WebGL Series, Part 3: Drawing Things
In this third installment of my 8-part series on WebGL, I explain how I finally was able to draw triangles onto the screen, based on the previous two articles that were merely concerned with setting things up. [Read more]
WebGL Series, Part 2: Setup and the OpenGL Rendering Pipeline
This is the second part of my eight-part series on WebGL. This article introduces the basic architectural design of the iris indicator and provides a primer on what WebGL is. [Read more]
A Rabbit Hole Called WebGL
Over Christmas, I made another little side project. But this time around, it turned out to be a rabbit hole of galactic extend. So read this article on my journey, as I fell down the rabbit hole of OpenGL and graphics rendering. [Read more]
Vibe Coding: The Final Form of Hyper-Individualism
A few days ago, I had to deal with the first "vibe coded" PR to my software. In this article, I reflect on this encounter, and analyze the social habitus of the "vibe coder." I conceptualize "vibe coding"—inexperienced users generating complex code via AI tools—as the final manifestation of hyper-individualism. Drawing on sociological frameworks, I argue that this practice disrupts open-source norms by producing unreviewable, high-impact PRs that ignore community standards and technical context. While motivated, their output reflects a "tragedy of the lone producer" who sacrifices meaningful engagement for isolated productivity. This trend can threaten software integrity and community health. [Read more]
Shutdown on Capitol Hill: An Afterword to my PhD Thesis
After five years, we know a little bit more about the lawmaking processes in U.S. Congress. At the same time, Congress is barely legislating anymore, because the government is currently under shutdown. What remains from U.S. democracy as we know it after nine months of Trump? An afterword to my PhD thesis. [Read more]
I think I Finally Got Monads
Sometimes, we all get hung up on fringe phenomena that are largely inconsequential for the world's pressing issues, but still satisfy some urge to understand within us. One such thing for me were monads, a weird little concept from group theory that sits at the heart of many programming jokes. I have spent years trying to understand them, and now that I finally did, I had to realize that I will probably never need them. [Read more]
PhDone
After five years of research and writing, I successfully defended my dissertation thesis on Monday. I am now officially PhDone. Time for a first reflection on the process of writing a dissertation. I also share a "Thank you" to my supervisors and all of my colleagues and peers for being part of this incredible journey. [Read more]
What is Analytical Sociology?
This might be one of the hardest articles I have ever written. But it answers a seemingly simple question: What exactly is analytical sociology? The answer, it turns out, is surprisingly hard, and this article, too, is unable to unanimously answer it. [Read more]
Between Theory and Methods
In this second reflection article on my dissertation, I talk about theory. I explore my theoretical origins, why I am no longer a theory guy, and how the PhD journey over the past five years have changed the way I approach and write theory. I reflect on the style of theory, and why it needs to differ between theoretically-heavy and methodologically-heavy papers, as both parts need to match each other. [Read more]
Five Years of Studying U.S. Congress: What Remains?
I am almost done. A few days ago, my dissertation "On the Record: Understanding a Century of Congressional Lawmaking through Speech and Vote Behavior" was published. Now it is time to sit back, and reflect. With this article, I am beginning a series of articles that will answer many questions and contextualize findings from my PhD research. [Read more]