Sails & Syntax
Technical Insights From The Helm Of The Red Halyard
Welcome aboard Sails & Syntax, the official logbook of Red Halyard Consulting.
Here we chart our course through automation, custom tooling, and the occasional over-engineered metaphor. Whether you're wrangling rogue spreadsheets, tuning up a Rails app, or dreaming of smoother workflows, you’ll find ideas here to help you catch the wind—and leave the busywork behind.
Build Once, Breathe Easy: Smart Patterns For Reusable Automation
When you're juggling multiple clients, it’s tempting to treat every problem like it’s brand new. But if you find yourself solving the same core issue over and over just wrapped in slightly different business logic, you’re sitting on an opportunity. Reusable automation isn’t just a developer flex; it’s an investment in scalability, sanity, and speed.
The Spreadsheet Spiral: How To Spot It—And Escape It
There comes a moment in every growing business where things just feel... off. Tasks take longer than they should. Data lives in ten different places. Everyone is constantly double-checking numbers or asking, “Wait, is this the latest version?” And somewhere at the center of it all—there’s a spreadsheet trying to do way too much.
Welcome to the Spreadsheet Spiral.
