On tolerances
Nothing is built to a dimension; everything is built to a range. What machining taught me about software estimates, design systems, and the honesty of the ± symbol.
Read — 8 minPersonal / Observations
A smith folds steel until the metal keeps a record of its own making — and the temper line stays visible on the finished edge. These are notes in that spirit: on craft, precision, and practice, with the working left showing.
Six entries · newest first
Nothing is built to a dimension; everything is built to a range. What machining taught me about software estimates, design systems, and the honesty of the ± symbol.
Read — 8 minIn swordsmanship the cut is not finished when the blade stops — zanshin is the awareness that remains after the action. On shipping software, and the attention that must outlast the release.
Read — 7 minStrike a structure and it answers in its own voice — a superposition of the shapes it prefers. On resonance in beams, in teams, and in the cadence of good work.
Read — 7 minA polisher can read a blade's entire heat treatment in one wavy line of crystal — the temper line is metallurgy made visible. On differential hardening, honest materials, and interfaces that show their tempering.
Read — 10 minA working theory of visualization: if a chart cannot be wrong, it is not saying anything. Notes from a year of building screens for people whose decisions carry weight.
Read — 12 minJet made a generation of stress plots look dramatic and read wrong. On perceptual uniformity, the ethics of gradients, and choosing colors the way you choose units.
Read — 6 min