Notes from the workbench.
Essays on the craft: data and platform engineering, architecture trade-offs, technical leadership, and what it takes to build systems people can trust. From the perspective of an Engineer.
- 01Drafting
Treating data pipelines as production software
Ownership, testing, observability, and deployment discipline: why pipelines deserve the same rigour as any other production system.
- 02Drafting
Choosing the boring architecture
When the pragmatic option beats the fashionable one, and how to defend that choice to a room that wants something shinier.
- 03Planned
Optimise for value, not elegance
Engineers optimise for beautiful code; businesses pay for outcomes. Why “would anyone actually pay for this?” is an engineering question, and how to hold both in your head at once.
- 04Planned
Restoring trust in a data platform
What it actually takes to make people believe the numbers again: correctness is necessary, legibility is what convinces.
- 05Planned
Working effectively in ambiguous environments
Finding the real problem behind the initial request, and making hidden complexity visible before it bites.
- 06Planned
Leading without dominating
Supporting engineers, creating clarity and accountability, and leaving space for people to do their best work.
- 07Planned
Working across territories
Why carrying hard-won patterns from one domain into another is a specialism in its own right, and how to stay credible with deep specialists while designing across the seams.
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