Writing

Notes since 2009 on building software and running a studio. Newest first.

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  1. Fall back · Better Than Good
  2. Climbing the Claude ladder: from prompting to orchestrating · Better Than Good
  3. The trust problem that you already solved · Better Than Good
  4. The missiles are the destination · Better Than Good
  5. Principles and systems to optimize your service business · Better Than Good
  6. Zero busy work · Better Than Good
  7. Eight lessons learned from eight years of Good Work · Good Work
  8. It’s time for enterprise software to catch up · Good Work
  9. The value of user experience in business web applications · Good Work
  10. Questioning the quality of our work · Erskine Design

Better Than Good 30

What I’ve written since starting Better Than Good in 2025.

  1. Climbing the Claude ladder: from prompting to orchestrating
  2. Received wisdom: classic frameworks under AI pressure 01: David C Baker
  3. The trust problem that you already solved
  4. Received wisdom: classic frameworks under AI pressure 02: Crabtree’s LER
  5. The missiles are the destination
  6. Fall back
  7. On getting paid faster
  8. Reading between the lines
  9. The stuff between
  10. Zero busy work
  11. Principles and systems to optimize your service business
  12. The road to BrainDrop
  13. Hello, world!
Weeknotes 17
  1. Weeknotes vol. 17: business, schmizness
  2. Weeknotes vol. 16: Where have all the weeknotes gone?
  3. Weeknotes vol. 15: Professional admin dashboard maker and Mac app polisher
  4. Weeknotes vol. 14: More pool, less computer
  5. Weeknotes vol. 13: May the thirtieth be with you
  6. Weeknotes vol. 12: Teaser site, settings screens and new ideas
  7. Weeknotes vol. 11: “Basically done.”
  8. Weeknotes vol. 10: Back in the CSSaddle
  9. Weeknotes vol. 9: Micro-apps and nursery rhymes on Rails
  10. Weeknotes vol. 8: Active Storage and shipping baby no. 6
  11. Weeknotes: 14 to 18 April 2025
  12. Weeknotes: 6 to 11 April 2025
  13. Weeknotes: 31 March to 4 April 2025
  14. Weeknotes: 24 to 28 March 2025
  15. Weeknotes: 17 to 21 March 2025
  16. Weeknotes: 10 to 14 March 2025
  17. Weeknotes: 3 to 7 March 2025

Good Work 40

From the ten years I ran Good Work, the agency I started in 2014.

  1. Ten years of Good Work
  2. Expanding our services: Introducing ‘Friends of Good Work’
  3. How to master GDPR and CCPA compliance: a step-by-step guide to handling website cookies
  4. Three reasons most digital projects get derailed (and why yours doesn’t have to)
  5. Three things your project manager should be doing for you (but probably isn’t)
  6. Eight lessons learned from eight years of Good Work
  7. Three tips to improving your website (without starting over)
  8. How to use Google Analytics 4 to improve your website
  9. Creating a culture of balance
  10. WordPress vs Craft CMS: which should you choose?
  11. Top Craft CMS plugins used at Good Work, Part Deux
  12. Seven years of Good Work
  13. Donkeytail use cases for Craft CMS
  14. Donkeytail plugin for Craft CMS 3 and 4
  15. Our part in small business digital transformation
  16. Six years of Good Work
  17. Regularly scheduled website audits
  18. How to use Google Analytics 3 to improve your website
  19. A guide to improving your website in the new year
  20. Continuous improvements over website redesigns
  21. A successful website development process
  22. Use cases for a Craft Multi-Site setup
  23. How to implement a bulletproof QA process
  24. How to set up an SEO-friendly Craft CMS website
  25. Top Craft CMS plugins used at Good Work
  26. Five years of Good Work
  27. Updating your website to Craft CMS 3
  28. Building modular websites with Craft CMS
  29. Developing a Craft CMS website maintenance plan
  30. Four years of Good Work
  31. Technical SEO checklist
  32. The first Good Bracket
  33. Three years of Good Work
  34. Two years of Good Work
  35. Nailing the basics
  36. One year of Good Work
  37. It’s time for enterprise software to catch up
  38. Low-risk onboarding consultancy projects
  39. The value of user experience in business web applications
  40. An introduction to Good Work

Erskine Design 9

From my years at Erskine, a studio in Nottingham, England, where I learned what a team that cares about quality can do.

  1. Questioning the quality of our work
  2. EECI EU 2012 - Illegally good front-end
  3. Calculating EMs with SCSS
  4. Typographic styling with SCSS
  5. Going mobile with ExpressionEngine
  6. Planning and documenting front-end components
  7. EEUK 2011 - Going mobile
  8. Personal task management with Things.app
  9. Taking our work to the extreme

GANDR Web Design 9

From GANDR, the web company I started in college with my roommate, going door to door in Abilene, Texas.

  1. Generating share links in your ExpressionEngine templates
  2. ExpressionEngine short URLs
  3. ExpressionEngine 2 TextMate bundle
  4. The foundation of visual hierarchy
  5. 960 Grid System and full width backgrounds
  6. ExpressionEngine photo gallery module
  7. Graceful degrading w/ CSS3 selectors
  8. Web design office spaces
  9. Expression Engine, the only CMS

Sermon notes from Highridge Church live on their own page.