I explore DevOps, platform engineering, and the systems behind high-performing engineering organizations.
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One of the most interesting questions in artificial intelligence isn’t whether machines can calculate faster than humans. That part is already settled. The more interesting question is what the first true sign of consciousness might look like. People often imagine consciousness as intelligence. The moment a system becomes smart enough,…
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Acceptance Isn’t a Month — It’s a Practice
April ends tomorrow. The blue puzzle pieces come down. The awareness campaigns wrap up. People move on to whatever the next awareness month is. And autistic people are still autistic. I say that not to be cynical about awareness — awareness matters, visibility matters, conversation matters. I say it because…
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Reflections in the Machine – Part 5: The Creator Problem
Throughout this series we’ve explored the idea that artificial intelligence behaves a lot like a mirror. The more context you give it, the more clearly it reflects patterns in human thinking. Then we explored what happens when the mirror begins participating in the conversation. And what might happen someday if…
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What I Want My Kids to Know About Who I Really Am
My daughter Katie wrote the foreword to my memoir. I gave her a questionnaire. A structured set of questions about who she understood me to be, what it was like growing up with me as a father, what she wished other people knew about me. I approached it the way…
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Reflections in the Machine – Part 4: The Mirror Was Never the Problem
By now it’s becoming clear that artificial intelligence raises some interesting philosophical questions. In this series we’ve explored the idea that AI can behave like a mirror. The more context you give it, the more clearly it reflects patterns in human thinking. We also looked at what happens when the…
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The Engineer’s Brain: How Neurodivergence Shaped My Career Without My Knowing It
There’s a version of this post that frames neurodivergence as a gift. The hidden superpower. The secret weapon of Silicon Valley. I’ve read those posts. I understand why people write them. I’m not going to write that post. Not because it’s wrong — there are real cognitive advantages that come…
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Who Am I Now? On Identity, Loss, and Starting Over
A reflection on the two years that stripped away almost everything I thought defined me — and what I found underneath. I have spent most of my adult life knowing exactly who I was. I was a professional. A speaker. An author. A man in the full, uncomplicated sense of…
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Reflections in the Machine – Part 3: The Day the Mirror Stops Reflecting
In the first essay in this series, I suggested that modern AI behaves a lot like a mirror. The more context you provide, the more clearly it reflects patterns in your thinking. In the second essay, we pushed that idea further. The mirror isn’t just reflecting anymore. It’s participating in…
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What Autism Looked Like When Nobody Called It That
Nobody called it autism. Nobody called it anything. What they called it was “intense.” Difficult. Too much. Not a team player. Doesn’t read the room. Brilliant but exhausting. I heard versions of all of those at various points in my career and filed them under “things you push through.” That’s…
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Reflections in the Machine – Part 2: When the Mirror Starts Talking Back
In the first essay in this series, I suggested that modern AI behaves a lot like a mirror. The more context you provide, the more clearly it reflects patterns in your thinking back to you. That alone is interesting. But something else is starting to happen. The mirror is beginning…