About

This practice was built on failure.

Fourteen years ago, I set out with a simple goal: to learn how to build my own software.

That path started in isolation, then moved into client work, completing freelance projects across companies of all sizes. Over time, a pattern emerged: software was being built, but rarely cared for long-term.

At the same time, I was trying to build something of my own—tools, systems, ideas about how software should be written and distributed. Some of it worked. Most of it didn’t, at least not in the way I expected.

What did hold was the foundation: clear thinking, legible systems, and the ability to explain and teach. That led to writing, then mentoring, then working directly with developers trying to make sense of increasingly complex environments.

Over time, a tension became obvious.

The industry was moving toward more automation, more abstraction, more distance from the underlying systems. But the failures I kept seeing weren’t technical in nature—they were operational. The root cause wasn't the code, but the absence of clear ownership.

That realization forced a reset.

What was missing was a way of working where systems don’t quietly degrade—where problems are surfaced immediately and dealt with by a clear, well-defined owner. Not swept under the rug or silently made someone else’s problem.

In manufacturing, this idea is formalized as jidoka, from the Toyota Production System: "automation with a human touch." Systems that stop when problems surface so they can be investigated and fixed in real time by the person responsible.

Lattice is an extension of that idea.

A practice built around long-term responsibility for production systems. Less concerned with the technology itself, and more with how those systems perform over time—how they behave, how they fail, and whether they can be trusted to operate reliably.

Done properly, the software your operation depends on becomes an operational asset, not a liability.

A more detailed account of the work behind this practice is available here.