Architect by Profession, Programmer at Heart
Recent
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A Bug's Tale
Some years ago I had the pleasure of investigating a production outage in a customer-facing application. I say pleasure because these investigations can be genuinely enjoyable. You do meaningful work under pressure. When you find the answer and fix it, everyone is satisfied. The pressure at the time was heavy,... [Continue reading] -
AI Coding Assistants Struggle with Complex State. A Simple Diagram Fixed It.
I spent the holidays working on a hobby project, a little map editor. Think of it as brain gym, keeping the machine-room skills sharp. I used an AI coding assistant, naturally. It handled most things well. But when I hit moderately complex state management (adding map points, selecting them, moving... [Continue reading] -
Software Systems No Longer Have to Die
Some well-established truths of software engineering are becoming less true as AI tools mature. One of them: technical debt always accumulates until a system that was originally well-designed, modular, and extensible turns into a legacy mess of undocumented, untested special cases, to the point where replacing it becomes more economically... [Continue reading] -
AI Won't Replace Architects: The Case for Plurality
2026 may become the year of AI disappointment. Not because the technology fails. It will keep improving. But expectations are aimed wrong. Adoption is out of control. You can’t not adopt AI right now. Every vendor promises transformation. Every consultant warns you’ll be left behind. But are you leveraging AI... [Continue reading] -
What a Year in Enterprise Architecture Looks Like
People sometimes ask what Enterprise Architects actually do. The honest answer is: it depends on the week. Here is what 2025 looked like: strategy sessions that shape investment decisions for years, security scanners built in a weekend, architecture reviews that strengthen proposals, and AI tools rolled out to a thousand... [Continue reading] -
3 Signs Your Architecture Function Has Become a Bureaucracy
Architecture functions are everywhere. Architects with titles and responsibilities. Review boards, documentation standards, maybe even an expensive repository tool. And yet. When a critical decision needs to be made (which platform to bet on, whether to build or buy, how to integrate an acquisition), do you actually ask your architects?... [Continue reading]