How this
thing works.
On methods, tools, operating assumptions, and the decisions made while building this. Updated occasionally and without ceremony.
Version · v0.4 Updated · APR 2026 Posts · 015
01
About
This is a personal working journal. It is not a newsletter, not a publication, and not a content strategy. Entries are written when there is something worth saying and not written when there isn’t. The publication cadence is therefore exactly as irregular as the work demands.
The focus is inference, infrastructure, and decision-making at scale — which is a deliberately imprecise frame. Precision would require knowing in advance what turns out to be interesting, which would make writing unnecessary.
02
Epistemic commitments
i.
Uncertainty is load-bearing. Expressing false confidence degrades the reader's ability to calibrate. Hedges are not weakness.
ii.
Compression is editorial, not neutral. Every piece that runs to 1,000 words instead of 10,000 has made choices. I try to be explicit about what was left out when it matters.
iii.
Arguments should be falsifiable. If I cannot say what would cause me to change my view, I should not publish the view.
iv.
The first-person singular is a perspective, not an authority. Field notes are one observer's account. Corrections and counterarguments are welcome.
v.
Revision is permitted. Entries marked Rev have been updated after first publication. Substantial revisions are noted in the changelog below.
03
Stack & tools
- Publishing Astro — static site generator. No runtime JS by default.
- Styling Vanilla CSS — no framework, custom design system
- Typefaces Space Grotesk (body) · JetBrains Mono / IBM Plex Mono / Geist Mono (switchable, mono)
- Colour Off-white ground · near-black ink · one red accent (#c7121a). Used surgically.
- Content Markdown with custom rehype plugin for ==accent== markup
- Analytics None
- Version control Git
05
Site changelog
19 APR 2026 Added Subjects page with co-occurrence index. Added Colophon. add
19 APR 2026 Entry № 059 published. Leaflet & openstreet map add
14 APR 2026 Entry № 048 published. On legibility, and the cost of making things clear. add
10 APR 2026 Entry № 002 published. Infrastructure as assumption add
02 APR 2026 Revised datastrip component to show reading progress as inline gradient. change
02 APR 2026 Entry № 047 published. Quiet defaults. add
20 MAR 2026 Entry № 046 published. The observer is never the observed. add
11 MAR 2026 Entry № 045 published. Field notes VII — a week without inbox. add
01 MAR 2026 Font switcher expanded — added IBM Plex Mono and Geist Mono options. add
28 FEB 2026 Entry № 044 published. Compression as a moral act. add
17 FEB 2026 Entry № 043 published. Second-order effects and the people who budget for them. add
05 FEB 2026 Entry № 042 published. Seams. add
24 JAN 2026 Entry № 041 published. In praise of slow inference. add
19 JAN 2026 Entry № 049 published. What we counted, and what the data said. add
15 JAN 2026 Fixed mark-for-later persistence across page reloads. fix
12 JAN 2026 Entry № 040 published. What we counted, and what we meant to. add
29 DEC 2025 Entry № 039 published. Notes on working memory. add
18 DEC 2025 Entry № 038 published. Permissioned rooms. add
02 DEC 2025 Entry № 037 published. Residue. add
11 NOV 2025 Initial public version. 37 entries migrated from previous format. add