engineering blog | home of swe word vomit

Almost 30 years have taught me the way I function, and more importantly the way I don’t. I’ve created systems to compensate and mask. I spent a month using CC and building scaffolding to fix the model’s behaviour. I realized we have the same goddamn bugs: Me: Lies to myself LLM: Hallucinates Me: Hyper-focus loops LLM: Gets stuck in loops Me: Wait, you guys remember things? LLM: Context degrades Me: Does not use notes app Does not use second notes app Does not use third notes app LLM: Ignores the tool that does exactly what’s needed Ignores the second tool that does close to what’s needed Writes a custom script that errors out COKED OUT BANKER DRESSED IN A PROGRAMMER’S TRENCH COAT AKA ME WITHOUT MEDS It’s Friday evening before a freeze, one last thing before I log off and all I see is green: ...

I wrote a follow-up: I broke a working PR because an LLM convinced me there was a bug Friday, Feb 27, ~11:00AM I start my workday late, around 11. I sit at my desk and shake the mouse - nothing. “huh, that’s weird. why is this stupid thing not starting up?” I press a few random keys on my keyboard - nothing. I push the fingerprint sensor - nothing. “seriously?” I tap on the trackpad. No haptic feedback. Completely unresponsive. “maybe there is something loose from cable managing last night?” I check the cables, everything’s plugged-in. ...