A GROWING COLLECTION
Systems from Zero
See how a system grows from its first useful version. Each guide adds one part at a time and shows why it belongs.
GUIDES
01 / PAYMENTS
Start here
How a card payment works
Follow one $42 order through 13 steps: card checks, bank approval, capture, webhooks, payouts, refunds, and disputes.
What happens when you open a website?
Follow this site's homepage through DNS, HTTPS, Cloudflare Pages, the browser's rendering work, and later visits.
More systems will be added here.