Writing

Books and articles on learning to code

On development, teaching, and how people learn. Written for people who found the usual path into programming didn't fit.

Visual Learners

Coding for Visual Learners

Learn to code by making art with p5.js, for people who think in pictures rather than syntax.

Book + courseGet the book ↗

Awesome Coding

A friendly, project-first path into programming with JavaScript and Node.js.

BookGet the book ↗

Blockchain

A Practical Introduction to Developing Blockchain Apps

Build a blockchain app powered by a smart contract from scratch with Solidity, Hardhat, React, and Next.js.

BookGet the book ↗

Articles

Mar 2025

Deep Research Topics for the Rest of Us

Trying out Deep Research from OpenAI, Manus and others

Essay→

Dec 2024

How much does it cost to build and run a profitable side project?

Services I use and costs that I incur in building a profitable side project

Indie Hacking→

Jun 2023

No, I don’t want to chat with my documents

Essay→

Mar 2023

Prompt Engineering Tactics on Biological Intelligence

Essay→

Jan 2023

From Visual Effects to Web Development: My Journey into Programming

Essay→

Dec 2022

Lessons Learned in 2022

Essay→

Nov 2022

Teaching Coding to Absolute Beginners

Lessons learned in teaching coding to absolute beginners

Coding→

Dec 2021

Reflections on Actively Trading in the Stock Market for a Year

My reflections on actively trading in the stock market for a year using swing trading principles

Essay→

Nov 2021

Things that are Different in Berlin

Things that stood out to me in Berlin after living in Toronto for 12 years

Essay→

Nov 2021

A Philosophy of Software Design: It is All About Complexity

The Summary of A Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout

Essay→

Nov 2021

Guide to Online Dating for the Rest of Us

Everything that I know about online dating and why you should consider doing it.

Essay→

Oct 2021

Don't Eat Grapefruit and Other Useful Life Advice

Essay→

May 2021

Waterfall Model of Personal Development

On taking time to work on yourself

Essay→

Elsewhere

Guest posts & publications

Building an App With the ChatGPT API: Lessons Learned

What I learned shipping a real product on top of the ChatGPT API

Scalable Path↗

Creating Photorealistic 3D Graphics on the Web

Building lifelike 3D scenes in the browser with Three.js

CSS-Tricks↗

Creating a Book Cover using JavaScript and p5.js

Generative design, from sketch to printed cover

CSS-Tricks↗

Creating Declarative Animations in React Using Popmotion Pose

A cleaner mental model for animating React interfaces

Rangle.io↗

Writing a Book as a Programmer

The unglamorous reality of turning knowledge into a book

HackerNoon↗

How Python Helped Create the VFX for an Emmy-Nominated Show

My PyCon Canada talk on tooling for visual effects

YouTube↗

Using the Notion API with JavaScript

Reading and writing Notion data from a Node.js script

Awesome Coding↗

Learn How to Build a GraphQL API in Node.js Using Apollo Server

Standing up a GraphQL API in Node.js with Apollo Server

Awesome Coding↗

Building a Web API using GraphQL vs. REST

How the two API styles differ, and when each one fits

Awesome Coding↗

Web Scraping in JavaScript and Node.js using Puppeteer

Pulling data from pages with a headless browser

Awesome Coding↗

Reasons Why JavaScript is Awesome

Why JavaScript is a solid first language to learn

Awesome Coding↗

Coding for Statistics

Building an intuition for statistics by writing code

Awesome Coding↗

How to Use the YouTube JavaScript API to Search for Videos with Node.js

Querying the YouTube API from a Node.js app

Awesome Coding↗

Learn JavaScript Step-by-Step

A beginner path through the JavaScript fundamentals

Awesome Coding↗

Programming for Art

Using code as a medium for making visual art

Coding for Visual Learners↗