Writing

Software delivery gets easier to improve once you make the timing visible.

March 22, 2026 Software delivery gets easier to improve once you make the timing visible. Software delivery gets easier to improve once you make the timing visible. One thing I’...

If your PR is the first time the change is properly validated, the feedback loop is too slow.

March 20, 2026 If your PR is the first time the change is properly validated, the feedback loop is too slow. One of the simplest dark factory wins for us has been pushing more v...

I’ve started treating agent friendliness as a core product feature, not an add-on.

March 19, 2026 I’ve started treating agent friendliness as a core product feature, not an add-on. One thing I’m now adding to personal project is an agent manifest. The idea is ...

Agentic development is the pair-programming model I actually wanted.

March 18, 2026 Agentic development is the pair-programming model I actually wanted. I always understood the theory of pair programming. In practice, it often felt like two peopl...

Most teams are not building software dark factories.

March 17, 2026 Most teams are not building software dark factories. Most teams are not building software dark factories. They are bolting AI onto old delivery models and mistaki...

Blockchain has gas fees. AI has token economics. Same underlying lesson: computation is not free.

March 13, 2026 Blockchain has gas fees. AI has token economics. Same underlying lesson: computation is not free. Blockchains made computation cost visible through gas. AI is doi...

Why put AI usage on the PR at all?

March 13, 2026 Why put AI usage on the PR at all? Because once AI becomes part of delivery, the business question quickly becomes: what did this take, and what did it cost? For ...

If AI is helping write the PR, the PR should show how AI was used, how much effort it took, and what it cost.

March 13, 2026 If AI is helping write the PR, the PR should show how AI was used, how much effort it took, and what it cost. At some point, the business conversation stops being...

“Whatever mess AI gets us into, AI will get us out of.”

March 12, 2026 “Whatever mess AI gets us into, AI will get us out of.” “Whatever mess AI gets us into, AI will get us out of.” I hear that assumption a lot in business conversat...

Don’t just tell the model what good code looks like. Show it, then make it prove it followed it

March 11, 2026 Don’t just tell the model what good code looks like. Show it, then make it prove it followed it Don’t just tell the model what good code looks like. Show it, then...

Codex “Fast” Mode Is Wild (and It Made Repo Hygiene Even More Important)

March 10, 2026 Codex “Fast” Mode Is Wild (and It Made Repo Hygiene Even More Important) I tried Codex “Fast” properly today for the first time. It’s… ridiculous. The speed feels...

One of the quickest “AI productivity” wins in a monolith isn’t another model.

March 10, 2026 One of the quickest “AI productivity” wins in a monolith isn’t another model. It’s less noise, In the AI era, context is cost. I’m doing a sweep to remove dead re...

Vibe coding is great for prototypes. Production needs discipline.

March 8, 2026 Vibe coding is great for prototypes. Production needs discipline. LLMs can generate a lot of code quickly but the quality range is massive unless you force the wor...

What’s next in the queue — and how does it move us toward the North Star?

March 7, 2026 What’s next in the queue — and how does it move us toward the North Star? I ask my software factory: “What’s next in the queue — and how does it move us toward the...

I’ve started batching work through my software “dark factory”.

March 7, 2026 I’ve started batching work through my software “dark factory”. Instead of running one job at a time, I queue a handful of small, reversible slices — and the factor...

I’ve updated my profile to “Software Factory Manager”

March 7, 2026 I’ve updated my profile to “Software Factory Manager” AI hasn’t removed engineering work. It’s changed where the leverage is. Writing code is getting cheap. Trust ...

One small change that’s made AI-assisted refactoring feel production-ready for me:

March 5, 2026 One small change that’s made AI-assisted refactoring feel production-ready for me: My agent has to state which best practices it applied — and why. Not just “here’...

From Novice to Senior: Refactoring a Whole Codebase Overnight With a Software “Dark Factory”

March 5, 2026 From Novice to Senior: Refactoring a Whole Codebase Overnight With a Software “Dark Factory” I planned to extract the Dark Factory engine from my personal project ...

The Hidden Cost of the God Table (and how AI can make it worse)

March 4, 2026 The Hidden Cost of the God Table (and how AI can make it worse) Every production system has at least one “god table”. It’s usually the biggest, busiest table in th...

The Most Underrated Scaling Pattern in Startups & Scale-Ups

March 3, 2026 The Most Underrated Scaling Pattern in Startups & Scale-Ups One of the most underutilised design patterns in startups and scale-ups is the adapter pattern. I used ...

My dark factory software workflow now has a UI.

March 2, 2026 My dark factory software workflow now has a UI. I’m trialling a simple flow where technical and non-technical teammates can request a factory job (e.g. “add an API...

Dark Factory: “No Humans Should Write Code” (and what it taught me)

February 28, 2026 Dark Factory: “No Humans Should Write Code” (and what it taught me) A few weeks ago I read Simon Willison’s write-up on StrongDM’s “Software Factory” approach....

Evidence > vibes.

February 27, 2026 Evidence > vibes. This is what I’m aiming for with AI-assisted dev: every job produces a small PR + CI green + a prompt spec + a run log (commands/tests) so yo...

I’ve stopped “prompting an AI” and started running a software factory.

February 27, 2026 I’ve stopped “prompting an AI” and started running a software factory. Every PR now includes: the prompt spec (goal + acceptance criteria) the run log (what th...

I Thought AI Would Take the Fun Out of Engineering — It Didn’t

February 26, 2026 I Thought AI Would Take the Fun Out of Engineering — It Didn’t I was worried AI would take the fun out of engineering. My early experiences felt a bit like “au...

AI Top Tip: No Green, No Opinion.

February 19, 2026 AI Top Tip: No Green, No Opinion. When AI generates code, it can look convincing even when it’s wrong. So I don’t assess the implementation first. I run the sp...

Your Next Customer Might Be an Agent: How to Prepare Without Panic

February 15, 2026 Your Next Customer Might Be an Agent: How to Prepare Without Panic There’s a lot of fear right now. People can feel the ground moving under how we work, how we...

Planner/Worker: The Two-Thread Workflow That Keeps AI Useful

February 14, 2026 Planner/Worker: The Two-Thread Workflow That Keeps AI Useful One of the easiest ways to waste time with AI is to do everything in a single long thread. It star...

Engineering Interviews Are Changing in the AI Era

February 14, 2026 Engineering Interviews Are Changing in the AI Era Engineering interviews have always been a proxy. We can’t fully simulate real work in an hour, so we use exer...

PR Review Is Changing in the AI Era

February 14, 2026 PR Review Is Changing in the AI Era PR review was never really about the code. Yes, we look at the diff. But the real thing we’re trying to assess is judgment:...