Notes from the Rabbit Hole

The productivity industry wants you to believe there is a best system.

There is a note-taking methodology that will fix your knowledge work, a second brain framework that will tame the chaos, a set of categories that will make everything fit. Find the right one and the torrent of information becomes manageable. It is a compelling promise, and it is wrong in a specific ...

I’ve been in the room. Multiple times. Multiple companies.

The security organization says no. Completely, categorically, by default. The posture isn’t “let’s figure out how to make this work safely.” It’s “this is forbidden until we’ve completed our review” where the review cycle is measured in quarters and the technology is shipping weekly. My mandate as a VP Engineer...

You’re right to be scared.

Every day there’s another headline. Another company citing AI in a layoff announcement. Another prediction that your profession is six months from obsolescence. You’re watching the news and thinking: this time it’s different.

It is different. But not in the way you think.

Let me show you what I mean.

I grew up a...

Part 2 of the Klanker Kanban series. Six software architecture documentation methodologies independently discovered progressive disclosure between 1995 and 2011 without naming it. The artifact pyramid names what they all found. The Technical Architect profile in the Klanker pipeline carries this lineage.

Part 1 of the Klanker Kanban series. Why sprint ceremonies fail for AI agent coordination and what to build instead. The artifact pyramid, the orchestrator pattern, and four AI-native ceremonies that replace planning meetings with structured handoffs.