01 — The settlement notes
What we learn moving other people's money.
Engineering notes from the settlement core — reconciliation, rail behaviour, failure modes and the occasional post-mortem. Written when a production incident or a rail migration teaches us something worth keeping. No market commentary.
02 — The index
Every note, most recent first.
Why Your CI Pipeline Is Slower Than It Should Be
Most teams accept slow pipelines as a fact of life. They're almost always faster to fix than the team realizes.
May 6, 2026
The Open Source Sustainability Problem No One Wants to Solve
Critical infrastructure runs on volunteer time. Everyone agrees this is unsustainable, and almost no one is doing anything about it.
May 2, 2026
Designing APIs People Actually Want to Use
An API is a product. Treating it like one — with onboarding, versioning, and empathy for the developer experience — separates the great from the merely functional.
April 29, 2026
Cloud Costs Are a Design Decision, Not a Billing Surprise
Every architectural choice is also a cost choice. Teams that recognize this early avoid the painful retroactive optimizations later.
April 24, 2026
The Underrated Importance of Boring Technology
Choosing exciting technology has a cost. Choosing boring technology has a different cost. The trick is knowing when each is worth paying.
April 17, 2026
What Good Developer Experience Actually Looks Like
Developer experience isn't about polish. It's about reducing the time between intent and result.
April 12, 2026
03 — Keep reading
Related notes.
Designing APIs People Actually Want to Use
April 29, 2026
The Underrated Importance of Boring Technology
April 17, 2026
What Good Developer Experience Actually Looks Like
April 12, 2026
04 — Subscribe
A note when something settles.
Six or seven notes a year, sent the week they are written. Add your address; every note carries an unsubscribe line and nothing else reaches you.





