Jason Lee

I'm a technologist with experience in security, design, and reliability in distributed systems. This is where I experiment and archive my work and learnings.

Now

Software engineer focused on network traffic management and classification
Developing Wasy and Sitepaste in the evenings over the past year
Getting slowly into some too many hobbies that will surface in the posts below

Posts

First year of coffee

Last year, I was buying a latte or two every day. For something so routine, it started adding up. Between the cost and...

Balancing the worst choice

I went too deep into utility maxing for too long. I lost myself really, because my life became a spreadsheet and I missed...

Too many doomers

Over the past few years I’ve actually gotten more optimistic about the future of humanity. Seen how fast...

Confidence in software

One of the best signals of quality software is user patterns showing high trust. In middle school, we had this website...

Jony Ive at Stripe Sessions

A couple of days ago, Jony Ive gave a talk at Stripe Sessions. He dropped some gems, especially for designers and...

More voice assistants

In Seattle, I still have yet to hear anybody talking to an AI assistant in public. It doesn’t seem like it at least,...

Shorter and shorter thoughts

Today, Hieu Pham posted a realization that resonated with me: I noticed an alarming change within myself because of LLM...

Changing how I use this site

I really enjoy the weblogs/microblog/TIL style of sites that people publish to frequently. I already set myself up a...

Our newest computer-using users

A few weeks ago, I finished up my post on AI ethics. I talked about 2025 being the year of AI agents, and how I am...

Simple VPS hardening

It’s becoming increasingly popular to reduce abstractions in your stack. This includes a lot of people ditching all...

Questions about AI ethics: what's next?

January 2025 updates All these updates are ultimately just speculation. Especially when it comes to anything related to...

Ditching and replacing the socials

Social media was initially made to make human connection easier. Rather than telling everyone in person what you did, you...

Combatting helplessness

I’ve noticed a growing subconscious sense of helplessness in a lot of Gen Z and Gen Alpha, with myself included. My...

Reach IPv4 on an IPv6 host

When I began my personal site transition earlier this year, I decided to save some money and take on the challenge of an...

Planned out systems

As a kid in Hilo, I vaguely remember a story about some eucalyptus forest planters planting their trees much denser than...

Using the minimum complexity

A lot of my life relates to complexity. My job, hobbies, and levels of motivation are all closely tied to this idea of...

Finding my mental peace

We all have our unique idea of mental peace. I think that we know about it subconsciously and move our way towards it,...

Blog without a CMS

Ever since I started making websites, I have always wanted to think up a great way for friends and family to manage their...

Reflection on AI

Over a year ago, I wrote about my main use case for LLMs. At that point in time, the general public was finally going...

About this space

Every year since 2019, I’ve dramatically changed the design or functionality of my personal site. Usually, I make...

Making art in 2024

I think art is in a weird place right now. On one hand, it’s more accessible than ever. Anyone can go in and create...

Fix first culture

In the event of a major outage, nothing matters more than getting your system back online. When I first heard this, I did...

Helpful questions

Avoiding accidental complexity should be a top priority when helping build or solve multifaceted issues. One of the best...

Action and clarity

Thought can hinder progress, especially in over-thinkers. Instead, many times it’s better to act first and think...

Sweating the details

There is something so satisfying about iterating away flaws in your product and seeing it continually evolve. It ends up...

Functional and well designed

Being young with good eyesight, I created many sites focused on design in a way that I thought looked clean: small font...

Why I am available for hire

A few weeks ago, I decided to start Launch with Lee. So far, I have worked with a few local businesses to find ways they...

The art of teaching

Helping a student build confidence with a topic starts with creating a supportive and non-judgmental learning...

Wrong tool for the job

I love the creator community on X that stresses that it is not so much about what you use to do the job as it is about...

Building out a newsletter

Over the weekend I built a newsletter starter kit for Node apps to easily handle all of the key elements of a beautiful...

New year part four

2023 was a huge year of firsts. I tackled most of my 2022 goals and had some huge change-ups that I didn’t expect....

Url as state

Retention of state through url is a lost art, yet with most modern stacks it is not overly complex to set up. What is it?...

Constructive criticism

Although some people hate being criticized, it seems like others are up for the opportunity to use an outside...

Rhetoric is beautiful

How do you get someone to do something for you? Especially when they don’t have any specific desire or passion in...

Back in my day

I think time generally messes with me somehow. It’s hard for me to imagine that one day all of this is gonna be vintage....

LLM reliance

Something I’ve noticed recently is how over time, a lot of my Google queries have gotten much more complex. Beyond...

Finished with school for now

On May 13 I officially got my B.S. in Computer Science. This was a journey that was rewarding, frustrating, fun, and...

The decentralization problem

A few days ago, I presented to my class about the thing everyone just loves to hear about: NFTs. Specifically how things...

Listening

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Contact

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