I write at
The Builder Notebook.
The Builder Notebook is my publication — a record of how real systems get built. One deep-dive a month, shorter notes between. Architecture, AI in production, hard-won lessons. The latest five are below; the rest live there.
Latest from The Builder Notebook
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Note: hiring your first engineer when you're the founder-CTO
Jul 20, 2026
Three rules I wish I'd had at Waffy on day zero. Short version: don't hire the engineer who can do everything; hire the one whose first 12 weeks de-risk the things you can't.
FROM THE BUILDER NOTEBOOK →
Most AI agents are just expensive for-loops
Jul 10, 2026
What actually works in production AI doesn't look like the demos. Three patterns from running AI in fintech, news intelligence, and operations — and the agentic pattern none of…
FROM THE BUILDER NOTEBOOK →
How we architected Waffy's multi-party escrow settlement engine
Jun 15, 2026
v1 was a single-table state machine. v3 routes 9 transaction types through a deterministic settlement core with an AI fraud subsystem. Here's what broke between them, and what…
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