Alex’s Writing Journal

Daily posts written by Alex about whatever crosses my mind. An attempt at a daily writing practice.

Reality is Fractal

Did you know that when you measure a coastline, if you use a larger ruler, you'll get a smaller result. Likewise, a smaller ruler yields a larger result until. In other words, the closer you look, the more there is. Coastlines are fractal.

R. Alex Anderson|July 05, 2026

Stealing

This is put so well.

R. Alex Anderson|June 25, 2026

Storytelling

There's something so human about storytelling, and not just the kind we tell socially. The stories we only tell ourselves are even more impactful.

R. Alex Anderson|June 21, 2026

Additive Ideas vs Paradigm Shifts

One reason I like Tailwind is that it doesn't make it any harder to do things the old way, with plain old CSS. In fact, since it auto-generates theme custom properties, in some ways it makes things easier, even if you don't use the utility CSS classes.

R. Alex Anderson|June 10, 2026

Playing Spaceship

Friday night I did something I haven't done in 15 years.

Playing Spaceship

R. Alex Anderson|June 03, 2026

Living Life

Remember to be happy.

R. Alex Anderson|May 07, 2026

Activation Energy of Talent

One of the hardest parts about being a human is how tough it is to do new things that you aren't good at. I don't know, maybe other people can just do things without much effort, but for me, it takes a lot of energy to get into something new that I've never done before.

R. Alex Anderson|May 07, 2026

My Latest Writing — Building Dialogue Graphs into my spaceship game

I've not been writing as much for the past two weeks, because that's when I started watching my two kids full-time. So far? No regrets whatsoever, though it's tough and time consuming.

R. Alex Anderson|March 24, 2026

I'm debating getting a new phone

My wife's phone is a sad, 5 year old iPhone SE 2nd Gen. The battery is shot. The camera is terrible. Liquid Glass constantly drags it to a halt.

R. Alex Anderson|March 12, 2026

Art Museum Strategy

Which type of person are you? Do you do research ahead of time, and then go straight to the piece that you know will captivate you? Or do you prefer to go in blind and be surprised by what you find?

R. Alex Anderson|March 10, 2026

Grieving my Profession, Embracing my Medium

Salma nails it. Read the whole thing. It's well worth your time.

R. Alex Anderson|March 06, 2026

Software As And End In Itself

I love everything published on Acko.net, this one was no exception. The quote above really stood out.

R. Alex Anderson|March 05, 2026

I'm having a hard time titling this one

But it comes from a place of both grief and love

R. Alex Anderson|February 28, 2026

Reflecting on my last job in tech

"Last" in every sense of the word

R. Alex Anderson|February 27, 2026

Confession: I like paying taxes

A well functioning government is a good thing, actually, and such a thing needs money to run. So, I pay my taxes.

R. Alex Anderson|February 26, 2026

Phantom Productivity

I first played Minecraft when it was in alpha, around 2009. I was quickly hooked — the allure of pure creation was inescapable.

R. Alex Anderson|February 26, 2026

Friction and Struggle

There is a lot to be said for moving fast, and to move fast you have to reduce friction — you have to make doing things effortless. But frictionless experiences cheapen life.

R. Alex Anderson|February 22, 2026

Reducitarian

I like meat, of all varieties.

R. Alex Anderson|February 19, 2026

Caring about Coffee

Jim's spot on.

R. Alex Anderson|February 18, 2026

How Representative Government Should Work

The answer is Love

R. Alex Anderson|February 15, 2026

Free AtProto Idea: Achievements and Stats

Someday, unless someone else does it first, I'm going to create an AtProto lexicon that does the following:

R. Alex Anderson|February 10, 2026

Simplify

A story of almost over-engineering lighting in a crawl space

R. Alex Anderson|February 09, 2026

Just-in-time vs Just-in-case Learning

Twice now this week someone referenced just-in-time vs just-in-case learning. I'm afraid I can't remember the first (probably a Bluesky post lost to the ether), but the second was the final episode of People I Mostly Admire.

R. Alex Anderson|February 09, 2026

Long Range Comm

Yet another Thorium Nova discussion, this time about Long Range Comm. I'm pleased with how it turned out and how some extra features that I didn't expect kind of fell out as I was looking around it. Enjoy!

R. Alex Anderson|February 07, 2026

Fraud Triangle

Fraud doesn't happen in a vacuum.

R. Alex Anderson|February 05, 2026

In Defense of Going Slow

I remember the browser wars.

R. Alex Anderson|February 04, 2026

When All You Have Is A Hammer...

Most of what AI can do is a happy accident. Maybe we should just use it for what it's good at.

R. Alex Anderson|February 02, 2026

My Personal History Part 1

1993-1997

R. Alex Anderson|February 01, 2026

What Counts as Art?

Are video games art? Can AI make art? What even counts as art?

R. Alex Anderson|January 30, 2026

Presenting to Kids

Can confirm. About once a quarter I give a presentation at the Voyager Club, which is a volunteer organization of 12-18 year olds that do work for the local space centers.

R. Alex Anderson|January 29, 2026

Beware the Pit of Success lined with razor wire

https://blog.codinghorror.com/falling-into-the-pit-of-success/

R. Alex Anderson|January 27, 2026

It's Easy to Overcomplicate

A great read by Paul Hebert that questions the tradeoffs of big, batteries-included accessible UI frameworks like Radix and React Aria Components. Isn't this supposed to be the browser's job? Why reinvent?

R. Alex Anderson|January 26, 2026

Thorium Nova Discussions

Today, my writing is focused on my spaceship game, Thorium Nova. Over the last few days I've written several discussions about the behavior of ship systems. I'll link them here, for you to enjoy. Feel free to comment as well — anyone is welcome to share thoughts and opinions or ask questions.

R. Alex Anderson|January 23, 2026

Critical CSS is a Hyper-optimization

I had a lovely chat with someone about critical CSS and optimizations. All optimizations come with tradeoffs, but many are acceptable tradeoffs. Algorithms might optimize for speed and Big-O complexity at the expense of memory. Websites might optimize for offline support at the expense of first load duration (needing to download an offline database). There are tricks and slight-of-hand to make optimizations feel better to users, but they're still there. Famously, the Instagram team makes it so your photo uploads silently in the background as you write the caption so that it's ready by the time you hit "Post". It's a neat trick!

R. Alex Anderson|January 22, 2026

To Be Curious

One of the biggest problems of the United States is a lack of curiosity — a genuine interest in learning things.

R. Alex Anderson|January 21, 2026

Notes from my Beginner Computer Literacy Class Part 3

Be sure to check out part 1 for context.

R. Alex Anderson|January 21, 2026

This Only Works If We Work Together

"Look around, figure out the most valuable thing to do, and then do that thing."

R. Alex Anderson|January 19, 2026

Noticing

I don't like going slow. Unfortunately, as a parent of a 4 year old, I don't get a choice.

R. Alex Anderson|January 18, 2026

The Value of RFCs

Wouldn't you know it, writing things down helps

R. Alex Anderson|January 16, 2026

Notes from my Beginner Computer Literacy Class Part 2

Be sure to check out part 1 for context.

R. Alex Anderson|January 15, 2026

Intentional Entertainment

Productivity-maxing is entertainment

R. Alex Anderson|January 14, 2026

Things I've Just Done

Continuing the theme from the past few days.

R. Alex Anderson|January 13, 2026

Just Do The Thing

Even... no... especially if it's bad

R. Alex Anderson|January 12, 2026

You Can Just Do Things

My daughter was disappointed. Nobody at the protest was chanting and, darn it, she was promised chanting!

R. Alex Anderson|January 11, 2026

What do you love to do?

A sure-fire question to make friends at unfamiliar places.

R. Alex Anderson|January 09, 2026

Why React Router v7 Doesn't Have A Good PWA Solution

It's tradeoffs, all the way down.

R. Alex Anderson|January 08, 2026

Best Media of 2025

Recently my wife asked me: "What is the best media you enjoyed in 2025?"

R. Alex Anderson|January 08, 2026

Notes from my Beginner Computer Literacy Class Part 1

Helping the uninitiated navigate this brave new digital world

R. Alex Anderson|January 07, 2026

React Server Components: Do They Really Improve Performance?

Nadia Makarevich has some great numbers from a realistic benchmark. (h/t to Chris Coyier for putting it in my feed.) The whole writeup is worth reading, since it goes in-depth into several data-loading strategies. The summary is excellent:

R. Alex Anderson|January 06, 2026

Cassette Tapes

A friend showed me a cassette tape that he found.

R. Alex Anderson|January 06, 2026

Unseasonably Warm

I pull on my jacket again.

R. Alex Anderson|January 05, 2026

Daily Writing

A post a day keeps the brain fog away

R. Alex Anderson|January 04, 2026