“Necati, how can I burn more tokens?” Someone asked me this recently. I had to pause. I understand wanting engineers to use AI. Give them access. Give them time to learn. Let them try approaches that might fail. But why would consuming more tokens become the objective? ...
There are still lots and lots of organizations treating LLM usage during coding interviews as cheating. I think that needs to change. If you expect your engineers to work with AI, your hiring process should evaluate how effectively candidates work with AI. That is becoming part of the job. This is still far from standard practice. In CoderPad’s 2026 survey, 34% of surveyed hiring leaders said AI was not allowed in interviews and assessments. That is a vendor survey, so I would not treat it as a precise measurement of the entire industry. But it gives us an idea of the disagreement. ...
People say, “I am vibe-coding. Therefore, I am a software engineer.” This is like saying, “I can ride a bike, so I can drive a car.” Both have wheels. Both can move forward, right? Here’s what I’ll say: try merging onto a highway on a bicycle. You’ll learn fast what’s missing. Mapping the Territory Today I want to place vibe-coding, coding, regular coding, and software engineering onto the same map. So you’ll know when to pedal and when to drive. ...
Have you ever joined a new team with a new tech stack, with a new process, and a production issue already waiting for you? Here is how I ramp up fast: I zoom out before I zoom in. The Problem: Everyone Hunts Where They’re Comfortable During my consultant gigs, I am constantly dropped into an unfamiliar environment. New teams, new architecture, new tech stack, new development process, new deployment process, it’s always new. The question is always the same: how do you stay on top of it? ...
“So, what kind of engineer are you?” “I’m a Python engineer.” Every time I hear this, I cringe a little. Not because Python isn’t amazing—it absolutely is. But because somewhere along the way, we’ve started defining ourselves by our tools instead of our craft. I’m sure you’ve heard it too: “I am an AWS engineer,” “I am a React developer,” as if the tool has become their entire professional identity. ...
There’s a really weird communication pattern that I keep seeing all the time in big companies and small companies. Picture this: You’re hiring an employee, consultant, contractor, whatever you want to call them. You think this person has good experience and you’re paying them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Once you hire them, you tell them, “Hey, I want you to do this.” This is super weird. You’re not explaining the problem. You’re just trying to use this person as a human tool. ...
I want to argue that you should build your product on microservices; not because of technical reasons, but because you should see it as a team management strategy. The Double-Edged Sword of Microservices Let’s zoom out and first remember what a microservice is. A microservice is basically a small, deployable piece of service that, when meshed together with others, forms a larger application. If you’re already working with microservices or even if you haven’t built any so far, you’ve probably heard about it. ...