The blog · since 2015
Essays, playbooks and field notes from our CTOs, architects and leads. Written for people shipping real product.
Hand two developers the same tool and you get opposite verdicts. 'Useless' is rarely a fact about the thing. It's a fact about the person holding it. The rare skill was never operating the tool. It's imagining the door a tool opens before the use is obvious.
If you believe what you see on LinkedIn, startups don't need employees anymore, real founders just have agents building their companies. You write a prompt, fire off the agent, and wait for customers. In reality, you get a vague workflow that produces a mediocre demo at best.
Of course your product is AI-based. There is no need mention this anymore. Tech loves a fashionable label. Web 2.0 had its moment, then mobile, then the cloud. Do not tell me your product uses AI. Tell me what your product can do that was impossible before AI existed.
In the first of a series exploring infrastructure fundamentals, Brenden addresses the most frequently asked questions about what's really happening under the hood with complex pipelines and AI/data systems, bringing the cloud to life.
I recently encountered a issue with MySQL query performance. A particular query would perform very badly in production, but perform very well in the testing environments.
Outdated myths about developers—like “they hate meetings” or “only care about code”—create friction, missed context, and rework. Learn how to build healthier collaboration across engineering and product.
For small teams without a designer, v0 is a game-changer. The cost justifies itself by letting you explore and validate ideas in minutes rather than days.
I switched from Cursor's BugBot ($40/month) to Claude Code for code reviews. Setup is straightforward in VS Code, and Claude's bug detection has been notably better. While it still flags null reference checks like most AI reviewers, the difference in catching actual bugs is significant.
Building a thriving remote-first culture takes more than allowing people to work from home. Discover how hiring for ownership, embracing asynchronous work, and saying no to misaligned projects creates a sustainable remote future.
Shiny frameworks promise magic, but like cheap non-stick pans, they scratch, peel, and end up in the bin. Boring technology, like stainless steel, isn’t sexy, but it lasts for decades if treated well. The lesson? Build for the long haul, not the quick thrill.
AI is not replacing developers, but it is replacing developers who refuse to use it. The real skill lies in how well you steer, validate, and challenge the model. Fundamentals matter, but today’s best engineers treat AI as an amplifier, not a crutch.
The most common mistake in mobile product launches is assuming the app store submission process is routine. It isn’t. From mismatched requirements between Apple and Google to last-minute policy changes, this is where launch plans unravel.
AI agents aren’t just chatbots. They observe, plan, and act to solve problems across systems. Powerful for workflows but costly and prone to errors, their value comes from tackling focused business problems, not the hype.
What can investors do about legacy code to prevent your startup from failure? What is the difference between legacy and technical debt?
Tired of git blame pointing to useless formatting commits? Learn how to ignore revisions with --ignore-rev or .git-blame-ignore-revs to keep Git history accurate and helpful.
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