https://www.thedjpetersen.com/writing/ Essays, engineering notes, and reusable prompts from DJ Petersen. en-us https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/counting-food-bank-stockhttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/counting-food-bank-stock AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/market-terminal-stages-zero-and-one/https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/market-terminal-stages-zero-and-one/ AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Thu, 27 Aug 2026 19:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/the-cmd-k-input-was-finehttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/the-cmd-k-input-was-fine AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/mini-pc-cluster-bom-that-ages-wellhttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/mini-pc-cluster-bom-that-ages-well AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Sat, 22 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/seattle-mini-pc-cluster-bill-of-materialshttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/seattle-mini-pc-cluster-bill-of-materials AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Wed, 12 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/home-hosted-mini-pc-clusterhttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/home-hosted-mini-pc-cluster AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Fri, 19 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/when-virtualization-lieshttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/when-virtualization-lies AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/right-sizing-idle-kubernetes-platformhttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/right-sizing-idle-kubernetes-platform AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Thu, 04 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/private-links-are-not-authhttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/private-links-are-not-auth AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Tue, 02 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/one-weekend-event-sitehttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/one-weekend-event-site AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Sat, 30 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/beyond-cloud-authhttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/beyond-cloud-auth AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Sun, 26 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/maintainable-code-two-things/https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/maintainable-code-two-things/ Wise words from the best systems engineer I've worked with. Reduce the layers a reader has to trace and the state they have to hold in their head. Applies to every codebase. Always. Prompt Sun, 19 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/prototype-interview-kickoff/https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/prototype-interview-kickoff/ Before writing a line of code, have the AI interview you about your vision. 50 rapid-fire questions extract design decisions and judgment you didn't know you had — then the model can one-shot a working prototype roughly aligned with the picture in your head. Prompt Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/prototype-critique/https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/prototype-critique/ After you've built something, have the AI tear it apart — not as a code reviewer, but as a product thinker. What assumption is each screen testing? Where does the vision leak? High fidelity can mask the absence of shared understanding. Prompt Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/prototype-to-production/https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/prototype-to-production/ The prototype works and the concept is validated — now harden it for production. This prompt walks through the unglamorous work of turning a vibe-coded draft into code you'd actually ship. Prompt Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/divergent-directions/https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/divergent-directions/ When you're stuck on what to build or how to approach a problem, ask for five wildly different directions — not variations on a theme. Forces the model out of its clustering tendency and into genuinely divergent territory. Prompt Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/careful-coders-manifesto/https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/careful-coders-manifesto/ Operating principles for agentic code intelligence — measure twice, cut once. Prompt Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/code-smells-first-principles/https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/code-smells-first-principles/ Why code smells exist, grounded in cognitive science and information theory. Prompt Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/code-quality-auditor/https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/code-quality-auditor/ Structured 3-phase audit prompt for identifying and eliminating quality-lowering patterns. Prompt Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/meeting-transcription/https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/meeting-transcription/ Transform meeting transcriptions into publication-quality documentation with decisions, action items, and reasoning. Prompt Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/edge-cases-after-plan/https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/edge-cases-after-plan/ After plan mode, force the model to audit its own blind spots. It's silly that it works, but it does — asking the model to reflect on what it missed surfaces real gaps. Prompt Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/simpler-and-dumber/https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/simpler-and-dumber/ Push back on over-engineering by asking for the dumbest possible solution that still achieves the goal. Models tend toward complexity — this resets the bar. Prompt Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/capitalization-for-emphasis/https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/prompts/capitalization-for-emphasis/ Does capitalizing words for emphasis actually work, or is it placebo? Consensus leans toward: it works. CAPITALIZED words signal priority and weight to the model. Prompt Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/own-infrastructure-part-1https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/own-infrastructure-part-1 AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Sun, 13 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/linear-themehttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/linear-theme AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/so-closehttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/so-close AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Wed, 09 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/html-linterhttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/html-linter AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/animated-timelinehttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/animated-timeline AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Fri, 20 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/drawerhttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/drawer AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Sat, 14 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/theme-togglehttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/theme-toggle AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Fri, 13 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/static-sitehttps://www.thedjpetersen.com/llm-thoughts/static-site AI-assisted essay by DJ Petersen. AI-assisted essay Thu, 23 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT