Thoughts

Short thoughts that are cross-posted to X (Twitter), Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn and Threads.

Mike McQuaid
Mike McQuaid

This was a good read and reflects my experiences. It also made me think the answer to “what do we do with juniors/students and AI” is “actually teach them software engineering best practices, not just CS fundamentals”.

https://christophermeiklejohn.com/ai/engineering/2026/04/01/software-engineering-is-becoming-civil-engineering.html

christophermeiklejohn.com
Software Engineering Is Becoming Civil Engineering
Software engineering is undergoing a transformation similar to when structural design separated from craft construction to become civil engineering, with AI handling feature development while platform engineers focus on building safe, resilient systems.
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Mike McQuaid
Mike McQuaid

At work, you have two jobs: being good at your job, being pleasant to work with.

You can sometimes get by for a while not doing them both but it’s hard to survive doing neither.

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Mike McQuaid
Mike McQuaid

Every time you open an issue or pull request with “No description provided”, an open source maintainer dies.

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Mike McQuaid
Mike McQuaid

One of the strengths of Homebrew, despite it being unpopular, is being willing to break backwards compatibility when necessary.

NPM’s unwillingness to do so reflects GitHub’s: both show excessive caution that harm both security and usability.

https://nesbitt.io/2026/03/31/npms-defaults-are-bad.html

npm's Defaults Are Bad
nesbitt.io
npm's Defaults Are Bad
The npm client's default settings are a root cause of JavaScript's recurring supply chain security problems.
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Mike McQuaid
Mike McQuaid

Job security for engineers is dead.

Career security is what matters.

You build it by learning, changing, taking risks, being reliable and stepping outside your lane.

Your employer won’t prioritise your long-term career.

You should.

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