The Integration Tax: Every API Has a Price
Third-party API integration costs 56% more than initial estimates when you account for maintenance, breaking changes, and troubleshooting. The integration tax is real and ongoing....
Technical Debt Is a People Problem, Not a Code Problem
Technical debt accumulates because of organizational dysfunction - pressure to ship, fear of refactoring, knowledge silos. Research shows 91% of CTOs cite it as a top challenge....
I Solved Spam in the 90s (Nobody Cared)
In the 1990s, I built RUM (Real User Mail) - a challenge-response system to fight spam. It worked. I never released it. Years later, the industry reinvented it....
I Evaluated Dozens of Blockchain Startups in 2018
What I learned doing technical due diligence on blockchain startups seeking funding. The technology works - for exactly one use case. Everything else fails the database test....
What BBS Culture Taught Us That Silicon Valley Forgot
1980s BBS culture created authentic communities through sysop relationships and local control. Taiwan's PTT still has 1.5M active users. First-person perspective from a former SysOp....
The ASR Privacy Paradox
ASR systems need training data. Training data contains sensitive audio. How federated learning solves the conflict between ML requirements and privacy laws....
The Day Netscape Changed Everything
Netscape's IPO established the template for modern startup culture: growth over profit, massive early valuations, and boom-bust rhythms. Understanding that August day in 1995 helps explain why startup...
Speaker Diarization: The Hardest Problem Nobody Talks About
Why Zoom transcripts attribute quotes to the wrong people. The cocktail party problem isn't solved - it's hidden. Multi-device synchronization as a workaround....
Why ICQ Died: Lessons From the First Instant Messenger
ICQ invented instant messaging and reached 100 million users. Then it died through corporate neglect, software bloat, and missed mobile transition. Every messaging platform today faces the same forces...
Write Your Own Build Scripts
Build tool complexity has gotten out of control. A 50-line shell script often does the job better than any framework....
The NFT Crash Was Predictable
NFTs crashed 95% from their 2021 peak. This was predictable from the start. Artificial scarcity of infinitely reproducible digital files was never going to hold value....
The Myth of Overnight Success
Every startup success story is a lie by omission. The media compresses years of grinding, pivots, and near-death experiences into a simple narrative. The 'overnight success' takes 7-10 years on averag...
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