engineering blog | how systems blow up in my face and how i stop them from doing it again.

Reaction A Ghostty notification slides in, “Claude needs your input.” Claude had just finished working. My face contorts. I can already smell it, the code, it BURNS. I know it’s gonna be bad. The odour emanating hit me before I had read the full diff. Rewind Continuing to work on the migration in this post, I was the one holding the stick and Claude was an ass. It was creating new domain-only models, along with a translator to…well…translate between the new DB models and domain models. ...

I wrote a follow-up: functools.singledispatch: I put that shit on everything I’ve been working on a spec for months. Finally…every stakeholder approves. I’ve cataloged every piece of code that needs to be migrated in a Notion DB. I’m working on one of the first PRs and then I see it… db.commit() “…ffffuuuuuummmmccckkkk mmmmmmeee…” The fucking “transactions” are being committed while wearing a coat of atomicity. “fuck, fuck, fuck, how the fuck did I miss this.” ...

Downsides of Decorative Nerd Arms I have a photo on my phone. A photo that I loathe with every fibre of my being. It’s a picture of a monitor on my basement floor showing an Ubuntu boot error. I was too tired to type the error into Google. AGAIN. OCR was my (temporary) saviour, for now. I fixed the error, eventually. It didn’t last long. After another power outage, another Ubuntu boot error. ...

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. ...