Tools and Strategiesfor Agentic Development(Into the HopperPodcast)
A conversation with Tim Hopper on spec-driven development, Beads for task tracking, and how AI agents have changed my planning habits.
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Building DSA Dojo: A CLI-Driven Approach to Learning Data Structures and Algorithms
January 4, 20263 min read
I'm building my own data structures and algorithms course—a CLI-driven, ladder-based system where mastery comes through doing, not watching. Here's...
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2025: My Year In Review
December 31, 20255 min read
Reflections on a year of milestones—getting engaged in Florence, publishing with O'Reilly and the AEA, raising a Series A at Workhelix, and overcom...
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Adding Text-to-Speech to Your Blog: Building an OpenAI TTS Pipeline with Smart Chunking and AWS S3
June 29, 20258 min read
A technical deep-dive into building a production-ready text-to-speech pipeline for blog posts using OpenAI's TTS API, smart text processing with NL...
Read ArticleTools and Strategies for Agentic Development (Into the Hopper Podcast)
January 12, 20262 min read
A conversation with Tim Hopper on spec-driven development, Beads for task tracking, and how AI agents have changed my planning habits.
Building DSA Dojo: A CLI-Driven Approach to Learning Data Structures and Algorithms
January 4, 20263 min read
I'm building my own data structures and algorithms course—a CLI-driven, ladder-based system where mastery comes through doing, not watching. Here's...
2025: My Year In Review
December 31, 20255 min read
Reflections on a year of milestones—getting engaged in Florence, publishing with O'Reilly and the AEA, raising a Series A at Workhelix, and overcom...
Adding Text-to-Speech to Your Blog: Building an OpenAI TTS Pipeline with Smart Chunking and AWS S3
June 29, 20258 min read
A technical deep-dive into building a production-ready text-to-speech pipeline for blog posts using OpenAI's TTS API, smart text processing with NL...
Extending 'GPTs Are GPTs' to Firms
June 2, 20253 min read
A new paper on the impact of AI on labor demand at the firm level.
Host Your Own Local LLM / RAG Behind a Private VPN, Access It From Anywhere
January 6, 202518 min read
A step-by-step guide on hosting your own private Large Language Model and RAG system using Synology, Tailscale, Caddy, and Ollama—all protected beh...
2024: My Year In Review — AI, Archery, and Goals
December 31, 20247 min read
Reflections on a year of growth, experimentation, and resilience—covering professional wins, personal pursuits like archery and lifting, and the ch...
2023: My Year In Review
December 30, 20235 min read
A reflection on a year of growth, gratitude, teaching, travel, and paying off the final student loan. Here’s what I accomplished in 2023 and what I...
What Are AI Agents? An Introduction to AI Agents and LLMs
November 27, 20232 min read
I wrote a book for O'Reilly Media about AI agents and LLMs, exploring what they are, how they're different from traditional AI, and when to use the...
Publishing for O'Reilly
November 13, 20233 min read
A reflection on the upcoming release of 'What Are AI Agents?' and the significance of joining the ranks of O'Reilly authors—a milestone shaped by l...
I Paid Off $194k in Student Loans in Six Years. It Wasn’t Easy.
July 24, 202341 min read
I graduated with $150k in debt and paid back over $194k in six years. This is the story of how I got there, what I learned, and what came next.
I Waited 9 Years to Write This: On The Death of a Friend
January 31, 202311 min read
On the ninth anniversary of Sarah McCausland’s passing, a reflection on grief, memory, and the enduring questions that follow the loss of a friend ...
2022: My Year in Review
December 31, 20225 min read
A personal recap of the milestones, memories, and goals that shaped 2022—from paying off loans and co-organizing NormConf to hiking Sequoia and bui...
Building an HTTPS Model API for Cheap: A Step-by-Step Guide to Deploying APIs to AWS on Your Own Domain
December 15, 202210 min read
A straight-to-the-point guide for deploying a Dockerized FastAPI app on AWS using ECS, ECR, Route 53, and an Application Load Balancer—ideal for de...
The *Right* Way to Maintain Multiple GitHub Accounts Using 1Password's SSH Key Agent
August 22, 20224 min read
A walkthrough for managing multiple GitHub accounts with 1Password's SSH key integration, covering common pitfalls and offering a cleaner setup tha...
Legacy Naming Conventions Are Holding Us Back
December 8, 20215 min read
A case for naming internal services with intention—favoring names that are intuitive, easy, and specific over clever or obscure references. A littl...
Pandas Functions: Advanced Groupbys with Grouper, Assign, and Query
June 26, 20218 min read
A technical walkthrough on advanced uses of Pandas groupbys, showcasing time-based aggregations, lambda expressions, and inline data manipulation w...
On the Origin of Time-Sharing Computers, Round-Robin Algorithms, and Cloud Computing
August 30, 202015 min read
An exploration of time-sharing's origins—from Cold War military investments and Project MAC to the round-robin algorithm—and how these foundational...