AI Goodies (opens in a new tab)
Agent skills, prompts, and small tools I still use after they have survived contact with real work.
unhappy path | Software engineering hijinks
Welcome to my little neck of the woods. This is where I write about software systems, architecture, processes, leadership, the paths that do not go as planned, why, and how to make them (hopefully) better. Lately this includes figuring out where AI actually helps engineering work, and where it does not.
I write about things I care about - they are usually unglamorous, and rarely innovative, but hopefully concise, insightful and entertaining enough to read through. I hope there's something here for you to take away and apply in your scenario or line of work. That's it. Welcome to Unhappy Path.
Notes
Notes on engineering, systems, and leadership.
The most dangerous thing about vibe coding
The most dangerous thing about vibe coding is not AI writing bad code, it's people building things that should never have been built in the first place.
It always takes longer to do it wrong
Every shortcut looks reasonable in the moment. You are just putting another empty roll on the tower. When it falls, it falls on whoever happens to be standing there.
Staff archetypes in the age of agentic engineering
Agentic tools are quietly reshaping which Staff+ archetypes thrive and which are squeezed. Not all Engineers are feeling the pressure the same way.
The real achievement is a machine that does not need you
Coming back from a month away and finding the team shipped anyway is not luck. It is the point of the job.
Projects
A few things I've built or contributed to.
Quantum State Separator (opens in a new tab)
A Technion-era tool that takes an entangled quantum state and finds the closest separable one. C++ and Eigen under a small web front end. After my old Prof and project guide Yosi Avron (opens in a new tab) told me it’s still useful in 2026 it undergone a revival, facelift, and public deployment (Jan 2026).
Links
Recommended reads, newsletters, and tools I keep coming back to.
Honorable mentions
- DeanOnDelivery (opens in a new tab) - On Product Management (and more) by Dean Peters (opens in a new tab). Among the gems - Behold, the Product Management Prioritization Menagerie (opens in a new tab) - HiPPO, RHiNO, ZEbRA, WoLF, and seagulls: a field guide to the animals that eat your backlog.
- Nate B. Jones’ newsletter (opens in a new tab) - Worth following for the latest AI news, but more thoughtful than 99% of what’s out there.
- Staff archetypes (opens in a new tab) - Will Larson’s mental map for staff+ engineers; useful when “staff engineer” is doing too much work as one title.
- Designations, levels and calibrations (opens in a new tab) - Will Larson’s practical breakdown of career ladders, performance designations, and calibration, with the right emphasis on ladders as the foundation.
- Irrational Exuberance (opens in a new tab) - Will Larson’s blog on engineering management, strategy, and building a durable career. Recommended reads:
- Falsehoods programmers believe about time (opens in a new tab) - the checklist I revisit whenever “just store UTC” starts sounding like a complete plan.
Tools I love
- oh-my-zsh (opens in a new tab) - This is my shell (zsh) configuration framework of choice.
- thefuck (opens in a new tab) - it’s okay to be mad when you typo. This CLI corrects simple shell mistakes.
- Matt Pocock’s skills (opens in a new tab) - A practical collection of agent skills for real engineering work.
Misc
- Wat (opens in a new tab) - six minutes of language edge cases escalating into one of the best programming talks ever recorded.