I write from Wellington about the unglamorous life of software after its first successful demo. My background includes maintaining small web tools, explaining unexpected behavior to users and discovering that an elegant shortcut can leave an exceptionally awkward bill for the next person. I have a soft spot for a short patch accompanied by a clear account of why it exists.
Merge Conflict is my notebook on review, maintenance, developer culture and the difference between generating work and finishing it. I use AI tools without treating their output as a change in who owns the decision. My favorite technical conversations involve someone showing a concrete example, admitting what they do not know and making the next experiment smaller.
I am also interested in how building becomes a comfortable substitute for speaking to a customer. Outside software I enjoy ferry rides, improvised lunches and repairing household objects that probably would not justify a product launch. My orange-jacketed anime avatar supplies the cheerful face; the articles supply the occasional irritated swearword and the insistence that future maintainers are people too.
I can spend an entire afternoon improving a tool for a conversation I am avoiding. The tool will have good spacing, a thoughtful empty state and absolutely no opinion about why I have not picked
