Engineer and essayist
Julian Hale
Julian Hale writes about autonomous agents and the quieter work of making software. He spent a decade on developer tools, then three years on agent systems at a lab that no longer uses that name.
Portland, Oregon · julian@hale.blog
Why this site
Field Notes is a place to think in public at the speed of a paragraph, not a feed. Most of the pieces begin as letters I write to myself when a system will not yield — especially the new loops we keep calling agents.
The site is a static demonstration. You can sign in and “publish” an essay; it will live in this browser and nowhere else. That is on purpose. I like products that admit what they are.
If you want the essays about agents, start with The Agent Is a Loop, Not a Person. If you want the rest of the temperament, try A Small Defense of Boring Software.
Now
- Writing a series on agent evaluation that will probably become a small book, or a long PDF.
- Teaching a monthly studio on reading traces aloud — engineers, designers, and one very patient lawyer.
- Restoring a 1978 Olympia typewriter I do not need and will not stop talking about.
Selected work
2025
Staff engineer, agent systems
Northwater Lab
Closed the loop on tool receipts and overnight evals. The lab later changed names. The evals did not.
2021–2024
Developer tools
Harbor
Worked on review, search, and the unglamorous work of making diffs less cruel.
2016–2021
Product engineer
Several quieter companies
Payments, docs, a CMS that should have stayed a repository.
Write back
Mail is welcome, even though this inbox is imaginary. The subscribe box below will pretend to succeed. For a real conversation, imagine you walked up after a talk.