05Transmissions
Field notes
Writing on frontend development: animation, design systems, performance, and the working life of a freelance developer in Chicago.
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The Chicago tech scene in 2026: a field guide
A working map of the Chicago market: who hires, where the hubs sit, what it pays, and why remote from the suburbs is the quiet win.
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Chicago developer salary in 2026: what the numbers actually say
BLS medians, pay by level, the coastal rent math, and what actually moves an offer, from the person deciding what to put on the table.
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Frontend developer interview questions I actually ask
The loop I run at my day job, the four questions that predict anything, why the whiteboard is gone, and the red flags on both sides of the table.
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The case for static: why your marketing site might not need a database
What JAMstack and Eleventy mean in practice, when static wins, and when it's the wrong tool.
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A technical SEO checklist for developers
The five-layer technical SEO checklist I run against every build: crawl, render, speed, semantics, and structured data, plus the tool that proves each fix.
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Freelance developer vs agency vs in-house: who to hire for what
I have been the agency developer, the in-house lead, and the freelancer since 1999, and this is who to hire for what, with the cost math kept honest.
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Hiring a freelance frontend developer in Chicago: rates, red flags, and what to ask
What I'd tell a friend before they signed a contract with anyone, including me.
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How much does a website cost in Chicago?
Real ranges by project type from the person who writes the estimates, plus what moves the number and how to buy well.
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How I built this site's hero animation with GSAP
A breakdown of the contour field, the DrawSVG elevation stagger, the ScrollTrigger parallax, and the reduced-motion fallback.
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