#3 — July 2025

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\n As of this month, petemillspaugh.com{\" \"}\n is no longer a space for only web dev and adjacent topics. I decided to open it up to all of my writing and\n projects. I’d originally planned to create a separate blog for such things, but an eventual merge felt\n inevitable. You can find links to dozens of new, varied notes and essays down below.\n

This month also marks a new, energizing career direction for me.

\n Leaving Membrane\n

\n I decided to leave Membrane to write a book. More on the book in a moment.\n

\n I joined Membrane{\" \"}\n in June of last year. It was a good year! Much of what I wrote about in{\" \"}\n My next, next, next job{\" \"}\n came true, namely learning a lot from a supportive, engaged team with a shared love for programming.\n

\n I had the chance to learn a{\" \"}\n \n bit\n {\" \"}\n of Rust{\" \"}\n working on the Membrane IDE and backend. I enjoyed learning Rust and making my first real code contributions in\n a programming language other than JavaScript. I also learned that what I really crave and love is the Web\n platform, i.e. investing fully in JS, HTML, CSS, and Web APIs, which I plan to do more of.\n

\n I met many smart people through user interviews and candidate interviews when we were hiring. I got to make some\n neat Membrane programs for dogfooding and demos. I learned a lot about UX while iterating on our onboarding,\n documentation, and website. I kept up our weekly(ish) changelog and wrote a handful of blog posts and recorded\n tutorial videos, like{\" \"}\n \n Testing email verification\n ,{\" \"}\n \n Stripe subscriptions\n ,{\" \"}\n \n Slack signup alerts\n , Hono API sans db,{\" \"}\n Public roadmap,{\" \"}\n \n Automating changelogs\n ,{\" \"}\n \n GitHub issue watcher\n {\" \"}\n and{\" \"}\n \n PostgreSQL admin dashboard\n .\n

\n It was a worthwhile year, and it wasn’t easy leaving a team that I really liked spending time with. If you’re\n interested in internal tools, Rust, or graph-based UIs, give Membrane a try and tell{\" \"}\n Juan what you think.\n

\n A book!\n

\n I am writing a book about Internet domains: dot com et al. The book has its own home on the Web at{\" \"}\n dotcom.press. It will cover the history, geopolitics, economics, and artistry\n of domains.\n

\n My why for writing splits roughly into four whys:\n

I love to write, more so over time
I’m fascinated by domain names
I’m curious about the creative process of self-publishing
I’m eager to meet Internet people and hear their domain stories

\n This is not some lifelong dream realized—it snuck up on me over a couple months until I was too excited not to\n do it. Back on April 8, I went to an event on a whim at the wonderful{\" \"}\n Mercantile Library for Jane Friedman’s book,{\" \"}\n \n The Business of Being a Writer\n . Hundreds of published and aspiring authors (which did not include me at the time) were in the audience.\n Jane’s talk was fascinating, covering topics like the staying power of print, traditional publishing deals\n versus self-publishing, and building your platform in walled gardens like Twitter and Substack versus your own\n website/newsletter. After the event I started reading my freshly signed copy of Jane’s book, sometimes applying\n her lessons to my own experience as a blogger, but mostly reading out of detached curiosity.{\" \"}\n This is super interesting, but I’m not going to write a book. What would I even write about?{\" \"}\n That is, until it clicked. Domains!\n

\n Domains is the subject I kept coming back to. I’ve written a few wandering, wondering notes in my garden:{\" \"}\n dot com et al (where I borrowed the working title of the book),{\" \"}\n Silly TLDs, and{\" \"}\n Serious TLDs. I own nearly two dozen domains, many of which were gifts to friends\n and family. I want everyone to have their own corner of the Internet, and that starts with a domain. I’m\n interested in topics like how registrars work, creating new gTLDs, geopolitic risk around ccTLDs, customer trust\n w/r/t unusual TLDs, investing in domains, pricing domains, legal battles, and branding centered around a domain\n name. The book won’t be technical, but I anticipate that it will naturally appeal more to programmers and other\n Web-interested people.\n

\n I’m also quite excited for what a book entails outside of the writing itself. The barrier to self-publishing is\n low these days, and I see it as a deeply creative process. There may even be a timeline where I extend my newly\n established publishing company,{\" \"}\n Dot Com Press, LLC, to publish books for others. I plan to build interactive\n elements on the book’s website and publish across many formats: the expected ones like print, ebook, and\n audiobook, but also serialized as a podcast and email newsletter with one chapter per week.\n

\n Probably the most fun I’ll have along the way will be interviewing people. Pretty much anyone who’s worked\n around the Web has some story to tell or article to share about a domain. On that note,{\" \"}\n reply to this email!{\" \"}\n Interviews can be as informal as you’d like, from casually brainstorming to recording a story that ends up as\n its own book chapter.\n

\n This isn’t a transition away from web development, either. I want to code more, if anything. I don’t know if\n I’ll write another book after this, but I do expect to keep coding as my Main Thing, and that excites me.\n

\n What I’m reading\n

\n I’ve read some great books in 2025 (and some just-ok ones). For each I’ve included a Bookshop.org affiliate\n link, a rating, who might like it, and notes if I wrote any. Many of these can be found on my brand new{\" \"}\n bookshelf.\n

\n \n The Business of Being a Writer by Jane Friedman\n : 5/5. For writers, bloggers, and anyone curious about publishing.{\" \"}\n My notes.\n
\n \n The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron\n : 5/5. For (aspiring) artists. My notes.\n
\n \n The Creative Act by Rick Rubin\n : 5/5. For creatives, artists. My notes.\n
\n \n Born to Run by Christopher McDougall\n : 5/5. For runners. My notes.\n
\n \n How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger\n : 4/5. For the vegan-interested. My notes.\n
\n \n Eat & Run by Scott Jurek\n : 3/5. For runners and the vegan-interested. My notes.\n
\n \n North by Scott Jurek\n : 3/5. For runners and (AT) hikers. My notes.\n
\n \n Kitchen Confidential\n : 2/5. For foodies. My notes.\n
\n \n Breath\n : 2/5. For anyone, I guess. My notes.\n
\n \n Word By Word by Kory Stamper\n : 5/5. For word nerds. If you like Authority and American Usage{\" \"}\n by David Foster Wallace, I bet you’ll like this. Whimsically written, and full of new words (unsurprisingly).\n
\n \n Where You’ll Find Me by Ty Gagne\n : 5/5. For hikers, skiers, White Mountaineers. I also recommend{\" \"}\n \n The Last Traverse\n , which I listened to.\n
\n \n Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver\n : 5/5. For Dickens readers. Sad but well done, like many of my favorite books and movies.\n
\n \n Rise of the Ultra Runners by Adharanand Finn\n : 4/5. For runners. An intro and who’s who of ultra running, and a natural follow-up to{\" \"}\n Born to Run and Scott Jurek’s books.\n
\n \n Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus\n : 3/5. For (allies of) women in STEM. I liked the premise, story, and messaging, but I wasn’t as much a\n fan of the prose.\n
\n \n My Brilliant Friend\n : 3/5. For fiction readers. I read the translation, and I think it was both well written and had a good\n narrative, yet for whatever reason it wasn’t the right book at the right time for me.\n
\n \n Marathon\n : 2/5. For marathoners. A fairly dry and somewhat outdated practical guide, but still worthwhile if you’re\n into marathon running.\n

\n \n I just signed up as a Bookshop.org affiliate, which means I earn a 10% commission on profit if you buy one.\n {\" \"}\n I expect to earn no more than a burrito’s worth every few months, but regardless of my affiliation I think\n Bookshop.org is a terrific Amazon alternative and way to support independent book stores.\n

\n What I’m writing\n

\n Outside of books I’m reading and the book I’m writing, I’ve planted notes here and there in my garden.\n Embarrassingly, it’s been a full year since I’ve sent this “monthly-ish” clippings{\" \"}\n newsletter, but I suppose that’s the nature of gardening. So I’ll end this already-long clipping with an\n incomplete list of things I wrote since last June:\n

\n A malleable garden\n
\n I’ve been to 37 US states\n
\n \n What should I know about JavaScript engines and runtimes?\n \n
\n Reading begets reading\n
\n Reading, like running\n
\n On weather\n
\n \n When you’re already in a bad mood\n \n
\n Yang MATH is good but impossible\n
\n Present you\n
\n Orderly maximalist design\n
\n Number two, unplugged\n
\n \n Trading ambition for presence\n \n
\n On David Foster Wallace\n
\n \n Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson\n \n
\n \n Your mileage may vary: Training for a marathon on a vegan diet\n \n
\n \n The Flying Pig Marathon 2025: race notes\n \n
\n Words & shwords\n
\n Record broken; Broken record\n

\n Thanks for reading. If you have any domain tales or resources to share,{\" \"}\n reach out.\n

If you tried to unsubscribe and are still getting emails, send me a note at pete@petemillspaugh.com (no hard feelings).

\n A lot has happened since{\" \"}\n January. In no particular order...\n

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Joining Membrane

\n Earlier this year I started exploring{\" \"}\n Membrane, building small programs like the{\" \"}\n feedback form in my garden and a{\" \"}\n solar eclipse countdown. Then a couple\n months later I joined Membrane!\n

\n I ended up here thanks in no small part to{\" \"}\n writing in public{\" \"}\n about what I’m looking for in my next, next-next, and next-next-\n next\n {\" \"}\n jobs. +1 point for blogging.\n

\n The episode with Juan{\" \"}\n on devtools.fm is where I first heard about Membrane—worth a listen if you’re interested in the architecture\n (persisted QuickJS runtime, Rust+WASM, etc). Juan worked on it as a personal project for several years before\n pairing up with Justin as co-founders and transitioning from project to product{\" \"}\n (startup). Our aim is to create a really nice experience writing internal tools with TypeScript.\n

\n I plan to work in public on Membrane with lots of tweets and blog posts. If you’re interested in trying it out,\n I’d love to pair and get your feedback—reply to this email (or DM me on Twitter), and we can set up some time.\n

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Learning Rust

\n I started{\" \"}\n learning Rust, which I was already interested in and now\n have solid motivation to act on. I plan to{\" \"}\n \n accidentally learn some Computer Science\n {\" \"}\n along the way.\n

\n I’m also starting to dig into WASM, which we’re using for the Membrane Web IDE (egui Rust code compiles to\n WASM).\n

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Book club, meetup, conference

Future of Coding book club

\n A handful of us started a book club{\" \"}\n in the Future of Coding community. The first book we read was A Small Matter of Programming{\" \"}\n by Bonnie Nardi. I wrote down some{\" \"}\n things I found interesting in the book.\n

\n Initial interest in the book club was good, but to sustain it over time we’ll need new member energy—so come\n join! Or just join the FoC Slack community because all sorts of interesting conversations happen in there.\n

Browsertech NYC in March

\n I also went to and wrote about{\" \"}\n a Browsertech meetup in NYC in March. The browsertech{\" \"}\n newsletter and podcast have become favorites of mine. I hope I can make it to the next NYC edition.\n

ai.engineer World’s Fair

\n Last week I was at the ai.engineer{\" \"}\n World’s Fair in SF. I had the ticket leftover from a generous education budget at my previous job, and I was\n mostly interested in learning about agents.\n

\n To that end, there were interesting talks and workshops from{\" \"}\n Lance Martin,{\" \"}\n Eno Reyes,{\" \"}\n Morgante Pell, and plenty of others. I also\n {\" \"}\n started prototyping{\" \"}\n a simple Membrane agent. Membrane already has a few core building blocks for agents—built-in memory,\n standardized connection to tools (APIs, timers), and really good observability—so that should be a fun area for\n us to continue exploring.\n

\n There were many other engaging talks, like Justine Tunney and Stephen Hood from Mozilla speaking about{\" \"}\n llamafile, which just works{\" \"}\n on almost any hardware completely locally (like, running llama3-8b on my M1 Macbook on-an-airplane locally).\n They also announced funding for{\" \"}\n sqlite-vec, which\n will run vector search on a SQLite db (incl. in WASM).\n

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Working outside a tech hub

\n I also moved from Brooklyn to Cincinnati for my partner’s work earlier this year. I hadn’t been to Ohio before\n moving here, but Cincy is a legitimately Cool Place. The unsure looks I got at the conference in San Francisco\n last week after answering the “where are you coming from” question reminded me of this DFW quotation from{\" \"}\n Getting Away from Already Pretty Much Being Away from It All:\n

\n \n I’m fresh in from the East Coast to go to the Illinois State Fair for a swanky East-Coast magazine. Why\n exactly a swanky East-Coast magazine is interested in the Illinois State Fair remains unclear to me. I suspect\n that every so often editors at these magazines slap their foreheads and remember that about 90% of the United\n States lies between the Coasts and figure they’ll engage somebody to do pith-helmeted anthropological\n reporting on something rural and heartlandish.\n \n

\n So I’m starting to accrue perspective on working in software while living outside a tech hub. There aren’t\n weekly meetups like you have in NYC and SF, but there are engineers around if you look closely! And you can\n start your own meetups (something I’d like to do soon). I’ll also fly into NYC every couple months to go to a\n meetup and catch up with friends. Plus, I’m just leaning more into making connections online (e.g. FoC book\n club). I’ll also try to attend at least a couple conferences per year.\n

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Thanks for reading.

- Pete

\n Leaving Membrane\n

\n A book!\n

\n What I’m reading\n

\n What I’m writing\n

#3 — July 2025

\n Leaving Membrane\n

\n A book!\n

\n What I’m reading\n

\n What I’m writing\n

You’re all set!

Sign up for clippings from Pete's garden (petemillspaugh.com)

Joining Membrane

Learning Rust

Book club, meetup, conference

Future of Coding book club

Browsertech NYC in March

ai.engineer World’s Fair

Working outside a tech hub

#1 — January 2024

Planting my digital garden

January

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