Series
Building from First Principles
A series testing the claim that implementation is the fastest way to expose boundaries and failure modes hidden by abstractions.
1. Building from First PrinciplesexperimentalBuilding a Calculator EngineA calculator engine is the smallest realistic project for learning parser structure and language-design tradeoffs.
2. Building from First PrinciplesexperimentalHamssun: Building a Python LispA small Lisp interpreter shows with minimal code that evaluation rules, not parsing, are the essence of a language.
3. Building from First PrinciplesexperimentalImplementing a Genetic AlgorithmA genetic algorithm succeeds through genome and fitness design that represents the search landscape, not through evolutionary operators alone.
4. Building from First PrinciplesstableBuilding an ASCII 3D RendererBuilding a small rendering pipeline reveals the boundaries of 3D graphics more clearly than starting with a graphics API.
5. Building from First PrinciplesexperimentalBuilding a 3D Illusion GameA 3D illusion game does not cheat physics; it chooses screen space as truth and turns projection loss into rules.
6. Building from First PrinciplesexperimentalBuilding an NES EmulatorNES emulation accuracy depends less on CPU instruction coverage than on reproducing the timing contract shared by the CPU, PPU, and APU.
7. Building from First PrinciplesexperimentalBuilding a Small Language ModelTraining a small language model explains Transformer mechanics without proving that we understand the capabilities of modern LLMs.
8. Building from First PrinciplesexperimentalBuilding a Coding AgentA coding agent's capability depends more on how its harness connects tools, context, and evaluation than on the model label alone.
9. Building from First PrinciplesexperimentalBuilding an Email Relay SystemThe hard part of an email relay is not SMTP transport but preserving identity, thread, and authorization boundaries.
10. Building from First PrinciplesexperimentalBuilding an Encrypted Sharing VaultThe central problem in an encrypted shared vault is not the cipher but controlling key lifetime and authority as membership changes.