My feeds are full of grand statements about the rate of AI adoption - how you’re already behind if you’re not managing a swarm of 10,000 agents.

This is hyperbole at best, and straight-up lying in most cases. Nobody knows where this is going, so how does anyone know if you are behind? What are you behind in?

Engineering fundamentals still matter. Proper coding still matters. As software engineers, our job isn’t just to build something that works - it’s to build something that lasts.

You are not behind. Wherever you are on your journey with AI in software engineering, that’s the right place to be. The entire world is still learning how to use this technology and how to use it effectively. Some have found improvements; others are still searching.

I’m currently on my third iteration of my own personal workflow.

My first vibe-coding setup built something that worked. But it quickly reached the point where not understanding the code myself, having to rely on the AI to read, debug, and maintain it, became untenable. I was spending the same amount of time, or sometimes more, going back and forth with prompts as I would doing my own bugfixes in a codebase I wrote and understood myself.

My second iteration took a more guarded, spec-driven approach: applying architectural guidelines before starting implementation, and setting up an automated system of spec writing and spec implementation with fully integrated context in a greenfields repo. The result was closer to what I’d consider a robust codebase. But after a while, I realised I’d spent about the same amount of time in setup as I usually would — and even after some weeks, with an acceptable codebase, I wasn’t significantly closer to shipping something. In that case, AI probably gave me about a 30% speed boost. Useful, but not astounding.

I’m now trying a different approach. Paying more attention to the context I give my agent about who or what I am, and the principles I use when writing code, storing that in context and trying out spec driven development with these principles as a foundation.

What matters is that I’m still trying. I don’t have the answer - and neither does anyone else. Because software engineering isn’t really a question that has an answer, it’s a field of many quirks with many different answers. Anyone who says it does doesn’t really understand what software engineering is, or how it works.

Do you need to learn how to use AI? Yes I think so.

Do you need to be scared of falling behind? I don’t think so, not if you are still trying and learning things. The fundamental principle of growth mindset still applies, if you are trying and failing, you’re progressing.

That’s why I’m starting No Shortcuts.

Who I am

I’m a software engineer with over a decade of experience building software. I’ve watched Atlassian grow through several stages of its journey, and along the way I’ve operated in teams as small as two people up through departments as large as five hundred.

Being part of several stages of growth has taught me one thing: the fundamentals remain the same throughout. Whether you’re two engineers in a room or a department of five hundred, the core of the craft - clarity, trade-offs, ownership and judgement are all the same. The scale changes a lot of things but those fundamentals remain and actually become more important as you go.

I’m also a father of two, and balance is critical to me. Software is a marathon, not a sprint, and nothing has taught me that more clearly than trying to be a good engineer and a good dad at the same time. I’ll write about that side of the craft too - doing your best work and having a life worth living shouldn’t be mutually exclusive, we don’t talk about it enough, I hope to be able to do that.

What this newsletter is

No Shortcuts is my attempt to write down what I’ve learned about software engineering as a craft. You can expect three kinds of posts:

• Leadership and the non-technical side of the craft - the skills that aren’t in the code, but essential to software engineering which is at it’s core a team game.

• AI and our craft - how AI is enhancing (and changing) the way we build software, and how to think clearly about it using what we already know about software engineering.

• Occasional technical posts - deep dives into the how and why, when a topic deserves the full treatment. Expect these to be centered around building.

Why “No Shortcuts”?

There are no shortcuts to mastery. There never have been and AI doesn’t change that. If anything, it makes the opposite true. The power of software automation is powerful, I truly believe that, but it can only be harnessed effectively through applying what we know about the craft. The ones who can reason about trade-offs, systems and people will be the ones that will be leveraging this technology to its fullest.

I want this newsletter to be for the people who are in it for the long game and building what the world looks like tomorrow. If that sounds like you, welcome!