Engineering

┌──────────────┐
│   Research   │◀──────────╮
└──────┬───────┘           │
       │                 Learn
┌──────▼───────┐           │
│    Build     │◀──────────┤
└──────┬───────┘           │
       │                 Learn
┌──────▼───────┐           │
│    Scale     │───────────╯
└──────────────┘

Preface

The first versions of these pages were written as operating documentation for Valentina, my wife. She and I both started as Chemical Engineers and both ended up in “Tech.” Similar paths, same timeline, different employers, pulling each other up along the way.

Valentina is currently employed as a “Principal Data Platform Architect” at The Nature Conservancy (TNC).

She’s the engineer I’ve trusted longest to tell me when I’m wrong. We build and iterate on systems to keep each other (mostly me tbh) sharp and focused. We’re better because of that. I’m proud of her, and I’m grateful for us.

The Chemical Engineering parallels in these pages aren’t just for funsies - they’re the vocabulary we were originally trained in together. It’s how we talk about things more often than you’d expect. What you’re reading now are the versions of those docs for everyone else, and some of the parallels were kept to make a point.

What is Factoryˣ?

Four projects (so far) that build and improve each other. The tooling repo improves the product repo, and building/scaling the product exposes what the tooling needs next.

Why Factoryˣ? It’s a derivative of itself.

headquarters/

Is the nervous system. Research, design basis, contracts, architecture, automation. Everything flows through it.

óyeme/

Is something people actually use. The only traditional ‘product’ here (so far). Legitimately useful for my family and me. I hope it grows in a way that helps others without us personally footing all the bills.

blog/

Is sneaky. This looks like content, and I hope it’s enjoyed that way - but it’s actually part of the refinement loop. Every post forces me to review and explain what I built, and the output feeds straight back into the system.

employment/

Is convenient self-reflection and discovery, sitting here. Valentina and her employer already align - what she builds towards at TNC is what she’d build anyways. This will try to get me there too.

What’s Inside?

Curated research source tables, some CRON, thoughtful model tiering, observability availability everywhere - built for a whole lot of iterating. In no particular order:

• Collect data around every operation (or be able to when needed).
• Tune upstream further and further every time that data reveals issues.
• Discover and consider how you might leverage the latest tools available like it’s the job (it is).
• Collect your scar tissue like it’s gold (it is).
• Compare notes with the world.
• Iterate.

At Ocean Spray - Valentina’s and my first real engineering gig (and our last together, officially) - this loop was pointed at how much tissue damage you wanted freezing to cause inside a cranberry, so downstream extraction and re-infusion are effective → Craisins.

Chemical Engineering consulting was an abstraction of that where my teams ran the same loop for radically different projects in parallel (e.g. Truly & Nestlé Purina Pro Plan). When something went fantastic or sideways in one project → the learnings improved another.

In software we have data flowing through services. Why not run the same pattern here? Why not build it in? Shifting workloads and reliability from humans into systems has always been openly discussed in Engineering. In fact, in our experience, rarely has it not been an openly discussed goal.

We’re not building towards lights-out here. This is just another abstraction. We think good engineers treat adaptation as opportunity. This feels like that. Keeping the work net-good for humanity? That’s always been a responsibility and a battle. It feels like this part is getting harder. I hope we all continue to try.

Constraints & Tooling Change, Engineering Doesn’t

My parents say I’ve been scrappy with computers since I first met one. Only “impressive” and not “concerning” to them much later.

Eventually I listened to all the good people around me ❤️. What I was doing wasn’t productive for anyone. In getting my act together - I found thermodynamics particularly interesting at the time - and sent this energy into that.

Then the slow loop. Stamps, reviews, ten rounds of red ink before a single pipe got installed. One letter wrong on a single P&ID (Piping & Instrumentation Diagram) in a set of hundreds and a valve fails in the wrong direction. Boom - people might die.

You learn to be careful on the front end. Then careful wasn’t enough - because the contractor who told a contractor who told a contractor - details get lost. Failures were expensive. Iterations were quarters. The constraints were physics, then procurement, then construction.

Software was a homecoming, not a pivot. The loop has dropped from quarters to months, then from months to weeks. Now it’s hours. Where’s it end?

We’re exploring that with Factoryˣ .