Experience
Principal Software Engineer at Simple Thread, 2020 – present
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Interconnection and hosting capacityGrid data models and testing for software that helps utilities study where new generation and load can connect.
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Generator performance monitoringHelped turn a national lab research tool into a commercial product.
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Outage planningModernized a utility's outage planning software and worked with its engineers on modern development practices.
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Study performanceMade long-running utility studies much faster with distributed computing.
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Developer at OccasionGenius, 2019 – 2020Built web scrapers at an early-stage startup.
Skills
Domain and engineering
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Power systemsSiemens PSS/E, PowerGEM TARA, CIM (IEC 61970/61968), interconnection studies, hosting capacity, outage planning, PMU-based generator monitoring
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EngineeringPython, Rust, Ruby on Rails, Django, Vue, React, PostgreSQL, AWS, distributed computing, API design, Claude Code (Certified Architect)
How I work
What I believe about building software
- Less is usually more
- Good design feels obvious in hindsight
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Docs should be written by peopleGenerated docs bloat, drift, and bury what matters. Someone should own every claim.
Writing
Technology, the grid, and life. Favorites marked with an asterisk.
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Outdated take! Follow-up coming soon.
Talks
Conferences and podcasts
- 2025Transmission Hosting Capacity Analysis and Beyond at Dominion Energy (DistribuTECH)
Reading
Some favorites, and the full list in roughly the order I read them
- Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
- The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov
- Orthodoxy, GK Chesterton
- A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles
- The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton
Show all books
- The Ranger's Apprentice Series, John Flanagan
- The Divide, Elizabeth Kay
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, JK Rowling
- Graceling, Kristin Cashore
- Eragon, Christopher Paolini
- The Warrior Heir, Cinda Williams Chima
- The Wizard Heir, Cinda Williams Chima
- Hatchet, Gary Paulson
- Peak, Roland Smith
- Everlost, Neal Shusterman
- Anthem, Ayn Rand
- Animal Farm, George Orwell
- The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
- Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare
- Antigone, Sophocles
- The Narnia Series, CS Lewis
- Rappaccini's Daughter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
- The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
- Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
- Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton
- All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
- Like Water for Chocolate, Laura Esquivel
- The Stranger, Albert Camus
- The Assault, Harry Mulisch
- Perfume, Patrick Suskind
- Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
- The Piano Lesson, August Wilson
- The Lion and the Jewel, Wole Soyinka
- The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
- The Wise Man's Fear, Patrick Rothfuss
- Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks
- The Martian, Andy Weir
- Welcome to Nightvale, Joseph Fink
- The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
- Evolution, Carl Bergstrom
- Hillbilly Elegy, JD Vance
- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer
- The Three-Body Problem, Liu Cixin
- A Small Porch, Wendell Berry
- The Bible, multiple authors
- The Emerald Mile, Kevin Fedarko
- Mere Christianity, CS Lewis
- Infinite Reality: The Hidden Blueprint of Our Virtual Lives, Jim Blascovich
- Chaos: Making a New Science, James Gleick
- There's This River... Grand Canyon Boatman Stories, Christa Sadler
- Raging River, Lonely Trail Tales Told by the Campfire's Glow, Vaughn Short
- Dune, Frank Herbert
- A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles *
- The Unbroken Thread, Sohrab Ahmari *
- SQL Cookbook: Query Solutions and Techniques for Database Developers, Anthony Molinaro
- Thoughts for Young Men, JC Ryle
- Spurgeon's Sermons Vol 1, Charles Spurgeon
- East of Eden, John Steinbeck
- On the Road, Jack Kerouac
- A Timbered Choir, Wendell Berry *
- The Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis *
- Reforesting Faith, Matthew Sleeth
- Gilead, Marilynne Robinson *
- Dawn of the New Everything, Jaron Lanier *
- Magic Kingdom for Sale -- Sold!, Terry Brooks
- Peopleware, Timothy Lister and Tom DeMarco
- Polished Ruby Programming, Jeremy Evans
- God, Technology, and the Christian Life, Tony Reinke *
- The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate, John H Walton
- Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai, Matti Friedman
- The Fifth Season, NK Jemisin
- The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton *
- The Confessions, Augustine of Hippo *
- End of the Affair, Graham Greene *
- Just Enough Research, Erika Hall
- Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects, Bertrand Russell *
- Absalom, Absalom!, William Faulkner
- The Complete Stories, Flannery O'Connor
- Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett *
- Orthodoxy, GK Chesterton *
- The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
- Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy *
- The Master and Margarita, Mikhail Bulgakov *
- A Ballet of Lepers, Leonard Cohen
- How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill
- Moby-Dick, Herman Melville