David Lewis
Notes, essays, and technical writing.
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Slop is a standards problem
AI slop is real. The diagnosis is wrong. Slop is what AI does when no one sets the standard — and the same technology can elevate the bar instead, if you choose to use it that way.
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Evolving Agile in the age of AI agents
The agile practices that survived AI-assisted development weren't the process ones — they were the philosophical ones. A look at what changed and what stayed when building a real product with AI agents.
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The incomplete history of Design Tokens
A thirty-year story about a single idea: that design decisions should be named, shared, and separated from the things they style — from Håkon Wium Lie's 1994 proposal to the W3C specification.
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Goal-Driven Development with AI Agents
Starting with a real problem — the "did we get cinnamon sticks?" moment in the kitchen — and figuring out the solution as you go. Part 1 of a series on building a real product with AI agents.
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If Your Meeting Needs People From Five Teams, Something's Broken
When delivering one idea requires five teams in a room, that's not a planning problem — it's a structural one. On value streams and why cross-functional engineering teams are only halfway to the goal.
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Part 2 — The Handoff (From the AI's Point of View)
The second part of a documentation experiment, written from the AI's perspective. GPT inherits a codebase cold, reads the principles doc, and uses it to constrain a feature decision — validating the thesis that the right documentation shapes choices, not just describes code.
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What's Left When the Code Becomes the Source of Truth
I wrote 786 lines of documentation, then deleted 83% of it. Here's what survived — and why it's the only documentation that matters.
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AI Can Explain Your Code. Stop Documenting the Obvious
AI can now explain what a system does and how it works. That changes what documentation is for — and what's still worth writing down.
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Why Your Server Is Paying for Your CSS Choices
Server-side rendering makes some previously invisible costs very visible. This post explores how styling can end up on the server's hot…
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Folding the Laundry: A Kanban Story
Kanban explained through household laundry: visualise the work, cap what's in progress, and deliver in small finished batches. Simple rules that apply equally to software delivery and a pile of clean clothes on the spare-room bed.
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Teaching AI to Design What I Mean, Not Just What I Say
My experiments trying to take back control of AI-generated UI
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iframes vs Web Components — which one actually performs better in 2025?
After 102 automated Playwright tests, Web Components load 4.5× faster than iframes with identical memory use. A data-driven guide to when each isolation mechanism is the right call.
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How I Beat Stage Fright (and Accidentally Cured My Fear of Small Talk)
How a socially awkward introvert became a confident public speaker — through practice, not talent. Four techniques that actually work: rehearse until the script disappears, present one slide ahead, leave space for the day, and video yourself.
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From Drift to Drive: Helping Teams Move Towards Strategic Outcomes
Teams rarely drift because they're lazy. They drift because no one's holding the map up anymore.
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Stretch, Don't Hide: Ambition, Empathy and AI
AI expands what we can attempt — but that speed can trigger Dunning-Kruger overconfidence. The fix is curiosity over proof: show your working, ask what surprised you, and let cross-discipline experiments build empathy instead of ego.
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Quiet Debt: The Hidden Cost of Ignoring the Small Stuff
Most of us are familiar with the classic definition of technical debt: the shortcuts, workarounds, and legacy code that get us out of a jam…
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What's on Your Team's Plate?
Why quick fixes feel good, but lasting health takes patience
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The Case for Slow Thinking in Engineering Teams
Engineering teams rush to close decisions and the fastest voice usually wins. The seven-second rule, System 1 vs System 2 thinking, and why slow deliberation paired with fast AI is a more powerful combination than either alone.
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Avoiding the AI Tell: How to Write in a Way That Sounds Like You
The "You're not X, you're Y" pattern is everywhere in AI-generated writing — punchy, rhythmic, and a dead giveaway. This post identifies the tell and offers four concrete rewrites to keep the impact without the polish that signals AI.
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The Power of Emergence: Why Leaders Shouldn't Prescribe Every Solution
Prescribing solutions feels efficient but suppresses the unexpected ideas that matter most. A before-and-after flood image UI that emerged from a misunderstanding shows why leaders should frame outcomes, protect slack time, and get out of the way.
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The 2000 Year-old Engineering Manager
What if the best advice for engineering managers was written 2,000 years ago? A talk on leadership, stoicism, and staying calm under pressure.
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16 Rules to Help Your Meetup Run More Smoothly
Sixteen practical rules for running a successful meetup, drawn from years of organising SydCSS — from AV prep and food choices to managing no-shows and keeping presenters on time.
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Calm above the water, and paddling like hell underneath
A personal account of overcoming a lifelong fear of public speaking — from hiding under a slide in the rain at age 12 to presenting at Respond 2014 in Sydney. On the years of small steps, SydCSS, and what it actually takes to walk to the front of the room.
