https://dev.ahill.net/tags/software-engineering/Recent content in Software-Engineering on Virtual AndyHugo -- 0.148.2enSat, 27 Jun 2026 06:00:00 +0000https://dev.ahill.net/2026/06/27/architecture-grief/Sat, 27 Jun 2026 06:00:00 +0000https://dev.ahill.net/2026/06/27/architecture-grief/Software engineers don’t just inherit systems, they inherit the constraints that shaped them. This post explores what I call Architecture Grief: the process of coming to terms with the reality that systems are shaped by constraints that cannot simply be engineered away, and how the five stages of grief provide a surprisingly useful framework for understanding architecture maturity.https://dev.ahill.net/2026/06/01/ai-coding-h1-2026/Sat, 23 May 2026 06:00:00 +0000https://dev.ahill.net/2026/06/01/ai-coding-h1-2026/My H1 2026 notes on AI coding assistants: where they make me faster, and where software engineering is still very human work.https://dev.ahill.net/2025/08/18/after-the-vibe-shift/Mon, 18 Aug 2025 07:30:00 +0000https://dev.ahill.net/2025/08/18/after-the-vibe-shift/My review of Software Engineering: After the Vibe Shift, a short book that is more about durable engineering judgment than vibe coding.https://dev.ahill.net/2025/08/08/ai-2025/Fri, 08 Aug 2025 07:30:00 +0000https://dev.ahill.net/2025/08/08/ai-2025/A snapshot of how I was using AI coding tools in August 2025, what changed, and where they were actually helping me.https://dev.ahill.net/2024/02/16/software-engineering-and-ai-my-experience-so-far/Fri, 16 Feb 2024 19:15:11 +0000https://virtualandy.wordpress.com/2024/02/16/software-engineering-and-ai-my-experience-so-far/My practical experience using AI in software engineering work, where it helps, and where the workflow still needs judgment.https://dev.ahill.net/2024/01/03/new-direction-2024/Wed, 03 Jan 2024 08:00:00 +0000https://virtualandy.wordpress.com/?p=1395A 15-year site update and a note on where I want the blog to go next.https://dev.ahill.net/2023/12/15/book-review-tidy-first/Fri, 15 Dec 2023 16:54:00 +0000https://virtualandy.wordpress.com/2023/12/15/book-review-tidy-first/My notes on Tidy First?, a small and practical book about making codebases easier to change one cleanup at a time.https://dev.ahill.net/2022/10/22/book-review-the-staff-engineers-path/Sat, 22 Oct 2022 18:47:22 +0000https://virtualandy.wordpress.com/?p=1634My review of The Staff Engineer’s Path and why it is useful for people trying to operate well in Staff+ roles.https://dev.ahill.net/2021/11/10/book-review-accelerate-the-science-of-lean-software-and-devops-building-and-scaling-high-performing-technology-organizations/Wed, 10 Nov 2021 10:00:00 +0000https://virtualandy.wordpress.com/?p=1575My review of Accelerate: useful research-backed vocabulary and confirmation, with more methodology detail than I wanted from the book.https://dev.ahill.net/2021/11/03/book-review-software-engineering-at-google-lessons-learned-from-programming-over-time/Wed, 03 Nov 2021 21:46:17 +0000https://virtualandy.wordpress.com/?p=1566My review of Software Engineering at Google: valuable engineering lessons, with the usual large-company navel gazing mixed in.https://dev.ahill.net/2021/10/12/on-the-big-rewrite/Tue, 12 Oct 2021 15:34:15 +0000https://virtualandy.wordpress.com/?p=1537A mirror of John Rauser’s thread about big rewrites and why they are usually more complicated than they look.