Journal

Notes on provable careers.

Short, honest pieces on GC Score, verified skills, and what earned XP is actually for.

Vanilla

AI did not replace career coaching, it made the boring parts faster

The useful version of AI career guidance is not a chatbot that tells you what to do. It is one that removes the busywork so a human decision is easier to make.

Aug 23, 2026 · 1 min read

XP & Badges

The credential-inflation problem, and what actually fixes it

Digital badges and micro-credentials multiplied fast over the last few years. Most of them now carry less signal than they did five years ago, for a predictable reason.

Aug 19, 2026 · 2 min read

Learning

The portfolio projects that actually get noticed (and the ones that do not)

A to-do app and a weather app are the two most common portfolio projects, and the two least likely to make a reviewer stop scrolling. Here is what changes that.

Aug 15, 2026 · 1 min read

Learning

What AI pair programming actually changed for junior developers

The debate over whether AI coding tools help or hurt junior engineers usually skips the part that matters: it depends entirely on what they are used for.

Aug 11, 2026 · 1 min read

Careers

The first 90 days in a new role, without the consulting-speak

Most 90-day-plan advice is written for incoming executives. Here is a version that works for an individual contributor starting a new job.

Aug 6, 2026 · 1 min read

Careers

What a wave of tech layoffs taught a generation about reskilling

Large layoffs are a bad way to learn a lesson. But the ones over the past few years left a fairly consistent pattern in how people recovered, and it was not the one most advice articles predicted.

Aug 1, 2026 · 1 min read

Careers

The quiet rise of skills-based hiring

Degree requirements are quietly disappearing from job postings across a growing list of large employers. What is replacing them is messier, but arguably more honest.

Jul 27, 2026 · 1 min read

GC Score

Why earned XP beats a resume line

A resume is a snapshot you wrote once. XP is a record of what actually happened, updated every time it does.

Jul 16, 2026 · 1 min read