Vol. XXVII · No. 6
Friday · June 12, 2026
The Library

A shelf of quiet writing.

Now and then a partner sets down what the work has taught us. These are our published pieces and field memos, short, plain, and meant to be useful long after the systems they describe are gone.
I.

Published Pieces

TitleDekFiled
On the Half-Life of a FormatWhy the documents you store today must be read by software not yet written.Mar 2026
The Auditor as ReaderWriting systems plainly enough to be explained aloud across a table.Nov 2025
Gardening, Not BuildingThe case for spending most of your budget after the launch.Aug 2025
Side by Side, Until They AgreeA method for migrating records without losing a single line.Apr 2025
Provenance Beside the NumberStoring where a figure came from in the same breath as the figure.Jan 2025
The Smallest Seam That WorksBridging old and new systems with restraint rather than reinvention.Sep 2024
Twenty-Year StatementsDesigning a document so its meaning does not drift with the decades.May 2024
Answering the PhoneOn reachability as a feature, and the value of a partner who picks up.Feb 2024
A memo outlives the system it describes; write it for the reader who arrives late. From the firm's standing memo