Career

The software development landscape is undergoing its most significant transformation since the shift from assembly language to high-level programming. As AI tools become increasingly sophisticated, we’re witnessing a fundamental change in how we approach building software — moving from writing detailed instructions to describing desired outcomes. The Great Paradigm Shift The traditional imperative approach required developers to think like this: Step 1: Create a loop Step 2: Check each item Step 3: Filter based on condition Step 4: Return results The emerging declarative approach looks more like: ...

I have a confession: I am absolutely, unabashedly in love with TODO lists. Not just fond of them, not just dependent on them — I’m talking about a deep, passionate love affair that has lasted my entire career. And as a neurodivergent engineer with ADHD, this isn’t just a quirky productivity habit. It’s my secret superpower. The ADHD Brain and External Memory Most neurotypical people use TODO lists as reminders. For neurodivergent minds, they’re something far more powerful: an external memory system that compensates for our unique cognitive patterns. ...

Technical interviews test everything except what matters most. Maybe it’s time for developers to have agents like actors and writers.

The Pragmatic Engineer’s Manifesto: Beyond Hype, Toward Solutions Software engineering is drowning in false signals. We optimize for the wrong metrics, test the wrong skills, and chase the wrong goals. The result? Systems that are complex but fragile, teams that are impressive but ineffective, and engineers who can recite algorithms but can’t solve real problems. It’s time for a different approach. When Answers Are Cheap, Questions Become Expensive Today, answers are cheaper than they’ve ever been. ChatGPT, Claude, and Stack Overflow can solve almost any technical problem in seconds. You can find tutorials, code examples, and step-by-step guides for virtually any programming task. ...

A winter slowdown in New England gave me time to reconnect with my roots as a developer and reflect on a decade of web development experience.