[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":116},["ShallowReactive",2],{"post-\u002Fblog\u002Fi-cook-software":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"date":102,"description":103,"draft":104,"extension":105,"meta":106,"navigation":107,"path":108,"readingTime":109,"seo":110,"stem":111,"tags":112,"__hash__":115},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fi-cook-software.md","I cook software",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":94},"minimark",[9,13,21,26,29,52,55,59,62,68,71,75,78,81,85,88,91],[10,11,12],"p",{},"I have a confession: I do not really think of myself as a programmer. I think of myself as a cook.",[10,14,15,16,20],{},"A cook gets a raw idea from someone — a craving, a half-sentence, ",[17,18,19],"em",{},"\"could we make it do the thing?\""," — and turns it into something you can put on a table. Programming is just the knife work.",[22,23,25],"h2",{"id":24},"mise-en-place","Mise en place",[10,27,28],{},"Before a single line of code, I like to line up the ingredients:",[30,31,32,40,46],"ul",{},[33,34,35,39],"li",{},[36,37,38],"strong",{},"The idea."," What are we actually making? Say the dish out loud.",[33,41,42,45],{},[36,43,44],{},"The constraints."," Time, budget, team, and the one weird thing that must work.",[33,47,48,51],{},[36,49,50],{},"The taste test."," How will we know it is good? Write it down before you are hungry.",[10,53,54],{},"Skipping this step is how you end up cooking a five-course meal for a party of one.",[22,56,58],{"id":57},"taste-as-you-go","Taste as you go",[10,60,61],{},"You would not cook a curry by throwing everything in and hoping. You taste, you adjust, you taste again. Software is the same:",[63,64,65],"blockquote",{},[10,66,67],{},"Ship small, look at it, fix it, ship it again.",[10,69,70],{},"Small batches are not a compromise. They are how you avoid serving something nobody ordered.",[22,72,74],{"id":73},"never-serve-what-you-would-not-eat","Never serve what you would not eat",[10,76,77],{},"My rule is simple: if I would not use it, I do not ship it. That single question catches more bad product decisions than any planning meeting ever has.",[10,79,80],{},"It is also how I ended up caring so much about the small stuff — the loading state, the empty state, the error nobody thought to write.",[22,82,84],{"id":83},"and-the-bugs","And the bugs",[10,86,87],{},"Every kitchen has pests. In software they are called bugs, and I have a very personal relationship with them: I hunt them, I squash them, and occasionally — you saw the website — I eat them.",[10,89,90],{},"Good software is less about never making a mess and more about cleaning it up fast, with a smile, before anyone notices.",[10,92,93],{},"Now go cook something.",{"title":95,"searchDepth":96,"depth":96,"links":97},"",2,[98,99,100,101],{"id":24,"depth":96,"text":25},{"id":57,"depth":96,"text":58},{"id":73,"depth":96,"text":74},{"id":83,"depth":96,"text":84},"2026-08-28","Why I think of building products as cooking — mise en place, tasting as you go, and never serving something you would not eat yourself.",false,"md",{},true,"\u002Fblog\u002Fi-cook-software","4 min read",{"title":5,"description":103},"blog\u002Fi-cook-software",[113,114],"craft","mindset","LWYRAwTy1loTPKEXaqVdJeuUkt7vybWQw-i83xNVHKE",1789383482962]