Topic

Developer

A collection of 11 issues

Understanding Before Speed

Lately, I’ve been thinking about something I see more often in development teams. Problem-solving has become incredibly fast thanks to AI. But interest in why things were built a certain way seems to be fading. Instead of understanding the context of existing code, the business background, or the history

The Real Reason a Developer Missed Deadlines: Frozen Pipes

There was a week when one of our developers suddenly looked off. Deadlines slipped. Commits slowed down. In meetings, he was present, but not really there. As a founder, your mind goes straight to the usual list. Is he blocked technically? Is the scope unclear? Is he disengaged? Is this

AI Makes Code Faster, and Technical Debt Deeper for Teams

AI has moved beyond simply making development easier. It is now reshaping organizations, sometimes even driving discussions around headcount reduction. From my experience, one thing is clear: doing more work faster is absolutely possible with AI. Code generation, test scaffolding, refactoring suggestions, AI dramatically increases individual productivity. However, that doesn’

What Founders Really Mean When They Say “We Need a Great Developer”

I often hear this request: “We have development issues. Can you help us find a great developer?” Whenever that happens, I ask two simple questions. First: “What does ‘great’ mean to you?” Second: “Are you building something like Windows or macOS?” Most founders smile and shake their heads at the

AI now worries about performance. We, as developers, must worry about

When I was deep in hands-on development years ago, I had to understand the inner workings of databases to achieve acceptable performance. Even a small change in query casing could cause cache aging out, leading to HDD hits and a dramatic drop in speed. To avoid this, I spent countless

There’s more to engineering than just code

Every team has its own rhythm and way of solving problems After years of leading engineering teams, one thing became clear to me: a strong team isn’t built only from technical skills or years of experience. Developers approach the same problem in completely different ways. Some move fast, iterate

The Quiet Work Was What Kept the Product Alive

— A reflection from 19 years in engineering and why we need to rethink how we evaluate our teams During my time as a CTO at a startup, I worked with two engineers who taught me a lesson I didn’t fully understand until they were gone. Both were skilled and

When Developers Move Faster Than the Team Can See

A perspective from a developer and engineering leader with 19 years of experience In nearly two decades of building software and leading engineering teams, I’ve seen technology reshape how we work many times. But nothing compares to what happened recently — a moment that showed just how far individual execution

AI Isn’t Replacing Developers — It’s Compressing Development Time

A perspective from a developer and engineering manager with 19 years of experience After nearly two decades of building and managing software teams, I’ve seen several waves of technology trends come and go. But few have generated as much debate as the recent rise of AI-assisted coding tools. There’

Why Bugs Should Never Be a Performance Metric — And Why You’re Doing Better Than You Think

There’s this long-running myth in tech that refuses to die: “The number of bugs you create reflects your skill as a developer.” If you’ve been in the industry for more than five minutes, you already know how ridiculous that is. Sure—sometimes bugs come from lack of experience