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2025


Invest in integrations, not the platforms

·823 words·4 mins

I have been thinking about the kind of software companies I’d want to back - and it starts with the tools I actually use day to day. My own stack isn’t built atop a mega-suite I get from Microsoft or Google. It’s sticky-taped together from a set of focussed, well-made apps that are each good at one thing. They don’t pretend to do everything and that’s exactly why they’re good.

How to actually get things built

·669 words·4 mins

I’ve made some edits on 8 May 2025 to clarify some points I’ve made - I was worried that I have discounted the hard work that goes into building products and I wanted to make sure I was clear on that. I’ve left my original wording in here for reference. I don’t intend to make offence, but I want to be honest about the challenges we face. I may have done that unintentionally. I apologise and have amended my wording to add clarity.

Ouch, Apple

·44 words·1 min

Sorry to parrot on about Apple, but this judge ruling that Apple’s App Store practices violate their antitrust ruling just drills home my point that they’re abusing their market position.

Getting started today

·713 words·4 mins

I used to build sites in PHP & HTML. I’d deploy them to a web server over FTP and that was it. But starting out today feels paradoxically both harder and easier than ever before.

The cultural cost of a bad hire

·319 words·2 mins

Dispensing with all niceties, let’s get straight to the point: hiring the wrong person can be a disaster.

Do I still want to be a software engineer?

·213 words·1 min

I’ve been a software engineer for over a decade.

I’ve built products used by millions. I’ve led teams, mentored junior engineers, scaled startups, grown insane databases. It used to be exciting. Now, I’m not so sure.