there’s a difference between software development and software engineering. everyone is a software developer now, engineering is hard - always has, always will be but the skills to be an engineer are now very different.
forking vscode? simple. extensions not so simple. they are controlled by microsoft. without them you’ll run into continual papercuts as a vendor who has forked vscode.
This is the 9-month recap of my "The Future Belongs to People Who Do Things" talk.
Inside:
- The problems with AGENTS . md
- The problems with LLM model selectors
- Best practices for LLM context windows
- AI usage mandates at employers
- Employment performance review dynamic changes
- The world's first vibe-coded emoji RPN calculator in COBOL
- The world's first vibe-coded genz compiler (CURSED)
and a final urge to do things, as this is perhaps the last time I deliver this talk. It's been nine months since the invention of tool-calling LLMs, and VC subsidies have already started to disappear.
If people haven't taken action, they're falling behind because it's becoming increasingly cost-prohibitive to undertake personal upskilling.
Well, actually, the funny story is Cursed is actually three different compilers:
1. It was first written in C
2. Then it was rewritten in Rust
3. Finally, it was rewritten in Zig
All part of research, learning how to drive these models and discover their underlying behaviours. I reckon you could get a comparable compiler going in under a month or less for less than $4k USD.
A principal software engineer who is known to write and do conference keynotes about AI. Skillset-wise - a weird mix of software engineering, infrastructure, engineering management, and marketing with a security background. My current focus is automating job functions with AI and teaching people how to do it. I'm currently conducting interview loops.
> So it’s better to work on problems that get progressively more complete towards a known objective rather than problems that require exploration.
Yes. The longest I've had a self-directing agent loop running is a cumulative of three months. One goal, one purpose. Every now and then I modify the prompt in the background, and the agent picks up the updated prompt on the next loop.
Yeah, I totally get it man. Like when I discovered these techniques back in February, it really spooked me. And I guess 5-6 months later it's starting to become known even though I've been publishing full details on how to do this shit. It turns out that the best way to spread knowledge in San Francisco is to get drunk with YC founders...
It gets kind of philosophical really fast. What does it mean when software can be automated through a bash loop? (Not to 100%, to 80%. What does that mean to software outsourcing in the consulting industry?)