Journals

2024-09-02

The Final Project

A nostalgic chronology sheds light on the meaning behind my mom’s retirement tribute. In a sense, this “final project” is a story of my own educational journey that led me to a cherished career building web software.

2022-10-16

Continuous Deployment Slack Notifications

Fieldguide optimizes Slack signal-to-noise with an open-source GitHub Action that posts continuous deployment workflow progress notifications to Slack.

2021-12-03

GraphQL Observability with Sentry

Fieldguide’s Node.js GraphQL server and React GraphQL client integrate with Sentry, enabling the team to better understand application behavior.

2021-06-13

Rapid Product Development

A summary of Fieldguide’s core technology stack surfaces code generation as a driver of product iteration speed.

2020-10-18

On Building TodayPGH

A summary of the evolved project management process behind TodayPGH, a project that shares stories of Pittsburgh educators to inspire future generations, lift up the profession, and build bridges of empathy.

2020-09-09

Resumator Retrospective

Six years later, through two company rebrands, three offices, and countless data migrations, I have made the difficult decision to pursue a new “chance” outside of JazzHR.

2018-02-14

Observable Development

Parallels are drawn between system operations and software development.

2017-04-01

Inten(t)se Camping

An extreme camping trip in the Smoky Mountains put routines on hold, enabling the true appreciation of natural beauty.

2016-12-03

Refactoring Software

I am heavily involved in refactors on a weekly basis; it’s the nature of software engineering. It’s probably the best and worst part about the field: There is nothing inherently costly about changing lines of code – just the time that it takes to make that happen. For me personally, it’s a constant struggle to weigh the pros and cons of refactoring. There is never going to be an ideal solution, and regardless of where the code ends up, it is impossible to predict all future requirements.

2016-10-01

What is Testing?

A realization questions the purpose of automated testing without focusing on the bigger picture: The functional mindset that should inherently be part of the development process.