Blog
Writing on learning, understanding, and the slow work of building real knowledge.
Why ChatGPT answers feel right but teach you nothing
The gap between getting an answer and understanding it is invisible until it isn't.
The difference between knowing the answer and understanding it
Knowing and understanding look identical from the outside. They are not the same thing.
Senior vs junior: it's not about what you produce
The gap between junior and senior engineers is not raw output. It's the ability to reason when there's no clear answer.
5 essays written decades ago that are more relevant than anything published this week
The field moves fast. The fundamentals do not. Here are five pieces of writing that have aged remarkably well.
Why Paul Graham's essays from 2004 still matter
Some essays earn their place by being right about something important. These did.
What they don't teach you in bootcamps
Bootcamps teach you to produce. They rarely teach you to understand. The difference compounds over a career.
First principles thinking: what it actually means (and how to practice it)
First principles thinking is not about being contrarian. It's about knowing which beliefs to rebuild from scratch.
The books that changed how I think about systems
A short list of books that shifted something fundamental -- not just what I knew, but how I reasoned.
Courses are broken
Not because they are bad, but because they are optimized for the wrong thing.
Why I built a library instead of a course
A course is a product. A library is a selection. The difference shapes everything.
The compounding effect of reading well
Reading is not a way to acquire facts. It is a way to build the capacity to think. The returns compound.