Learning Software Architecture

• Reading Alex’s concrete recommendations at the bottom of the article — there are some fun resources that might be worth their own link dump entry in the future.

Agentic Coding is a Trap

• The narrative around agentic coding is pushing the idea that turnaround time is a developer’s top priority. “You don’t need to understand the code, just let the AI fix the bugs later”
• This inverts a traditional developer priority list, that maybe one of the top priorities for a developer is building and maintaining a mental model of the system they are responsible for.

The Five Levels: from Spicy Autocomplete to the Dark Factory

• This article frames the agentic coding narrative very well. Not sure if we’ll all end up at level five (the dark factory), but that’s definitely where the hype is pointing!

Mechanics of talking. Must-have soft skills of Solutions Architect

• Remember to smile
• Running an effective meeting (e.g. having a plan)
• Communicating information: visual communication; chunking items, etc
• Confidence
  • Invite someone from your team to join you and support
  • If you are surprised, say you will get back with the answer later because you need time to think it through.