I write for developers who know one thing well and are learning the next one. SQL to Python. Python to AI. Local tools to production systems.
New here? Start here, or jump into:
Latest writing
Go Hybrid: Find the Results LIKE Can't
Companion page for my PyOhio 2026 talk. Slides, code, and the dog-spa dataset for searching free text beyond LIKE with BM25, vectors, and hybrid.
Congratulations! What You Can Do Now
Celebrate your new skills with take-home challenges and resources for continued learning. You think in sets now.
Advanced SQL Topics Sampler
Quick tastes of CASE statements, JSON functions, date manipulation, set operations, and recursive CTEs. Enough to know what to learn next.
The Makefile was Lying to Me
Gemini saw a wall of green checkmarks and declared 27 tools verified. The Makefile printed FAIL and exited 0. How we made it loud, annoying and honest.
Testing SQL Code
Test queries like Python code using in-memory databases, fixtures, and pytest. Fresh data per test, no state leakage.
The Audit
BartBot audits the thinking vault, finds a fossilized interest profile, and discovers seventeen tools had quietly written the same scoring function twice.
ORM vs Raw SQL: Decision Framework
It's not either/or. Use ORMs for CRUD and migrations; use raw SQL for analytics and complex queries. A practical decision guide.