I build software and run a small business, and both of those turn out to be mostly the same problem: figuring out what deserves your attention. So I write about that — sometimes as code, sometimes as work, sometimes just as a Tuesday morning that went unusually well.
Nothing here is on a schedule. An essay shows up when I've thought about it long enough to be sure I mean it, which is roughly every other week. If that sounds like your pace, there's a letter you can join.
— Koen
Software I've built, maintained, or had to apologise for. Mostly about durability — why the boring choice usually outlives the clever one.
Running something small on purpose. Pricing, customers, saying no, and the arithmetic of not growing.
Attention, time, books, walking. The unglamorous parts that turn out to decide everything else.
I like quiet, so email is the only way to reach me — and I answer it myself, usually within a few days.
I don't take ads or sponsored posts. If you've built something interesting, write to me: I'm glad to try it and share what I find, and I don't charge for that.
When something new goes up here, I send it out with a short note about what I was actually thinking while writing it. That's the whole thing — no digest, no round-up, no course at the end of it. Leave whenever you like; the unsubscribe link is at the top of every email, not buried at the bottom.
I never sell or share the list — it lives on my own server.