Engineering judgement, not technology fashion.
Six things I hold to when deciding how a system should be built, and what to do when the pressure is on to cut a corner.
Own it end to end
Architecture, infrastructure, code, deployment and the pager afterwards. Systems fail at the seams between people.
Choose boring where it counts
Technology picked on reliability, cost and maintainability, not on how interesting it is to write about.
Build for real users
A demo proves an idea works. Production has to survive bad input, partial failure, and someone using it at 3am.
Verify, do not assume
Automation reports what it thinks it did. Independently checking the resulting state is what makes it trustworthy.
Design for failure first
Failover, back-pressure and recovery paths go in at the start. They cannot be added convincingly later.
Make it operable
Infrastructure only one person can run is a liability. The goal is an interface someone else can use safely.
Got something that needs building?
Tell me the problem. I will tell you honestly whether I am the right person for it.
Start a project