The Cynical Developer

Developers love a stack argument. We look at how AI quietly makes much of it irrelevant - by collapsing the cost of working in something unfamiliar - and what genuinely still matters underneath the framework wars.

Written by James Studdart. Voiced using an AI model of his voice.

Most companies are doing something with AI — and measuring the wrong thing. We look at the adoption trap, why activity keeps getting mistaken for outcomes, and why AI just runs a broken process faster.

Written by James Studdart. Voiced using an AI model of his voice.

As building gets cheap, the bottleneck moves from “how” to “what”. We look at the rise of the product-minded engineer - someone who understands the customer, the business and the outcome, and happens to be able to build.

Written by James Studdart. Voiced using an AI model of his voice.

A fear runs under a lot of AI conversations: that experienced engineers are worth less now the machine can write code. We argue it’s close to the opposite - AI raises the floor on output but raises the ceiling on judgement far more.

Written by James Studdart. Voiced using an AI model of his voice.

If AI writes the boilerplate, tests and CRUD screens juniors used to learn on, how does anyone become senior? We look at the apprenticeship we’ve quietly automated away - and the slow, deferred bill that comes with it.

Written by James Studdart. Voiced using an AI model of his voice.