crbntyp
Shrug
Thoughts, observations, and things that make me go "meh"
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Let’s rip the band-aid off. We need to have an honest conversation about the "Remote Work Revolution."
For the past few years, the corporate world has been gaslighting itself. We’ve nodded along to endless LinkedIn posts about how we are all happier, healthier, and more productive working in sweatpants from our kitchen tables. We've accepted the narrative that the office is dead, a relic of an archaic past.
But if you talk to business owners and managers off the record—away from the performative positivity of social media—you hear a different story. You hear about projects stalling, communication breaking down, and a creeping sense that the engine of the business is sputtering.
While remote work has undeniable benefits for flexibility, the harsh reality is that for many businesses, and particularly for huge swathes of the workforce, productivity is going down the drain.... read more →
I have a confession: for the first time in 25 years, I am actually happy with my personal website.
If you are a developer, you know the struggle. The "personal portfolio" is the project that never ends. It is the "Cobbler’s Children" syndrome of the digital age. It is always half-baked, waiting for a rewrite, or stuck in a framework from three years ago that you’re now embarrassed to show off.
But recently, with a heavy assist from AI, I finally crossed the finish line. It feels functional, it feels like me, and most importantly, it is done.
Here is why it took a quarter of a century, and how the workflow finally changed.
The Trap of Over-Engineering
For years, my portfolio wasn't treated as a website; it was treated as a laboratory.
Every time I... read more →
I've been a Design and UI Engineer since the days when table-based layouts were the norm and nothing worked properly. I was barely twenty when I started, and now—twenty-seven years later—the web has transformed beyond recognition. But nothing has changed me quite like the last few months, when AI stepped into my creative process and completely rewired the way I work.
Let me be upfront: I can code. I've been doing it for 27 years and I still love it. But memorising every syntax quirk across JavaScript, React, Vue, and PHP? That was never the point. In the past, that meant constant documentation diving and Stack Overflow rabbit holes just to remember the right method name. Now? I just vibe.
From Syntax... read more →
There's something to be said about putting on the right playlist and just... coding. No tickets, no standups, no Jira. Just you, the editor, and whatever problem you're solving.
Andrej Karpathy calls it vibe coding. It's not productive in the traditional sense. You might refactor something that didn't need refactoring. You might build a feature nobody asked for. But sometimes that's where the magic happens.
The best code I've ever written came from these sessions. Not because I was being measured, but because I was curious.
There's a freedom in coding without constraints. When you're not watching the clock or worrying about sprint velocity, you start to see patterns you'd otherwise miss. You refactor that ugly function because it bothers you, not because it's in the backlog.
Some call it waste. I call it craft.
The irony is that companies spend millions trying... read more →
Every week there's a new AI tool promising to "revolutionize" design. Figma has AI. Canva has AI. Your toaster probably has AI.
But here's the thing: AI can generate a button. It can suggest a color palette. It can even mock up a landing page. What it can't do is understand why your users are frustrated, or feel the weight of a brand's history, or know when to break the rules.
Design isn't about pixels. It's about people. And until AI develops empathy, designers are safe.
I've been doing this for over two decades. I've seen Flash come and go. I've watched responsive design become table stakes.... read more →
Short answer: probably some of them.
Long answer: The engineers who just translate tickets into code? Yeah, they should be worried. But the ones who ask "why are we building this?" before "how do we build this?" - they're going to be fine.
AI is really good at the "how". It can write boilerplate, fix bugs, even architect systems. But it doesn't understand context. It doesn't push back on bad requirements. It doesn't mentor juniors or navigate office politics.
The job is evolving, not disappearing. Adapt or become a prompt.
I've watched junior developers go from writing every line by hand to using Copilot as a pair programmer. They're not less skilled - they're differently... read more →
We're living in the most creative time in human history. And I'm not being hyperbolic.
Right now, someone with no formal training can compose music, design logos, write novels, and build software - all before lunch. The barriers that kept creation exclusive are crumbling.
Yes, AI is driving this. And yes, that scares people. But imagine telling a medieval peasant that one day, anyone could publish a book to millions of readers instantly. They'd call it witchcraft.
Embrace the tools. Create something. The only limit now is imagination, and that's never been in short supply.
I think about my son. He grew up in a world where he could say "make me a song about dinosaurs" and it happens. Where he could sketch an idea and watch it become animated. Where the gap between imagination and creation is measured in seconds, not years.
Some mourn the "purity" of manual... read more →
