Writing.
Notes from the engineering side of the practice — how a thing gets checked, what the audit actually found, and why the decisions get written down.
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Somebody Will Check Your Security for Free. Should You Let Them?
Public agencies are offering small businesses free security scans. A clear scope, in writing, is what makes one worth accepting.
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Cities Are Racing to Build Equity Dashboards. Most Will Look the Same.
A map, filters, and charts are the default. What separates a useful equity dashboard is what's behind it: who chose the measures, and who can read the result.
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AI Saves You Money. It Also Costs You Customers.
Frequent AI users report saving about 16% of annual revenue, and losing about 7% to customers who now use AI instead of hiring. Both numbers matter.
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The AI Wave Is Here. Do You Own What It Built?
86% of 10,000 Small Businesses graduates use AI, and 42% use it for financial planning. What matters next is who owns the account and the files the work lives in.
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Your Team Is Already Using AI. Who Checked It?
Two-thirds of AI-engaged small businesses have AI in regular use, and 35% have found unapproved tools. An inventory, not a ban, is the place to start.
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You Can Hire an AI Team. Who Writes the Spec?
Some AI products sell you a team of AI employees. Contract work starts from a written spec. What each one shares changes what you can check afterward.
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Community Mapping vs. Interactive Maps: Which One Does Your Neighborhood Actually Need?
An interactive map lets people explore data. Community mapping is how residents shape what gets mapped. The difference decides whether the work reaches a policy decision.
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What a $100 Order Costs, by Channel
On a $100 order, the eight US sales channels we checked keep from $3.20 to $30 before plan fees. What each one keeps, what it gives back, and a worksheet to check your own.
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What to Keep in Your Own Name
Four things decide whether you can keep running what someone built for you: the domain, the payment account, the customer list, and the files with the rights to them. Who holds each, and how to check before the build starts.
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Docs as Code: The Unsung Hero of Our Refactor
In our latest refactor, the most important files weren't Dart files; they were Markdown. Here's how we used docs-as-code to guide our work.
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The Zen of Flow: A Repeatable Refactoring Workflow
How we used Zenflow to create a structured, repeatable, and AI-assisted workflow for a major refactoring effort in our Flutter app.
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From Red to Green: A Test-Driven Refactoring Story
Our Flutter app had 25 failing tests. Instead of panicking, we used this as an opportunity for a major, test-driven refactor.
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The Five F's: A Developer's Philosophy for Shipping
Fix it, Feature it, (Re)factor it, and a blunter first F. What's the fifth? Exploring 20 possibilities for the final F in this pragmatic development framework.
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Beyond the Starter Kit: Architecting an AI Dev Tool
How I designed a production-ready tech stack for Dojo Genesis, an AI-powered development orchestrator, moving beyond typical starter kits.
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AI Integration Without the Hype: A Practical Guide for Existing Apps
Most AI integration advice is either too vague or too complex. Here's a step-by-step framework for adding AI features to your existing application—without rebuilding everything or chasing hype.
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AI-Assisted Code Audits: A Developer's First Look
I used an AI agent to perform a rapid, in-depth audit of a new Flutter project. Here's the process and what I learned.
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The 4 Pillars of CI/CD: A Zenflow Automation Protocol
Discover the four essential scripts that form the backbone of any modern CI/CD workflow, and how we implemented them for a Flutter project.