Blog posts

• 18F emoji for the world to have (13 April 2025)

  18F was a joyful place. It made us better at our jobs. One of joys was our enomrous emoji collection, and now it's here for the world to see.

• 18F: Why acquisitions matters (5 March 2025)

  18F spent a lot of time working on software acquisitions strategies. It wasn't by accident. While most public service should be in-sourced to government, there will always be a need to acquire services from private industry. And we ought to know how to do it.

• 18F: The necessity of public service (2 March 2025)

  Public service should be the provence of governments. You can't outsource your mission. Reagan sent us down this road and it's been a disaster. We should strive to undo that damage.

• I am a public servant (1 March 2025)

  In the dead of the night, cowards that they are, GSA leadership sent an email to all 18F staff stating that our office is abolished, we are placed on administrative leave, and we'll be fired in 60 days. But I'm a public servant, and I'm not done yet.

• Making a nice API of Amtrak's ugly API (2 November 2023)

  Amtrak doesn't make is super easy to find out where you train is, but it's not impossible. Here's how I did it, and turned their obfuscated API into an open one.