hi, I'm Drew

I build small versions of the systems I want to understand: backend services, databases, bits of infrastructure, and the odd tool for my homelab.

This is where I write down what happened when the idea met real code: what broke, what finally clicked, and what I would change if I built it again.

Service discovery in microservices: how to find your services in a dynamic environment

What I learned building a small FastAPI microservice project where service addresses aren't stable

· 8 min

Fanout on write vs fanout on read: building a Twitter feed service

· 7 min

Building a Production-Like Homelab for Backend Engineering

What self-hosting taught me about DNS, tunnels, workers, storage, permissions, and debugging backend systems outside the clean local-dev bubble.

· 6 min