Smoking Footguns

The Healer In The Tower

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 08:27:25 +0000

There was a healer, in a tower.

He often went down to the town. When he saw someone in need, he offered to help. He followed through on his offers. He helped when he could; he still tried when he couldn’t.

He tried to not turn people away.

Soon, the healer made himself known. Soon, people depended on him. They came to him with trouble, and the healer listened, and often that was enough. When it was not, a question or two usually did the trick.

Archaeology, And What Is Worth Doing

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 08:27:25 +0000

In this essay, we’re going to punch a child in the mouth.

Specifically, we’re going to metaphorically punch my younger, teenage self in the mouth, over and over, until he lets go of some dangerous ideas.

On Archaeology

Half a life ago, when I was 16, my parents took me and my sister to Atapuerca. It’s an archaeological site that holds some of the oldest human fossils in Western Europe, for which it has become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Error Messages: Help Me Help You

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 08:27:25 +0000

Let’s not beat around the bush. Error messages suck.

They are cryptic, noisy, loud. They make us face the crushing reality that we’re not as smart as we thought, we’ve made a mistake, the computer knows that, and it won’t hesitate to tell you in bright red.

It will even provide you with a stack trace, because “how could you not remember that when you pass the foobar argument to build a BarBazFactory you need to check that the doingle is not null you protozooic slime? Look, it’s right there, just 20 getters deep!”