The archive · 12 issues published

The Accidental CTO Chronicles.

Real startup stories. Comic strips. Technical lessons. Battle-tested advice — filed issue by issue.

Pinned issue#001 7 min· 18 Jul 2026

The Friday Deploy

A three-line config change, a long weekend, and the pager that would not stop. How one 'tiny' release ate an entire company holiday.

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12 issues

Issue #001

Production Horror Stories 7 min· 18 Jul 2026

The Friday Deploy

A three-line config change, a long weekend, and the pager that would not stop. How one 'tiny' release ate an entire company holiday.

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Issue #002

Project Rescue 9 min· 4 Jul 2026

The Rewrite That Almost Was

The team wanted eighteen months and a clean slate. The runway said nine. Here's the third option nobody had costed.

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Issue #003

Origin Stories 6 min· 20 Jun 2026

How I Became a CTO By Accident

I was the only person in the room who knew what DNS was. Twenty minutes later I had a title and a very long weekend ahead.

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Issue #004

Scope Creep 5 min· 6 Jun 2026

Just One More Small Feature

Four words that have delayed more launches than every outage in this archive combined. A field guide to saying no politely.

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Issue #005

Production Horror Stories 8 min· 23 May 2026

The Database Nobody Owned

Six services wrote to it. Nobody could name its schema owner. Then the disk hit 98% on a Sunday morning.

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Issue #006

Developer Diaries 5 min· 9 May 2026

The Standup That Ate Tuesday

Eleven people, forty-five minutes, zero decisions. A short study in meetings that exist because they always have.

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Issue #001 · Production Horror Stories

The Friday Deploy

Issue #002 · Project Rescue

The Rewrite That Almost Was

Issue #003 · Origin Stories

How I Became a CTO By Accident

Issue #004 · Scope Creep

Just One More Small Feature

Issue #005 · Production Horror Stories

The Database Nobody Owned

Issue #006 · Developer Diaries

The Standup That Ate Tuesday

Issue #007 · Coffee Break

Coffee and Technical Debt

Issue #008 · Founder Files

The Founder Who Could Read Code