Lessons from the Terminal

Twice-weekly field notes on infrastructure, AI, and systems.

What I built, what broke, and the evidence that changed the next decision.

Jun 2026 AI

A Better Way to End a Work Session

A work session usually ends before the work does. The clock wins, attention gets thin, or the next obligation arrives. That’s normal. What causes trouble is leaving an unfinished system in a state that only makes sense to the person who has been staring at it for three hours.

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Mar 2026 AI

A Small Network Is Still a Production Network

A small network can be rebuilt badly with remarkable speed. There may be one router, one switch, a few access points, and a short list of local services. That looks simple enough to recreate from memory. Then the replacement comes up with a different address pool, half the names point at old dest...

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