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Brad Stancel

Writing

Notes from the work: what I expected, what actually happened, and what I'd tell the next person.

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  1. Field notes, 4 min read

    Why I built a reStructuredText preview plugin for JetBrains IDEs

    I document everything in reStructuredText and Sphinx. When JetBrains IDEs couldn't preview it without Python, I built a free, open-source plugin.


  2. Business systems, 5 min read

    “Working” is a claim that needs evidence

    Exit code 0, a green checkmark, or an AI agent saying “done” is evidence, not proof. How I check that backups, deploys, and AI-built software work.


  3. AI lab, 5 min read

    Why the same AI model does better work in one coding harness than another

    Model quality and agent quality are different things. What testing one model across coding harnesses taught me, and what it means for business teams.


  4. Home systems, 5 min read

    What my LiFePO4 home battery bank taught me about trusting dashboards

    My solar battery bank showed 99% charge at 50–70%, needed an undocumented setup step, and hid a costly heat-strip fault. Measure; don’t trust the app.


  5. AI lab, 5 min read

    Building NCCL from source to fix a DGX Spark deadlock

    My two-node DGX Spark cluster deadlocked on the second request. Five fixes failed. A native sm_121 NCCL build fixed it and made decoding 2.4x faster.