Why I’m Writing Again: Golf, Code, and Finding My Third Act

Everything old is new again

For the last several years, I’ve been building software quietly behind the scenes. My focus was deep in the architecture, the tooling, and the day-to-day work of helping teams ship reliable code. And while that work has been rewarding, I’ve come to realize I’ve missed something important: sharing what I’ve learned—and exploring what I still want to learn.

So here I am, writing again.

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A Little Background

I’ve been a professional software engineer for about 30 years. I’ve built everything from Electronic Medical Records and public health systems to dev tooling and AI-enhanced educational platforms. I’ve worked in big teams, scrappy startups, and everything in between. I’ve led engineering orgs and built systems with 99.999% uptime. I’ve mentored junior devs, contributed to open source (shoutout to JRuby), and maintained libraries like Taskarian and Jsonous that reflect my love for functional programming.

But over time, I stopped writing about it. I got comfortable. Head down, shipping code, helping others get their work across the line.

And honestly, that was fine—until it wasn’t. Because I believe writing makes us sharper. Building in public keeps us honest. And articulating ideas—especially the imperfect, in-progress ones—is how we grow.

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Why Now?

Lately I’ve felt the itch to connect again—to resuscitate those old blogging muscles, not just to teach, but to reflect. I want to document what I’m working on, share what I’m thinking about, and maybe even help a few people along the way.

But this time, I want to do something a little different.

This time, I want to bring golf into the mix.

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Golf + Code? Really?

Yeah. Really.

During COVID, I developed a deep love of golf. I’m no pro, but I’ve spent enough time on the course—and building tools about the course—to know there’s something fascinating in the overlap between software and the swing. Systems thinking. Feedback loops. Precision. Resets. Debugging under pressure.

And lately I’ve started building apps for golfers. Tools like Yardage Card and StrokeSheet—apps that help players understand their own game the way developers debug production systems. I’ll write about those projects here, along with the libraries, design decisions, and technical rabbit holes they lead me down.

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What to Expect

This blog will be a mix of:

• Real-world software engineering thoughts and practices

• Functional programming and Typescript nerdery

• Developer productivity tools (including AI-assisted workflows)

• Golf tech, stats, and systems

• Maybe the occasional metaphorical crossover—because debugging a smother hook feels a lot like debugging a bug

If that sounds like your kind of thing, I hope you’ll stick around. I’m writing this for people who care about craft, who like to build, and who maybe—just maybe—believe that thoughtful systems can make everything a little more fun.

Thanks for being here. Let’s see where this goes.