https://shawncutter.com Free, short-form writing on energy, technology, and food. Longer essays live on Medium. en-us Sun, 25 Oct 2026 13:56:13 GMT https://shawncutter.com/writing/energy-and-data https://shawncutter.com/writing/energy-and-data Energy and information were always civilization's two flows. AI is fusing them into one — so we should build them on the same ground. Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT first principles energy AI data centers https://shawncutter.com/writing/build-boring https://shawncutter.com/writing/build-boring A sixth-generation farmer on why the durable, unglamorous infrastructure beneath AI — power, heat, water, land — is the real opportunity of the era. Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT first principles AI infrastructure energy circular systems https://shawncutter.com/writing/thermodynamics https://shawncutter.com/writing/thermodynamics Follow the second law through the energy cascade — gas to electricity to compute to heat — and co-location stops being a virtue and becomes a necessity. Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT thermodynamics first principles co-location circular energy https://shawncutter.com/writing/keeping-the-wells-running https://shawncutter.com/writing/keeping-the-wells-running How a problem in our family's oil business became my first company — and the through-line from an Ohio farm to the frontier of energy and AI. Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT origin story Fielding Systems energy software bootstrapping https://shawncutter.com/writing/waste-is-a-design-failure https://shawncutter.com/writing/waste-is-a-design-failure Why I stopped trusting the meter — and started measuring energy in loops instead of lines. Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT circular energy first principles data centers