About
Five Commits to Everything That Matters
I've been architecting and debugging systems for 25 years and bending guitar strings for 38. Both taught me the same truth: commitment isn't measured in hours logged or notes played, but in showing up when it counts.
The name "Five Commits Alone" comes from a Pantera song, but it captures how I approach work and life. Whether it's a production fix at 3 a.m., a gig with the band, or teaching my kids to solve a Rubik's cube—real commitment happens when you're alone with the problem and the only way out is through.
Still Writing Code
I started programming when deployment meant carrying disks between buildings. Today I design distributed systems, but I still push commits. Staying hands-on keeps the feedback loop tight. Every architectural decision eventually becomes someone's debugging session. Better if that someone includes me.
The Complete Stack
In the data center: From bare metal to cloud-native, I've worked through every layer. Still debugging distributed systems at 3 a.m. when theory meets reality.
On stage: Semi-professional guitarist across multiple bands. Music Man through Marshall stacks. Music taught me that technical perfection without soul is just noise.
At home: Father of three. Speed cubing between deploys. Sketching system diagrams that sometimes turn into actual drawings. Teaching my kids that creativity isn't choosing between art and science—it's finding where they meet.
In learning: Whether it's a new pattern, an alternate tuning, or whatever my kids are into this week—staying curious keeps the work fresh.
Why I Write
Twenty-five years in enterprise IT taught me to read the future in today's architecture decisions. Seeing the technical debt before it's incurred, the bottlenecks before they manifest, the integration nightmares while they're still just boxes and arrows.
This blog documents those patterns—not the tools that change with the seasons, but the underlying forces that make systems succeed or fail. It's pattern recognition for architects who'd rather prevent fires than fight them.
The Approach
Good architecture, like good music, needs space to breathe. It knows when to be complex and when to be simple. It works without announcing itself.
I believe in:
- Systems that outlive their creators
- Code that explains itself
- Architectures that bend before they break
- Documentation written for the next person
- Commitment that goes beyond the job description
Commit
Still shipping code. Still playing shows. Still believing that whether it's a system architecture or a guitar solo, the same rule applies: commit completely, or don't commit at all.