Writing
Notes on design engineering — process, tools, and the occasional rabbit hole.
July 16, 2026 · 6 min read
I stopped typing code. I started directing it.
A designer with no CS background now ships production React. The unlock wasn't typing faster — it was a five-stage loop that turns judgment into working software.
July 1, 2026 · 7 min read
A portfolio rebuild: I had to invent my own constraints
A portfolio has no client, no deadline, no scope ceiling. So I manufactured all three — with AI as the engineering partner.
February 14, 2026 · 5 min read
A designer learns to code: to read the AI's homework
In February I predicted I could redo two months of design-system work in a week with AI. I was wrong in a way worth writing down — the gain was judgment, not speed.
July 8, 2026 · 4 min read
A 2022 redesign: onboarding 98% of users abandoned
Mentor Buddies lost 98% of new users before their first mentor. The redesign's highest-leverage move wasn't a better profile form — it was letting people skip it.
July 9, 2026 · 4 min read
Claude Code vs. Cursor: one knows your code, one searches
Cursor resolves a clicked element straight to its source line; Claude Code has to go looking. That one mechanical difference decides which tool gets which job.