Santiago

Everyone wants to use agents for everything, but a set of if/else/for/while statements still wins 9/10 times.

I'm adding this label to the software I sell: "Every line of code in this product was written, reviewed, and approved by a human who understands, guarantees, and stands behind it."

Google: "Our productivity has increased 10% thanks to AI." Random Internet User: "Skill Issue! We are 100x faster!" This is a tough one: I'm not sure who to believe here.

I told a client the code behind the project I was selling them was 100% AI-free. He loved it. I'll do it again.

I've been uploading screenshots of my investment allocation to ChatGPT and asking where to invest a specific amount. I've been doing this for about a year. 10/10 recommend.

Building software that works is very easy… as long as you ignore all the hard parts.

If someone presents themselves as a "Programmer" and somebody else does it as a "Software Engineer," would you consider them equally capable? Do you see a fundamental difference between a Programmer and a Software Engineer?

The final 20% of the work always takes 80% of the total effort.

This guy freaked out when he tried a model much dumber than GPT 3.5. He ended up losing his job. He was an engineer and thought the model was sentient. Imagine what will happen when 99.99% of the world population uses one of these models for the first time.

Anyone can learn to code, especially now with AI. But it's still hard to find good solutions to difficult problems. Stop obsessing about languages, libraries, frameworks, and code. They won't make a difference. Your brain will.

There are *zero* successful software engineers who have only used one language in their careers. Zero. Most have used a dozen languages or more. Programming languages don't matter. They have no bearing on how valuable you are. And more importantly, people who pay don't care.

It's been 24 months since people told me my job was dead for real. (Coincidentally, these have been the best 24 months of my professional career.) Stop paying attention to the hype. Keep investing in yourself.

Do you really think “Project Managers” will survive AI? Really? So many people in my replies seem to think Projeft Managers will be immune to AI. They are even recommending engineers to pivot.

With AI improving at lightning speed, I think education is more important than it's ever been.

Every developer should consider pivoting to AI/ML. There are infinite opportunities to start enhancing what you're building with AI. Don't stay stuck for too long. Be aggressive with this. Things are moving fast.

Slow unit tests are better than too many mocks.

This is a 10x move here. One of my favorite ways to leverage models.

I did not visit StackOverflow in 2024.

Almost every person I've heard complaining about the job market has nothing to show to demonstrate their qualifications. They have no past projects they can share, no one to vouch for them, no publications, no social presence. Nothing. Words are cheap. Show me what you've done.

My favorite all-time computer ever has been the MacBook Pro M1 Pro. I have an M3 Max and an M1 Pro. Of course, the M3 is better on every metric, but there's something I can't describe about the M1 Pro that makes it special for me.

The biggest challenge right now is not to prompt an AI model to produce code. Almost anyone can do that. The challenge is to validate that this code is actually doing what you want it to do. The challenge is to understand how to improve it, fix it, and update it.

There are *literally* infinite opportunities for AI and software builders. We aren’t building more and better because there aren’t enough qualified people. These aren’t zero sum. We aren’t fighting for a fixed number of jobs. There’s no cap on how much we can build. We need more builders.

In 2025, try to place a "Buy" button on the Internet. This is something that could change your life. It certainly changed mine.

Midwits with a chatbot will never build better software than you. These are two of my all-time favorite Software Engineering books: 1. The Pragmatic Programmer 2. Clean Code Read them in 2025. They will pay off for years to come.

Start worrying the minute you see that companies building AGI stop hiring people. Right now, all of these companies have hundreds of open positions. That should tell you everything you need to know.

The best code is the one you didn't write. The second best code is the one that solves the problem. The best tool is the one you already have. The best solution is the simplest one. Always make it work first. Make it better later.

Multi-tasking is the death of productivity.

Every “Programming is dead” take I’ve seen so far is coming from people who have no clue about programming.

This MIT class is still the best way to learn Linear Algebra. It's free. Gilbert Strang is one of those generational professors. The type of person that will leave a positive mark on you. ocw.mit.edu/courses/18-...