01Professional
The reader lives faster than life, the writer lives slower.
James Richardson · Vectors 3.0Work
I am a writer, developer, and GTM engineer based in Nairobi, Kenya. By day I build internal tools and navigate the unglamorous machinery of growth; by night I write, sketch watercolors, and tend this digital garden. Currently I am deep in the art of “internalling” — showing people how to vibecode their own internal tools from scratch and finally break free from endless SaaS subscriptions. ¹
I care about tools that outlast their creators, writing that earns its length, and software that respects the person using it. I have worked for, published with, or consulted for a handful of studios and publications that I am happy to name by email. I will almost always take a smaller fee to keep republishing rights on this site.
To make ends meet, I have a Substack, take on occasional consulting work in GTM and analytics engineering, and live within my means. The garden you are reading is a public record of thinking-in-progress — not a portfolio, though it sometimes functions as one.
Websites
"I don't speak," Bijaz said. "I operate a machine called language. It creaks and groans, but is mine own."
Frank Herbert · Dune MessiahAccounts that are actually mine — anything else claiming to be me is not:
- GitHub — code, tools, this site’s source
- LinkedIn — professional record
- Twitter / X — @byDenisM — unfiltered thinking
- Substack — monthly newsletter, irregular cadence
- Watercolor sketches — a small, ongoing visual practice
- Highlights — what I’ve read, watched, or listened to this week
Uses This
Software
I write and think in Neovim against a plain Hugo tree that rebuilds this site on every save. Notes live in an Obsidian vault, synced via git. Design work happens in Figma for anything shared, and a Muji B5 notebook for anything private. ²
- Editor
- Neovim · minimal config · dotfiles on GitHub
- Site
- Hugo + Charter & Cooper Hewitt · hosted on Vercel
- Writing
- Markdown in plain files · iA Writer on mobile
- Design
- Figma (shared work) · pencil + notebook (private)
- Notes
- Obsidian vault · synced via git · nothing proprietary
- Reading
- reMarkable 2 for papers · paper books for everything else
- Fastmail · batched replies once a day
- GTM / Data
- dbt · BigQuery · Segment · custom dashboards
Hardware
A MacBook Pro for travel, a home Linux desktop for anything RAM-hungry, a second monitor in portrait orientation for long-form reading, a mechanical keyboard, a trackball, and a pair of battered Sony WH-1000XM4s that have lived through two continents and one very long flight to Kathmandu.
