About Sanity Check
Sanity Check is a weekly essay on data engineering and analytics, written through the lens of an agentic world. The thesis is simple, and unfashionable: the teams that win the next two years won't be the ones with the fanciest agent frameworks. They'll be the ones who got the fundamentals right first — clean models, reliable contracts, documentation a machine can actually parse — and then let agents amplify that work.
Fundamentals first. Agents second. That's the bet this newsletter is making, and the through-line of every essay.
Who writes it
Ben Wilson. Founder of Ray Data Co. Sanity Check is the company's weekly essay — the place patterns from real client work get pulled out, named, and shared.
The day job is the content engine. Real client engagements with real data teams — broken pipelines, governance gaps, "what's our AI strategy?" conversations with executives who have read three blog posts and want a 90-day plan. The newsletter is the place those patterns get pulled out, named, and shared.
Who it's for
Data leads and analytics engineers at mid-market and enterprise companies. People who own pipelines, models, and stakeholder relationships. Practitioners first, managers second. The reader who manages a team of two-to-ten, reports to a VP or CTO, and is being asked to deliver an AI strategy without the time or the cover to sort the hype from the substance.
You'll get one original essay per week. Frameworks you can use Monday morning, not thought leadership you can't operationalize. No "AI will replace you" panic pieces. No "just add an agent to it" magic. Practical, opinionated, and honest about what's working and what's not.
Why "Sanity Check"
Because the data world is in a hype hangover, and someone has to take a popular claim, pressure-test it against what's actually happening on the ground, and report back. Yes, no, or it depends. That's the job.
How to follow
- RSS — the cleanest way in
- JSON Feed — for the modern reader apps
- Email subscription is coming in Phase 2 (Resend-powered)
The recipes are still worth sharing. The kitchen just got a lot more interesting.