When your manager casually mentions that the company is “mandating AI pair programming for all new features” in the same tone they’d use to describe a new coffee machine, it hits different. But before you dust off your protest signs, let’s talk about whether unionization is actually the answer—or if we’re solving the wrong problem entirely. The AI Pair Programming Moment We’re Living In We’re at an inflection point. Artificial intelligence coding agents are no longer science fiction—they’re in your IDE right now, probably sitting there like an overeager intern who never sleeps, never asks for vacation, and never complains about pull request feedback....
The Uninvited Houseguest Nobody Talks About You’ve just shipped a feature that’s been in production for three months. It’s working perfectly. Your team congratulated you. Your manager praised your work. And yet, somewhere in your brain, a tiny voice whispers: “You got lucky. They’ll figure you out soon.” Welcome to imposter syndrome—the psychological equivalent of having a persistent houseguest who keeps rearranging your accomplishments and telling you they don’t belong to you....
There’s a peculiar moment in Silicon Valley history we’re living through right now. The same technology companies that built their empires on the promise of open standards and interconnected systems are now wielding API restrictions like digital moats around their castles. And the irony? They’re calling it security. Let me paint you a picture. Imagine you’re trying to build a Linux emulator that runs on Apple’s iOS—something useful, something users actually want....
The Cloud Isn’t Always the Answer (Shocking, I Know) There’s a running joke in the tech industry that every infrastructure problem can be solved by “moving it to the cloud.” Need better performance? Cloud. Worried about security? Cloud. Your coffee’s cold? Definitely cloud. But here’s the thing nobody’s talking about loudly enough: sometimes the cloud is just… overengineering masquerading as innovation. I’ve watched companies burn millions on cloud migrations that made their infrastructure worse....
The Tyranny of “Keep It Simple” There’s a phrase that haunts engineering rooms worldwide, whispered like sacred scripture: “Keep it simple, stupid.” It’s on t-shirts, on conference slides, and definitely in the minds of every tech lead who’s just finished reading a blog post about minimalism. And I’m here to tell you something slightly heretical: sometimes that advice is spectacularly wrong. Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not advocating for complexity for complexity’s sake....