I like creating software solutions to solve problems. I am also a speaker, podcaster, and author on technology. I love htmx, server-side web dev, data, Web APIs, baseball and bourbon. .NET/Web Dev MVP
All of my posts are created using recycled electrons
| Website/Blog | https://woodruff.dev |
| GitHub | https://github.com/cwoodruff |
| https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriswoodruff/ |
River City AI & Dev (Grand Rapids, MI) is looking for speakers and sponsors!
Speak: AI tools, agents, dev workflows, or any tech topic you're excited about. All formats welcome.
Sponsor: support the community and get in front of West Michigan developers.
Meets every 3rd Wednesday • http://rivercity-ai.dev
Nobody designed the system. It accreted, one reasonable decision at a time.
A cache for performance. A config service for flexibility. A second API gateway because migration kept getting pushed.
112 boxes later: 40% of the engineering budget on maintenance. Features are taking weeks instead of days.
The Complexity Trap is structural. Five recognizable patterns. A way out.
Part 1 of new series:
https://simplicityfirstphilosophy.substack.com/p/the-system-nobody-designed
Shipped a major update to Baseball History, my open-source MLB stats project!
- 30+ REST API endpoints (no auth, OpenAPI spec, Scalar docs)
- Player Comparison Tool
- Awards & Voting explorer
- Postseason browser (1871–present)
- Salary Explorer (1985+)
Built with ASP.NET Core 10, htmx, and EF Core. Lahman DB, SQLite, fully open source.
Two Complexity Audit slots open for Q2.
Over the past month: the Architecture Tax, TCA calculation, and three case studies. Amazon, 37signals, Segment. Some of you ran your own numbers.
If that number was large enough to act on, this is the next step.
A Complexity Audit is 2 to 4 weeks. Fixed scope. Fixed price. I map your architecture against the TCA model and produce a document your CFO can read.
simplicity-first.dev/ArchAssessment
Baseball History Project -- Opening Day 2026 Update!!
Just shipped significant performance improvements and UX refinements to the Baseball History Project. Data now runs from 1871 all the way through the 2025 season.
154 years of professional baseball to explore.
Box scores, franchise history, player careers. It's all there, and faster than ever.
https://baseballhistoryproject.com
#Baseball #OpeningDay #MLB #Sabermetrics #WebDev #opensource
Microservices consume 20% more CPU and 44% more energy than a monolith doing the same work.
IT is projected to consume 21% of all global energy by 2030. The internet already produces more carbon than commercial aviation.
The $44.5B in cloud waste is not just wasted money. It is wasted electricity.
The architecture tax is environmental, not just financial.
Simplification is climate action.
htmxRazor v1.4.0 is out.
Seven features: SSE streaming with IAsyncEnumerable server helpers, a multi-step wizard with TempData state, a timeline component, response-aware forms with per-status-code error handling, optimistic UI on button/switch/rating, load more pagination, and dialog size variants.
147 new tests. 1,802 total. No breaking changes.
dotnet add package htmxRazor
River City AI & Dev User Group — first meetup!
April 15 • Grand Rapids, MI • 6 PM
A community for developers interested in AI, web, mobile, .NET, Rust, and open-source. All experience levels welcome.
RSVP → https://www.meetup.com/river-city-ai-dev-group/events/313909270/?eventOrigin=group_upcoming_events
#RiverCityAI #GrandRapids #AI #Programming #OpenSource #Fediverse
A CFO reviews the quarterly cloud bill. 34% over budget. Again. She asks who is responsible. Nobody is lying. Nobody is responsible.
$44.5B in projected cloud waste for 2026. Only 30% can attribute costs to teams. 49% of IT leaders believe >25% is wasted.
New essay applies Hardin’s tragedy of the commons to cloud infrastructure. Why FinOps addresses symptoms. Why does a chargeback fail? What Ostrom’s Nobel Prize research says actually works.
https://simplicityfirstphilosophy.substack.com/p/the-tragedy-of-the-cloud-commons
David Giard
