Tech Sucks

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  • AI is exhausting

    I am responsible for a team of engineers. I wouldn’t say I “lead” them, per se. I let them lead their own groups and add my perspective when asked (or when I see them going off a cliff and I need to prevent it). But I am their boss and when they fuck something up I cover for them and take the hit.

    Some are very senior, like 20+ years of experience. They have seen it all and have the battle scars to prove it. They are set in their ways. Some will only use the particular technical stack they are experts in, so every application turns into a massive microservicey barge with an accordingly bloated front end client. Others enjoy learning new stuff but are stubborn about adding new workflow tools or learning new approaches to shipping software. I love these people.

    Others are very junior, like this-is-my-first-job-what-is-the-command-line. They are eager to learn, eager to jump in, and eager to figure out how to accelerate their progress using all tools available… like AI. I love these people, too.

    I have made it clear that I support judicious use of AI. What does that mean? No one knows! The entire industry is trying to figure it out. There are plenty of breathless posts from asshole exec types or bullshitting influencers claiming to have built and shipped a SaaS in a week that has already achieved $1M ARR! What does it look like in practice? It takes different forms.

    AI-assisted coding is just that — you ask an AI to explain something to you or to refactor something or to write a function with well-defined inputs and outputs. Maybe you have cash to burn and plan through a big feature with the AI, then tell it to “git er done”. It depends on how deep into the code you want to go.

    Vibe-coding is when you ask the AI to do something technical in less defined, squishy language. “Build me a twitter clone”, “Make the X page look similar to the Y page”, “Write tests and run them and make sure they pass”. Vibe coding is a cool way to build a mostly functional POC quickly. It’s absolute poison to anything you’ll be deploying to production. Security holes, edge case bugs, missing features that you assumed the AI would magically know about… expect that and more.

    This is a small overview for those fortunate souls who aren’t up to their neck in breathless tech news and earnings reports.

  • Attack of the MBA

    Some Sweeping generalizations

    The MBA is the most useless degree on the planet. You don’t learn any actual skills — instead you learn how to parrot the sayings and actions of the various case studies you read. You learn how to create really complicated spreadsheets based on bullshit numbers. You learn how to pretend, exaggerate, and manipulate.

    You learn that there’s no such thing as people. They are “resources”. Your engineers aren’t Jane, Paul, and Steve the intern. They are $20K/month, $15K/month, and $8K/month. More accurately, they are entries in a spreadsheet.

    MBAs view the world via pattern-matching. They look for superficially familiar things, then confidently engage as though they understand the deepest truths about them. They ignore the damage their engagement causes. Or maybe they don’t even notice it as they “juice the numbers” to improve the dollar value in the bottom right cell of their excel tab.

    They love to talk, to dig deep, to “get into it”. The have a story to match everyone else’s. They know a bit about everything and if they don’t, they’ll make something up. They don’t do actual work — but they do love meetings. They will “SWOT” away criticism of their methods by doubling down on “OKRs” to maximize “ARR” and achieve “organic growth”.

    The cash-colored glasses they hand newly minted MBAs with their degree aren’t meant to help them see opportunity. They are meant to distract and obscure their view of the destruction they leave behind.

  • Smart People

    Smart people are common. It may come as a surprise, but it’s only because we usually think of intelligence as something you are or are not. Instead, consider someone being smart as a single action. A smart action. Not a smart person.

    This means anyone can be smart at any time. The opposite is also true. Anyone can be a total fucking idiot at any time. Why is this useful to think about? It lets you stop worrying about being smart or looking smart or sounding smart. You aren’t smart or dumb. Only your actions are.

    Also keep in mind that “smart” is a label applied by a person. Most people think getting vaccinated is smart. Some think it is not. Drop your concern of “being smart”. It’s a damaging distraction. Instead, take action and judge your results.

  • Fuck your survey

    Every time I spend money online, I get an email five minutes later asking for feedback. Sometimes, it’s a simple “click the emoji: 🙂 or 🙁”. Other times, it’s a 10 minute questionnaire.

    It’s fun to buy something and then get asked to do actual work for the place you made the purchase from. Bought a pack of gum from CVS? Prepare to tell them how then can “do better”. Ordered a t-shirt online? You’ll be asked repeatedly to rate it and write a review.

    It’s almost as if the people who set up those automated “please pat me on the head and tell me I’m awesome” emails don’t respect the person receiving them. Why would I spend brain cycles trying to come up with ways to make your business better?

    Fuck your survey.