The Journal.
Thoughts, research breakdowns, and updates from the collective.
The Pulse: Meta wanted to reduce teams by 60% because of AI
We find out why Meta destroyed its standout engineering culture: it feared AI-native startups doing more with less. Also: thoughts on Ramp’s AI infra, GitHub’s load doubles in four months, and more
Why performant code matters (but gets widely ignored), with Casey Muratori
Casey Muratori explains why software performance matters, how developers can write faster code, and why he challenges conventional engineering practices.
Why Ramp built its own in-house coding agent, Inspect
A fintech company rejected the easy route and homebrewed its own coding agent – and is now a step ahead of coding agents from frontier AI labs. An in-depth look
The Pulse: We need to talk about migrations with AI
Asana completed a testing framework migration in two weeks, that they would have delayed for years more, and they’re not alone. Also: AI startups could make Gartner much less relevant, and more
From Chrome DevTools to AI Engineering, with Addy Osmani
Addy Osmani shares lessons from 14 years at Google and how AI agents are reshaping software engineering, developer workflows, and the skills engineers need to succeed.
Headed for the Exit: the Great Engineering Leader Career Break
Trend: more CTOs, VPEs, and Heads of Engineering are walking away from their high-status, in-demand positions. There are many reasons, mostly related to AI, and to "founder mode"
The Pulse: Meta’s self-inflicted resignation-wave
The social media giant is offering $1M+ retainer equity grants to staff who are leaving: and even this is not effective. Also: is Grok Bot the “OpenClaw moment” for managed AI agents?
Stop being skeptical about AI for development with Charity Majors
In 2025, it was rational to be skeptical about AI. In 2026, it's not, anymore. With Charity Majors, CTO and co-founder of Honeycomb.
Software engineering at a proprietary trading company: Optiver
A shift from a focus on latency to building better AI models, owning the full stack from applications to building custom hardware, very different incentives to most tech companies in play, and more
Formal methods with Hillel Wayne
Hillel Wayne explains why formal methods like TLA+ matter, how they help build reliable software, and whether AI will finally bring formal verification into the mainstream.
How building software is changing at Anthropic
A deepdive on what’s changed in how the leading AI lab makes software. Ever more code review and testing is done by AI, two-pizza teams very much alive, and more. Details from inside of Anthropic
The Pulse: Quitting Spotify Podcasts over reliability
Also: Chinese open models match closed ones from Anthropic and OpenAI, AWS’s “heart-attack” billing error, and more
Pushing software engineering limits with “napkin math”
Turbopuffer cofounder Simon Eskildsen on the benefits of longer tenure, using first principles to build durable software – and why founders should be cautious when raising VC money
The Pulse: Grok’s CLI caught uploading all your local files to the cloud
Also: engineering leaders concerned about continued increase in code review load, devs at enterprises surprised by high enterprise pricing, and more
Context engineering with Dex Horthy
Dex Horthy explains why context engineering is key to building more effective AI-assisted software without sacrificing code quality.
What is “loop engineering?”
There’s talk about loop engineering, but what is it exactly? I looked into it, and found triggers, cron jobs, AI slop & more. Is it a “here today, gone tomorrow” trend?
The Pulse: What can we learn from Bun’s rapid Rust rewrite with AI?
A rewrite done in 11 days that would have taken a small team a year to complete, for $165K in tokens. Also: coding LLM “wars” heat up, AI fakers from North Korea still a problem when hiring, and more
The Pragmatic Engineer AMA
In this AMA episode, Gergely Orosz answers listener questions on AI, engineering, hiring, and careers.
Tech jobs market in 2026, part 3: hiring managers & job seekers
The market where nobody finds each other, the hottest market for AI-related positions, tough for engineering leaders, and more. Based on details from 50+ hiring managers & job seekers
How Kent Beck shapes the software engineering industry
Kent Beck reflects on Agile, TDD, and why building trust—not just generating code—will define the future of software engineering in the AI era.