Essays and field notes on AI-native software work, agents, and engineering judgment. https://davidmieloch.com/blog en-us The machine is bigger than the builder now. I am not a physicist. That matters, because this essay starts from physics. Not from a vibe. Not from a YouTube metaphor about living... https://davidmieloch.com/blog/reality-needs-observers https://davidmieloch.com/blog/reality-needs-observers Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT When you learned to code in the 1990s, that skill lasted thirty years. The same investment made a decade later bought you ten. Made five years ago, you might already be... https://davidmieloch.com/blog/the-moving-target https://davidmieloch.com/blog/the-moving-target Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT The Wrong Debate Right now there's a busy genre of content about AI's limitations. The model hallucinated a library that doesn't exist. It got the edge case wrong. The senior... https://davidmieloch.com/blog/the-foreman https://davidmieloch.com/blog/the-foreman Fri, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT An Ensemble of Agents I learned to code by reverse engineering other people's answers rather than struggling to figure them out myself. Nine years later, I accidentally rebuilt... https://davidmieloch.com/blog/the-golden-hammer https://davidmieloch.com/blog/the-golden-hammer Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT The Productivity Trap In the 1880s, factories started replacing steam engines with electric motors. On paper, it was a revolution. Electric motors were smaller, cleaner, more... https://davidmieloch.com/blog/the-factory https://davidmieloch.com/blog/the-factory Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT What happens when your code keeps working after you go to bed. I launched an execution engine on a Saturday evening and went to have dinner. When I came back, it was still... https://davidmieloch.com/blog/the-overnight-shift https://davidmieloch.com/blog/the-overnight-shift Fri, 03 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT The cost of the dive just dropped by 90%. Every company has one. A cancelled project with thousands of hours baked in. A codebase nobody wants to touch because the people who... https://davidmieloch.com/blog/every-company-is-sitting-on-sunken-treasure https://davidmieloch.com/blog/every-company-is-sitting-on-sunken-treasure Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT A compliance guide for the overly productive. Your code is too clean. Your tests are too thorough. Your PR descriptions are too helpful. Someone is going to notice. This guide... https://davidmieloch.com/blog/how-to-make-your-ai-code-look-human https://davidmieloch.com/blog/how-to-make-your-ai-code-look-human Wed, 01 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Most research dies between the PDF and the person who could use it. I saw a paper on Reddit. \"Recursive Language Models\" from MIT CSAIL. Opened the PDF. Closed it immediately. I... https://davidmieloch.com/blog/academic-research-is-a-software-patch-and-i-finally-have-a-way-to-install-it https://davidmieloch.com/blog/academic-research-is-a-software-patch-and-i-finally-have-a-way-to-install-it Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT The word hallucination is doing more harm than the models are. https://davidmieloch.com/blog/your-ai-isnt-hallucinating-its-lying https://davidmieloch.com/blog/your-ai-isnt-hallucinating-its-lying Fri, 20 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Most people assume that giving an AI agent a fictional persona is just for fun. A novelty. A skin on top of the real system. I've found the opposite. Personas carry serious... https://davidmieloch.com/blog/why-character-choice-matters-in-agent-design https://davidmieloch.com/blog/why-character-choice-matters-in-agent-design Wed, 18 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT Part 2 of “What I Learned Building a Photoshop in the Browser” 🎧 Listen on Spotify Episode 7: Pixel Precision: What Building a Design Tool for Artists Taught Me About Frontend Cra https://davidmieloch.com/blog/pixel-precision-in-developer-tools-what-i-learned-building-designer-cloud https://davidmieloch.com/blog/pixel-precision-in-developer-tools-what-i-learned-building-designer-cloud Thu, 08 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT Why Amplification — Not Manual Skill — Should Be Your New Hiring Signal Old rules test the keystrokes. New rules test the cognition behind them. I recently encountered a technical https://davidmieloch.com/blog/judgment-over-keystrokes https://davidmieloch.com/blog/judgment-over-keystrokes Wed, 07 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT Beyond Hype — How We Actually Use Rules, Prompts, Skill Jacks, and Task Lists to Work Smarter with AI Introduction When I first started developing Brain Garden, it wasn’t a polishe https://davidmieloch.com/blog/building-with-brain-garden-real-world-lessons-in-practical-ai https://davidmieloch.com/blog/building-with-brain-garden-real-world-lessons-in-practical-ai Mon, 28 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT Lessons in architecture, state management, and engineering leadership from four years building an enterprisegrade design tool. Introduction The Designer Cloud interface — our brows https://davidmieloch.com/blog/what-i-learned-building-a-photoshop-in-the-browser https://davidmieloch.com/blog/what-i-learned-building-a-photoshop-in-the-browser Fri, 25 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT A virtual developer round table discussion led by you and the prompts/software I used to make it happen Humanled round table discussion with AI’s When my brother linked me to the N https://davidmieloch.com/blog/developing-with-a-team-of-ai-s https://davidmieloch.com/blog/developing-with-a-team-of-ai-s Thu, 28 Mar 2024 00:00:00 GMT Are you looking to build a custom library using webpack? With the right setup, webpack can help you create a library that can be used by other developers in their projects. This is https://davidmieloch.com/blog/reuse-your-code-authoring-your-own-universal-library-with-webpack https://davidmieloch.com/blog/reuse-your-code-authoring-your-own-universal-library-with-webpack Fri, 03 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMT Benefits Key name can’t change, predictability Keys can be in any order, and can be alphabetized Inputs and outputs become incredibly clear Object destructuring is an incredibly po https://davidmieloch.com/blog/the-beauty-of-es6s-object-destructuring-assignment https://davidmieloch.com/blog/the-beauty-of-es6s-object-destructuring-assignment Thu, 02 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMT Conditional statements are a crucial aspect of programming but can often be challenging to read and understand. They tend to be long and detailed, including multiple edge cases tha https://davidmieloch.com/blog/why-you-should-encapsulate-your-javascript-conditionals-in-a-function https://davidmieloch.com/blog/why-you-should-encapsulate-your-javascript-conditionals-in-a-function Wed, 01 Feb 2023 00:00:00 GMT Why? As humans, we thrive on structure and order, and labeling things is a great way to help our brains process information more effectively. Have you ever noticed how you can quic https://davidmieloch.com/blog/alphabetize-your-code https://davidmieloch.com/blog/alphabetize-your-code Tue, 31 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT