Locate Yourself: The Path to AI Native
In May I helped a major medtech company jumpstart its internal AI efforts. In the process I came up with a way of thinking about the journey a company takes to fully embrace AI. I keep … Read more
Category: AI
Principal Engineer Tenets
These are the tenets for Principal Engineers that define the engineering culture at Amazon. They are just about as perfect as a set of rules that define senior engineers’ behaviors as you’ll find. Ensuring your company’s … Read more
No-Look Coding and the Five Stages of Grief
This week the argument found a name. Uncle Bob Martin, who started coding in the late 60s and wrote the book on clean code, posted that his current strategy is to not read any of the … Read more
Prompt to Metal
Software engineers stopped opening IDEs. Hardware engineers are about to stop opening KiCad. I define Prompt to Metal, explain why the prompt-box startups have no moat, and share five weakly held opinions about where this all goes.
MCEC 3.0: Eyes and Hands for Agents on Windows
The Model Context Environment Controller is eyes, hands, and a safe front door for agents on Windows; and the same battle-tested remote control for smart-home systems.
You Are Behind in Using AI. Here’s How to Catch Up
Updated July 2026. The original March version of this post is below, revised. The biggest changes: my credentials for giving this advice got stronger (I stopped reading the code entirely; see No-Look Coding and the Five Stages … Read more
Terminal.Gui: Still Absurd, Now Beta!
For the past few months we’ve been architecting, refactoring, and refining. 146 commits. Dozens of PRs. One PR touched 493 files. The long-awaited Beta isn’t just about revolutionary features. It’s about getting the architecture right and … Read more
How AI Will Keep Us Honest
I was a guest on the “Are We There Yet?” podcast. We dove deep into several topics close to my heart: The future of life on Earth, artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, leadership, and more. Have a … Read more