Over the course of the last year, it seems like everyone in the software industry has flipped from AI curious to AI by default. “Manual” or “Handwritten” code is already legacy and prompt-driven development is the way of the future. Perfecting prompts, skills, workflows, and AGENTS.md files is a daily process. Automate everything and ship faster than ever before. Keep up or you’ll get left behind! This is the reality, or rather this is what appears to be reality if you spend too much time on X.
I started playing around with LLMs for real in the summer of 2025. Previous attempts were disappointing but then I saw a shift and these tools suddenly became really powerful. I signed up...
Up until very recently, I had only done a handful of live coding interviews in my career. All of them were a disaster. I think I still have PTSD from the first one I ever did.
I was in my early 20s and I applied to work at Mixpanel, a hot SF based startup doing exciting things in the analytics space. I liked the product and used it on Burnreel to track user interactions. A friend of mine had interviewed there for a role on the business/sales side and I decided to reach out myself for a “Solutions Architect” role. It was marketing/sales focused, but still a very technical position.
The real reason you’re tired all the time: It’s not your workload. It’s your open loops. The text you haven’t answered. The apology you owe. The decision you’re avoiding. The conversation you keep postponing. These run in the background of your mind all day, draining your battery. Close your loops. Watch your energy return. Mental clutter is more exhausting than physical work ever will be. – Scott D. Clary
I don’t follow Scott D. Clary, or two people that quoted tweeted it. This was a random post on my X feed — the kind I usually ignore — but something about it caught my eye today. It’s hardly...
Sometime in late 2024, I found myself on my phone a lot. My son, Jack, was only a couple months old and my phone usage had increased dramatically. As a newborn, Jack was not the kind of baby who could be put on his back to sleep. He wanted to be on someone, always.
Anne and I would trade off naps. We’d settle into a chair, get comfortable and let Jack sleep for a couple of hours. When it was my turn, sometimes I’d watch a movie or read a book, but often I’d be on my phone, scrolling endlessly.
I didn’t like this new pattern. There’s something different about phones. I feel productive while using a laptop or desktop...
Last fall and winter were busy times for me. In September, I drove Betsy across Canada in time for the WAM 100. In the weeks following the race, Derek and I spent three weeks together exploring Vancouver and the surrounding areas all while diagnosing a transmission issue in the van. At the end of this period, I arranged for Betsy to have her transmission rebuilt while Derek and I moved all my belongings down to Arizona in his truck and trailer. Between November and February, Anne and I split our time between Montreal and Southern California. To top it off, I drove a fixed Betsy down the west coast from Vancouver to Laguna Niguel, CA for Christmas. It was tiring.
