Last week in code :e01

The beginning of a new chapter

I find I always have a whole lot to talk about at the end of every week. And that most of it is from the tech space. I attend this Software Club meeting every Thursday where I try to use some of that time to talk about the latest developments with people who get it. We exchange opinions on things we’re building. You know how that is. So I was like, how about I create something here that’ll be an outlet for that? So I did. Like many things I’ve started, I can’t be sure this will last. But I won’t try to preemptively kill it either. May the Force be with it. This week, I’m shipping the skeleton and letting the structure emerge naturally as I pump in more episodes. My consumption is personal, so what I include might skew toward my interests. Beware :)

Updates From me

A new way to do project management: The cascading effect of small habits

Now here’s the thing—I’ve been moving my project management from scattered TODO lists to GitHub issues. And I wondered why I hadn’t done that earlier. The whole thing is way better. Every time I think of an improvement, I can just add an issue. There’s labeling too. And that labeling system is actually how I got my first PR. There’s a lot of talk online about how to get your pull requests accepted. But I’d never been in the reviewer position before. Never felt that side of it. All of this came from just starting to use GitHub issues properly. It’s wild how one decision cascades.

Can’t do it – don’t delegate it: Non-mainstream AI advice

So I beat myself up for choosing to use AI for something I didn’t understand. In one of my projects—Dripletter for precision—I wanted to move from CLI to a web app. So I gave the whole task to Grok. Hours of prompting later, I ran the code it generated and immediately drowned in bugs. Bugs arising from concepts I didn’t understand. The lesson hit hard: Don’t assign AI tasks that you can’t do yourself. I know, it sounds backwards. One could argue we should just stop using AI altogether. But that’s not the point. The point is knowing the difference between delegation and abdication. AI is great when you understand what you’re delegating. When you’re outsourcing something you fundamentally don’t grasp? That’s where the pain comes from.

Eye catching news from the tech space

I’m deeply into Security and Privacy, so those topics tend to show up most frequently in my feed. The algorithm. Here’s some highlights from this week.

End to end encrypted Ads [tags: security]

Meta is bringing ads to WhatsApp Status and Channels — I somehow saw this coming, even though I thought ads would never touch Meta’s flagship messaging platform. I got a prompt asking me to opt into targeted ads, with assurances that they’re based only on status and channels data. And that chats remain end-to-end encrypted. Make of that what you will.

Closing thought

This series is an experiment. I’m leaning into the ramble, trusting that structure will emerge as I ship more. If you’re reading this and thinking “hey, I learn the same stuff every week,” drop a note. I’m curious what resonates. Next week: more from the trenches.

A challenge for you

Can you tell that the above post was my speech through the mouth of a GPT? Until next week.. Adios..