The Talent Bar Paradox in Engineering Hiring
Many companies say they want exceptional engineers...
Articles
Articles from more than two decades of building, rebuilding, debugging, and leading web projects.
Some are practical development notes; others are longer pieces about the decisions and trade‑offs that determine whether modern web platforms hold together in production. You can also browse articles by category.
The Talent Bar Paradox in Engineering Hiring. 
The Web is Becoming Machine‑Readable First. The Web is Becoming Machine‑Readable First
Machine‑readable websites need more than schema. They need stable pages, clean entities, useful metadata, feeds, APIs and content that survives extraction.
Converting Objects to Query Strings and Vice Versa. Converting Objects to Query Strings and Vice Versa
Converting objects to query strings is essential for handling URLs in JavaScript. Here, I explore encoding, parsing, and managing query parameters in Next.js.
The False Economy of Cheap Engineering. The False Economy of Cheap Engineering
Cheap engineering can shrink payroll, but it often increases rework, instability, contractor spend, supplier dependence, and total delivery cost later.
HTTP Cache Validation with ETag and Last‑Modified. HTTP Cache Validation with
ETagandLast‑ModifiedETagandLast‑Modifieddrive conditional HTTP requests and 304 responses. See how precedence, weak validators, CDNs, and cache policy affect revalidation.
Best Practices for Managing Environment Variables in Next.js. Best Practices for Managing Environment Variables in Next.js
Best practices for managing environment variables in Next.js, so secrets stay server‑side and deployments do not freeze the wrong values at build time.
Production Observability for Next.js: Instrumentation, Logs, and Release Debugging. Production Observability for Next.js: Instrumentation, Logs, and Release Debugging
Approach production observability in Next.js with contextual logs, traces, release markers, client errors, cache signals, build visibility, and business data.
The False Economy of Cutting QA in the AI Delivery Era. The False Economy of Cutting QA in the AI Delivery Era
AI‑assisted delivery can increase throughput, but cutting QA, accessibility, SEO, security, and exploratory testing in response is a costly mistake.
Everyone Wants the Best Engineers. Fewer Companies Want to Pay for Them. Everyone Wants the Best Engineers. Fewer Companies Want to Pay for Them
Underpaying senior engineers can look efficient on payroll, but often costs more through weaker hiring, slower delivery, contractor spend, and retention risk.
Your Website Has a New Customer: The AI Agent. Your Website Has a New Customer: The AI Agent
AI agents are starting to research, compare and narrow buying choices. Websites need to serve autonomous evaluators before human visitors arrive.
AI Slop is a Symptom, Not the Disease. AI Slop is a Symptom, Not the Disease
AI slop is a symptom of weak incentives, not just weak tools. This article links generic output to shallow briefs, poor review, and volume‑led metrics.
Faceted Navigation SEO in Headless Commerce: Filters, Canonicals, and Crawl Control. Faceted Navigation SEO in Headless Commerce: Filters, Canonicals, and Crawl Control
The Platform Dependency Trap: When Efficiency Becomes Lock‑In. The Platform Dependency Trap: When Efficiency Becomes Lock‑In
Platforms can speed delivery, but cutting internal capability too far can turn efficiency into lock‑in, weak negotiating power, and expensive migrations later.
Right to Represent Agreements for UK Contractors. Right to Represent Agreements for UK Contractors
Right to Represent agreements for UK contractors, covering recruiter pressure, duplicate submissions, hybrid working changes, and safer wording before signing.
Error Handling in JavaScript with try, catch, and finally. Error Handling in JavaScript with
try,catch, andfinallyGo beyond basic try/catch in JavaScript with finally, custom errors, async error handling, testing, user‑facing failures, and defensive‑code traps.
Gatsby Build Times are Slow: Fix or Migrate? Gatsby Build Times are Slow: Fix or Migrate?
Slow Gatsby builds need a clear choice: optimise plugins, data, and images in place, or move to Next.js when publishing and cache limits justify it.
When AI Search Creates Visibility Without a Visit. When AI Search Creates Visibility Without a Visit
AI search creates visibility that is not just a ranking, click or citation. Sites need to be retrievable, quotable, attributable, and comparable by machines.
The AI Governance Gap in Digital Transformation. The AI Governance Gap in Digital Transformation
AI programmes are often adopted tactically, without enough governance for supplier risk, data exposure, quality, workforce impact, or board accountability.
GTM, Consent Tools, and Core Web Vitals: How to Audit Third‑Party Script Cost. GTM, Consent Tools, and Core Web Vitals: How to Audit Third‑Party Script Cost
Audit third‑party script cost across GTM, consent tools, analytics, experimentation, and personalisation, without breaking measurement or business workflows.
Why AI Makes Senior Engineers More Important, Not Less. Why AI Makes Senior Engineers More Important, Not Less
As AI reduces friction in implementation, the value of architecture, review, domain judgement, mentoring, and failure analysis rises rather than falls.
Gatsby to Next.js Migration Checklist. Gatsby to Next.js Migration Checklist
A practical Gatsby to Next.js migration checklist covering routes, data, rendering, plugins, images, redirects, preview, sitemaps, and SEO validation.
The Automation Tax No One Measures. The Automation Tax No One Measures
Automation can save labour, but it also creates monitoring, exception handling, vendor, governance, and security costs that many business cases ignore.