I had a tough week, a week ago. My manager pointed out some of the negative side effects of my aggressive adoption of agentic coding, prompting me to rethink how I’m approaching my work.
Continue reading “Agentic coding growing pains”Category: Career
The AI Landslide Is Happening

When it comes to AI changing the tech world, we’re at a juncture where you’ve either:
- seen some shit with your own eyes or you believe your imagination of where this is going
- or, you haven’t and you’re dubious
It feels like people are living in a fractured reality. For the moment, that is stable. But reality is not completely subjective. The way we each get to live in the world is shaped by things outside of our subjective perspective. That is going to hit all of us, regardless of what we believe.
Continue reading “The AI Landslide Is Happening”CDAP: a revolutionary way of working with AI agents

I have adopted a new way of taking on complex projects, and it is radically increasing my productivity. The idea is simple: I use documents as the shared canvas for collaboration between myself and chatbot sessions. The result is far more powerful than the sum of its parts.
I call it chatbot+document-assisted projects, or CDAPs.
Continue reading “CDAP: a revolutionary way of working with AI agents”Brave new world: rethinking software development
We’re in the midst of a massive pivot in the entire line of work of software development. At least in some places, like where I work, everything is different.
Continue reading “Brave new world: rethinking software development”Arc of a job search
It is always helpful to have a roadmap for an unfamiliar experience. I did not, as I embarked on an intense job search. But maybe my reflection will be useful to others.
I noticed that the process has followed an arc. Much like chess, it has a distinct opening, middlegame, and endgame. Each of these phases has a very different feel, and has required me to optimize in different ways.
Continue reading “Arc of a job search”Rejection is a gift

“I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.”
This is one of the big takeaways of my job search, as it nears its end. This is hard for me to acknowledge, as someone who can get along with nearly anyone and with a track record that highlights my versatility.
I don’t mean this in terms of getting along with interviewers. I mean in terms of people’s vision for the role they’re hiring for and whether I’m a high confidence match.
But I think that’s OK.
Continue reading “Rejection is a gift”Be vulnerable

Vulnerability doesn’t come naturally to me. While I really enjoy sharing and discussing things, I do not like attention. It makes me feel unsafe. So, it was hard to post my #OpenForWork post. It’s also hard to post these sentences. But I just want to say that it’s been incredibly heartwarming to receive check-ins, solid leads on roles, and warm intros. It has made a huge difference in the opportunities that I’m aware of and my ability to make progress through those early stages of the application funnel.
I’m sharing this because if there’s anybody else who can relate, maybe this is a nudge to push through the discomfort and ask for support. And if there’s anything I can ever do to help anyone, please let me know.
And as an update, the search is ongoing, but going well. My concern level is not “zero”, but I’m pretty sure things will work out. I feel very fortunate. My worries are with folks who are earlier career or do jobs that have less demand. It’s a wild time.
Ask for help
I’m in a group called /dev/color, which is a professional development group for black engineers. I’ve been a member for the past three years, and I’m kicking off my fourth year in the program. Membership has impacted me in numerous ways, but I want to highlight one thing I’ve learned that is applicable beyond this specific network:
Ask for help.
Continue reading “Ask for help”
