrel trapping, and living in New York City.
As a Software Engineer…
I develop CI pipelines and software test automation—currently using node.js, JavaScript, Python, Github Actions, Jenkins, Docker, Cypress, Playwright, and AWS Lambda. I've worked on browser-based as well as API testing, and have a strong preference for the e2e layer of the testing pyramid, as that puts me into closer contact with users and product managers. I also enjoy cooking up easy-to-follow video explainers and/or infographics that clearly describe how a thing works—whether it be a bug, an API call, a user workflow, or a CI pipeline.