Hey there! 👋

I'm Joshua, a full-stack software engineer passionate about education technology and machine learning. I love building products that help people learn and grow, and I write about code, learning, and the intersection of technology and education.

Check out my latest posts below, or learn more about me .

Recent Posts

• Next.js Standalone Mode Swallows Your .env.production on AWS Amplify

  26 Mar, 2026

  When deploying Next.js with output: 'standalone' on AWS Amplify, server-side environment variables from .env.production aren't available at runtime — even though the AWS docs say they should be.

• AWS Amplify Sandbox Silently Fails to Hotswap Lambda Code

  22 Mar, 2026

  The Amplify Gen 2 sandbox can silently fail to hotswap Lambda code. Your function keeps running stale code with no error — and cold starts don't help because they recycle the old bundle, not your latest source.

• AI Providers Reject minItems/maxItems — And Each SDK Handles It Differently

  22 Mar, 2026

  Gemini AND Anthropic both reject minItems/maxItems in JSON Schema structured output. The AI SDK's Google provider silently strips them; the Anthropic provider doesn't. The fix: never put array constraints in schemas sent to any provider.

• Gifts vs Transactions

  4 Jan, 2020

  A post about the difference between gifts and transactions, and how expectations can ruin the magic of gift-giving.