ESSAYS / 7 PUBLISHED
Software has consequences.
Let's talk about them.
Long-form writing from the Toolglass desk: ideas, arguments, histories and working theories that do not fit inside a software review.
4 October 2026
When AI Work Needs a Place to Live
Resolve01 is a small Rust system for tracking active commitments between an agent’s plan and the action it may take.
4 October 2026
The Anvil: What If AI Didn't Have to Use Computers the Way We Do?
We keep teaching AI to operate terminals, files and commands invented for humans. Anvil asks what happens if we build the smallest possible computer around the AI instead.
3 October 2026
The Bat Needs a Collar
Why serious AI testing tools should carry their authority with them
23 September 2026
Please Stop Making AI Sound So Fucking Uncool
Trump wants artificial intelligence renamed super intelligence. We can do worse. Welcome to Super Uber Mega Intelligence™, vibe coding, digital workers and the rest of AI's naming catastrophe.
21 September 2026
The Prize Is the Cheapest Part of a Hackathon
AI has made the losing pile easier to read. The bargain should become easier to read too.
13 September 2026
The Thinking Surface
A postmortem on first-generation AI and a manifesto for what comes next.
4 October 2026
Joe Armstrong: The Man Who Put Failure to Work
Physicist, satellite programmer, Erlang co-creator, teacher, musician, professional asker of awkward questions. In his final years Joe Armstrong was still looking forward, while warning that computing had forgotten some of its best ideas.