Writing
Notes from the work
13 essays on AI, engineering and Richmond. Each first ran on LinkedIn; the original link is on every page.
newest first ↓
2026
-
July 29, 2026 · 1 min read
Cursor Is Coming to RVA! (And Why I'm Stoked)
When I left AWS in 2023, the first thing I did was sit in a coffeeshop and download a new IDE called Cursor (now officially SpaceX) which I used to vibe my first full-stack app. My takeaway: we had entered into a new …
Community AI & agents -
July 23, 2026 · 5 min read
I Took Anthropic's Easiest and Hardest Certs Back to Back (and Scored About the Same)
Starting a few weeks ago, Anthropic now offers four Claude exams : ** Associate - Foundations (CCAO-F) - **difficulty: ★☆☆, my score: 934/1000 (✅ pass) ** Developer - Foundations (CCDV-F) - **difficulty: ★★☆ ** Archit…
AI & agents Career -
May 13, 2026 · 5 min read
What You Need to Know about Anthropic's \"Dreaming\" Agents
Like many, I watched Anthropic's Code with Claude keynote out of SF last Wednesday. Sessions were streamed live (but not shared publicly afterwards), and IMO the marquee announcement was a feature called dreaming …
AI & agents -
March 9, 2026 · 7 min read
Neurons, Swarms, Lobsters: 12 Months at the Edge of Applied AI
I learned last night that we're teaching petri dishes of human neurons to play DOOM. Like, actual brain cells wired into a digital environment, figuring stuff out.
AI & agents
2025
-
November 19, 2025 · 6 min read
The Ideation Engine: How I Used AI to Generate Truly Novel & Feasible Ideas at GEICO
I joined GEICO as an Engineer and Evangelist to help my old boss Paul Devitt, PhD run an innovation lab, drive engineering productivity using AI tools, and write posts like this spreading the simple news that GEICO Te…
AI & agents Engineering -
November 14, 2025 · 6 min read
From 147 Unread Meeting Notes to a Living Knowledge Base in 30 Days
After just 30 days at GEICO , I already have a folder called "meeting_notes_Q32025 " with 147 markdown files, 1 for each meeting I've had. 🫠 I've opened maybe six of them since I wrote them.
AI & agents Engineering -
November 3, 2025 · 4 min read
Learning Open Source AI Models On My Morning Commute in Richmond, VA
Every morning at 5:30 AM, I begin the process of getting the kids to school and down to my co-working spot at Common House. Though my commute is fully analogue (e.g.
AI & agents Community -
October 27, 2025 · 4 min read
Augment, Don't Automate: How to Stay Valuable While Using AI
No, you're not going crazy. This is a bizarre time to be a software engineer.
AI & agents Career -
October 21, 2025 · 2 min read
Why You Should Write About Your Work (And Share It)
I once crashed my laptop during a live demo in front of 200 people at the 2023 Richmond Technology Council - rvatech/ Data & AI Summit. Standing there with a black Apple loading screen, I wondered: am I a masochist?
Career Community
2023
-
October 5, 2023 · 1 min read
5 Tips for the \"Successful\" Engineer
So, you're successful . Congrats, now you're prone to a whole new category of pitfalls.
Engineering Career -
August 18, 2023 · 3 min read
My year working abroad
Last year, my family of 5 moved to Costa Rica for a 12-month "working sabbatical". We had both become weary with the house, the kids, the grind of American culture.
Life & work