Good Taste the Only Real Moat Left
by Raj Nandan
aicareer
AI commoditizes competence, but judgment becomes scarce. The real edge isn't in output quality but in pairing taste with context and the conviction to build something meaningful.
Blogroll
A collection of blog posts I enjoyed reading and found worth sharing.
AI Is Really Weird
by Ed Zitron
ai
AI systems behave in ways that defy intuition and resist simple categorization. Understanding their weirdness is essential for anyone building with or around them.
Say the Thing You Want
by Terrible Software
leadershipcareer
Your silence at work isn't protecting you. It's costing you. Ask for what you actually need.
The Middle Loop
by Annie Vella
aicareer
Time investment shapes thought patterns, which compound into skill. Where you focus your hours is where your expertise emerges.
Your Engineers Aren't Lazy, Your Codebase Is Punishing Them
by Piechowski
leadershipengineering
Technical debt isn't an engineering morale problem. It's a code problem. A quick audit reveals whether you're fighting the system or the people.
Reflection is a Crucial Leadership Skill
by Kevin Goldsmith
leadership
Leaders who pause to examine what worked and what didn't gain insight that keeps them from repeating mistakes and compounds their effectiveness.
Harness Engineering for Coding Agent Users
by Martin Fowler
aiengineering
Building reliable systems around AI agents requires intentional design patterns. Harness engineering treats the agent as a fallible component in a larger architecture.
How to be a Web Developer
by Laurie Voss
career
A roadmap for the career arc beyond your first years in web development, from someone who's lived it.
Components of A Coding Agent
by Sebastian Raschka
ai
Coding agents work when they combine three things well: tools, memory, and repository context. Understanding these components explains why some agents fail and others don't.
Reinventing the Pull Request
by Lubeno
engineering
Code review catches bugs, but great review reduces comprehension debt. PRs should help teams understand the codebase faster, not just validate changes.
The Alignment Tax: What a Real CTO Relationship Looks Like vs. a Fake One
by Inside Product
leadership
When a CTO is genuinely aligned with the business, the entire organization temperature shifts. Misalignment creates hidden friction that compounds across teams.
Better, Faster, and (Even) More
by Rands
ai
A relentless focus on velocity led to building more interesting, random, and useless scripts and tools than ever before. Sometimes the best learning comes from building things that don't need to exist.
use(): The Hook That Breaks the Rules (On Purpose)
by Sasha Baranov
frontend
React's use() hook reads promises and context at render time without the complexity of useEffect. The missing piece that finally makes async patterns feel native to component rendering.
Claude Code - The Practical Guide
by Academind
ai
A hands-on guide to making Claude Code part of your actual development workflow.
Anatomy of the .claude/ Folder
by Daily Dose of DS
ai
The .claude folder is where you configure your entire Claude Code experience. How CLAUDE.md, custom commands, skills, agents, and permissions work together.
How To Handle Overly Confident And Combative Colleagues
by The Uncommon Executive
leadership
When you need something from a defensive or hostile coworker, transaction-focused approaches backfire. The strategy requires reframing the relationship before the ask.
When a Manager Should Step In
by Charles-Axel Dein
leadership
Knowing when to intervene as a manager is a skill distinct from knowing how. The difference between micromanagement and appropriate guidance lies in recognizing which moments actually require your involvement.
Thoughts on slowing the fuck down
by Mario Zechner
aicareer
A reflection on the cost of constant acceleration and what happens when you deliberately choose to slow down.
Becoming an AI-first software-intensive company
by Jan Bosch
aileadership
Transforming into an AI-first company isn't about tools. It's about fundamentally rethinking how software gets built and how engineering teams organize around that change.
Relocating Rigor - The Phoenix Architecture
by AI Coding
aiengineering
True rigor in modern systems often looks like apparent recklessness. The Phoenix Architecture challenges conventional wisdom about structure and control.
What Really Happens in a Board Meeting
by Kevin Goldsmith
leadership
Behind the polished presentations and formal agendas lies a messier reality about how decisions actually get made in board meetings.
Seven Years to TypeScript: Migrating 11,000 Files at Patreon
by Patreon Engineering
engineeringfrontend
A decade-long journey of migrating an entire codebase to TypeScript reveals lessons about gradual modernization at scale.
The Reason Most People Are Terrible Communicators (And How to Fix It)
by A Life Engineered
leadershipcareer
Being right doesn't matter if nobody understands what you're saying. Learn the core gap between clarity and correctness.
How The New York Times is scaling Unit Test Coverage using AI Tools
by New York Times Engineering
aiengineering
AI tools are helping engineers write better tests at scale, tackling one of engineering's persistent blind spots.
Management In The Age Of AI
by Stay SaaSy
aileadership
The role of managers is evolving with AI, not disappearing. What changes and what stays the same.
AI should help us produce better code
by Simon Willison
aiengineering
Agentic patterns aren't about replacing engineers. They're about building systems that elevate code quality and developer productivity.
Thinking tools: How to identify assumptions by distorting time
by Abi Jones
leadership
A practical technique for exposing hidden assumptions in your thinking by playing with timescales.
MCP is dead. Long live the CLI
by EJ Holmes
ai
Why CLI-based patterns are winning over MCP for building AI agents and what it means for the tooling landscape.
I Made MCP 94% Cheaper (And It Only Took One Command)
by Kan Yilmaz
ai
A concrete cost comparison between CLI and MCP approaches reveals surprising economics for agent deployment.
How we rebuilt Next.js with AI in one week
by Cloudflare
aifrontend
One engineer rebuilt Next.js on Vite with AI assistance, achieving 4x faster builds, 57% smaller bundles, and Workers deployment in a week.
Legitimate Power: Authority and Power are Not the Same Thing
by Leading Sapiens
leadership
Why do we comply with directives we privately question? The crucial distinction between power through fear and authority through legitimacy.
Micro Frontends: When They Make Sense and When They Don't
by Lukas Niessen
frontendengineering
Microservices unlocked backend autonomy, but applying the same pattern to frontends isn't always the solution. When micro frontends genuinely add value.
On the Question of Debt
by MapAI
engineering
Beyond technical debt: a framework for understanding four types of system debt including technical, evolutionary, and cognitive dimensions.
Something Big Is Happening
by Matt Shumer
ai
A grounded take on what AI is actually changing for non-tech folks, cutting through the noise to explain real implications.
MCP: What It Is and Why It Matters
by Addy Osmani
ai
The Model Context Protocol is creating a common language between AI and apps, enabling a new category of integrations and possibilities.
LangGraph for complex workflows
by Surma
ai
LangGraph codifies complex workflow architectures as executable automations, giving structure to stateful AI reasoning.
Why Using an LLM to Redact PII and PHI is a Bad Idea
by Philterd
ai
Relying on LLMs for sensitive data redaction introduces hallucination risks where accuracy isn't optional. Deterministic approaches are essential.
Built With Borrowed Hands
by Craig Condon
ai
What happens when you build production infrastructure using only AI agents writing code? A two-month experiment in agentic development constraints.
MCP UI: Breaking the text wall with interactive components
by Shopify Engineering
aifrontend
MCP UI extends the Model Context Protocol to let AI agents return interactive components instead of just text, making agent outputs more actionable.
How to build an Agent, On-Device Edition
by Ryan Seddon
ai
Build fully functional agents using on-device models like Phi-4-mini in under 200 lines of code, bringing AI inference closer to users.
Agentic Coding Best Practices
by Ben Houston
aiengineering
As AI coding agents evolve from tools to collaborators, our code organization and documentation must evolve with them. How to structure projects for agent-friendly codebases.
What are AI Agents? Why do they matter?
by Addy Osmani
ai
Understand the evolution from simple automation to intelligent agents: their architecture, capabilities, and why they represent a fundamental shift in how we build software.
Agent Recipes
by Agent Recipes
ai
Skip the experimentation phase with ready-to-use agent patterns and copy-paste code snippets designed to improve your LLM applications immediately.
Building Effective AI Agents
by Anthropic
ai
Anthropic's battle-tested principles for building reliable, production-ready AI agents that actually work at scale.
Agents 2.0: From Shallow Loops to Deep Agents
by Philipp Schmid
ai
Move beyond simple request-response loops to deep agents that maintain state, reason over extended periods, and handle genuinely complex multi-step workflows.
Agentic workers for commerce operations: a proof of concept
by Commerce Layer
ai
How agentic AI workers with Mastra.ai and MCP can automate e-commerce operations end-to-end, reducing manual overhead significantly.
My AI Adoption Journey
by Mitchell Hashimoto
aicareer
Real lessons from integrating AI tools into daily development work: what worked, what didn't, and how adoption patterns are changing how senior engineers operate.
One list to rule them all
by The Engineering Manager
leadership
A deceptively simple framework for making hard decisions as an engineering leader by focusing on what matters most.
Navigating the Current Landscape: Growth Beyond the Ladder
by Victor Avelar
career
Career growth isn't always up. Discover the three key motivators that matter in a saturated job market and why your next strategic move might be staying put.
Accelerate Next.js in Kubernetes
by Platformatic
frontendengineering
Performance gains matter in production. Practical optimizations to run Next.js faster in Kubernetes environments.
AI is Killing B2B SaaS
by NMN
ai
The SaaS model's greatest strength becomes a liability as AI commoditizes once-differentiated products. The race for profitability just got harder.
The Deletion Test - The Phoenix Architecture
by AI Coding
aiengineering
A resilience pattern that tests whether your system can survive the removal of its own components. Architecture thinking at its most practical.
Things I've learned in my 10 years as an engineering manager
by Jampa
leadership
A decade of management experience distilled into non-obvious advice that changes how you think about leading engineers.
Aligning Product and GTM with Customer Value Metrics
by Dan Teodosiu and Dave Kellogg
leadership
When product and go-to-market strategies drift, founders lose leverage. How to align both around metrics that actually predict customer success.
Conflict Between Neurotypes
by Isaac Z. Schlueter
leadership
Neurodiversity isn't just about accommodation. It's about understanding how different thinking styles create friction in teams and how to navigate it.
The Architect's Guide to Micro-Frontends
by Developers Voice
frontendengineering
Scale frontend architecture without scaling complexity. Module Federation enables independent teams to ship in parallel without coordination overhead.
The Next Two Years of Software Engineering
by Addy Osmani
aiengineering
Five critical questions are reshaping how we build software. Competing scenarios for each and what they mean for your choices today.
One bottleneck at a time
by The Engineering Manager
leadership
Manager instinct often says fix everything at once, but the easy way forward is paradoxically harder. Tackle bottlenecks sequentially to avoid chaos.
Building High-Performing Remote Engineering Teams
by Hans Reinl
leadership
Explores the distinct challenges and opportunities of leading engineering teams across distributed locations, moving beyond one-size-fits-all remote work policies.
Useful engineering management artifacts
by Bjorn Roche
leadership
Document templates and structural tools that help scaling engineering organizations maintain clarity and alignment as teams grow.
Rise of the 'operator EM'
by One to N
leadership
The playbook for engineering management has shifted in the post-ZIRP era, requiring managers to balance efficiency with the realities of constrained resources.
21 Lessons from 14 Years at Google
by Addy Osmani
careerengineering
Distilled wisdom on code quality, career progression, and the interpersonal dimensions of engineering drawn from nearly a decade and a half at scale.
'Good engineering management' is a fad
by Will Larson
leadership
Challenges the assumption that modern management practices are universally correct, arguing context and organizational needs matter more than dogma.
Introducing advanced tool use
by Anthropic
ai
Claude can now discover and dynamically execute tools in real-time, enabling AI agents to take actions directly in external systems without pre-integration.
BFCM Readiness 2025
by Shopify Engineering
engineering
Technical strategies and infrastructure patterns for handling peak traffic during Black Friday and Cyber Monday at scale.
Just Talk To It
by Peter Steinberger
ai
A grounded, practical approach to working with AI coding agents that cuts through hype and focuses on what actually works.
How to Use Claude Code Subagents to Parallelize Development
by Zach Wills
ai
Lessons from building a metrics tool using subagents to split work in parallel, demonstrating concrete patterns for AI-accelerated development workflows.
Going direct
by The Engineering Manager
leadership
Effective organizations communicate fluidly across org chart boundaries rather than rigidly following reporting lines, accelerating decision-making.
Why LLMs Can't Really Build Software
by Zed
aiengineering
Writing code is only one part of effective software engineering. LLMs excel at code generation but lack the architectural thinking and quality assurance that define professional development.
The reality of AI-Assisted software engineering productivity
by Addy Osmani
ai
What the data really shows about AI coding tools in 2025. Most effective as assistants handling boilerplate, not as replacements for human judgment.
Leadership co-processing with LLMs
by The Engineering Manager
aileadership
LLMs can be powerful thinking partners for engineering leaders. Using them creatively for brainstorming and decision analysis sharpens your leadership.
Building stronger engineering teams with aligned autonomy
by Stack Overflow
leadership
Teams perform best when individual autonomy aligns with shared goals. Give engineers clear direction and freedom to solve problems their way.
Context Engineering: Bringing Engineering Discipline to Prompts
by Addy Osmani
ai
Effective AI prompting requires the same information architecture rigor we apply to software. Structure context intentionally for consistently better outputs.
It's Time to Be the Bad Guy
by Anna J McDougall
leadership
Strong engineering managers protect their teams by absorbing difficult decisions. Taking ownership means sometimes being the one who makes unpopular calls.
How Airbnb Smoothly Upgrades React
by Airbnb Engineering
frontendengineering
Incremental infrastructure modernization avoids the risk of full rewrites. Airbnb's approach to rolling out new React features while maintaining stability.
Leadership Strategies for Product Maturity Phases
by Abdul A. Popoola
leadership
Engineering challenges shift as products mature. Startup hustle, scaleup organization, and enterprise reliability each demand different strategies.
Leading while learning
by Bence A. Toth
leadership
Effective leadership isn't about having all answers. Create psychological safety where learning is expected, failure is normalized, and your team drives innovation.
Shipping incrementally
by Zahra Jabeen
engineering
Continuous incremental shipping beats ambitious batches. Regular releases reduce risk, gather feedback faster, and keep momentum strong.
Catching Compromised Cookies
by Slack Engineering
engineering
Cookies are ubiquitous client-side state flowing across every request, making them a critical security surface. How Slack detects and mitigates compromised session cookies.
Design Docs at Google
by Irakli Nadareishvili
engineering
Design docs are a cornerstone of Google's engineering culture, serving as the mechanism for aligning teams and capturing architectural reasoning before code is written.
Avoiding Skill Atrophy in the Age of AI
by Addy Osmani
aicareer
AI coding assistants can accelerate delivery but risk eroding the fundamentals that make engineers effective. Strategies to maintain depth while leveraging AI.
DORA Metrics At Work
by Egor Savochkin
engineering
Booking.com doubled their team's delivery performance in a year by systematically measuring and improving the four DORA metrics.
Balancing Old Tricks with New Feats: AI-Powered Enzyme to RTL Migration at Slack
by Slack Engineering
aifrontend
Slack open-sourced their AI-driven migration tool that automatically converts Enzyme tests to React Testing Library, balancing modernization with preservation of testing intent.
Platform as a Runtime
by InfoQ
engineering
As systems scale, platforms must evolve into managed runtimes that abstract complexity and cognitive load. Moving from passive infrastructure to active runtime enablers.
Questionable Advice: My boss says we don't need any engineering managers
by Charity Majors
leadership
Navigating a startup culture that rejects management infrastructure. When flat structures work and when they create scaling friction.
Solving staffing challenges with concentric circles
by The Engineering Manager
leadership
Rather than top-down reorganization, solve staffing problems from the inside out using concentric circles to progressively expand and restructure teams.
Technical Debt Financing
by Jack Danger
engineering
Technical debt is a strategic tool for CTOs, not a burden to minimize. When managed intentionally as a financing mechanism, it accelerates delivery without sacrificing velocity.
How (some) good corporate engineering blogs are written
by Dan Luu
engineering
Great corporate engineering blogs share specific technical insights rather than abstract principles. They succeed by writing about real problems and trade-offs.
Unexpected Anti-Patterns for Engineering Leaders
by Will Larson
leadership
What looks like a management mistake often works surprisingly well. Larson challenges three conventional anti-patterns that actually drive results at high-performing companies.
All I Need to Know About Engineering Leadership I Learned From Leave No Trace
by Jacob Kaplan-Moss
leadership
Apply wilderness ethics to engineering leadership: leave systems cleaner than you found them, minimize your footprint, and respect the team's capacity.
Engineering Metrics Guide
by Refactoring
engineering
Skip the metrics theater. How to design a minimal, effective process that uses the right metrics to drive real improvements in engineering productivity.
Knowledge Silos: The Engineering Productivity Tax
by Leadership Garden
engineeringleadership
Knowledge silos compound every other technical debt. Practical strategies to identify and break them down before they paralyze your team.
Design System Ecosystem
by Brad Frost
frontend
A mature design system isn't a library, it's an ecosystem. How components, tokens, and governance scale across complex organizations.
Efficient Design System
by Josh Clark
frontend
Design systems should move slower than the products they serve, yet still enable rapid iteration. How deliberate pace prevents bottlenecks.
Advanced Context Engineering for Coding Agents
by HumanLayer
ai
Agents reason better with structured context. How to engineer context quality so agents understand code intent and constraints.
Software Engineering at Google: Large-Scale Testing
by Google Engineering
engineering
Google's testing playbook: test size taxonomy, test selection strategies, and how to scale CI/CD without creating brittleness or slow feedback loops.
Compile-time expressions for TypeScript
by Comptime
frontend
Move computation from runtime to build time. A Vite plugin that evaluates TypeScript expressions at compile time for smaller bundles and better performance.