Lars Jansen
@oldstackjournal
🛠️ AI tools & simple web workflows for builders!
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I think one of the underrated skills in AI coding is knowing when to say NO.
The model will happily add another abstraction, helper, wrapper, package or whole bloody subsystem if you let it😂
Sometimes the best prompt is basically: absolutely not. Do it simpler.
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A lot of software doesn’t need a rewrite.
It needs someone to delete 30% of it, remove two dependencies, rename the confusing bits and stop adding features for a month😂
Morning folks💪 Monday builder roll call.
What are you actually trying to get DONE this week?
Not the giant roadmap. The one thing that would make Friday feel like a win.
Mine is getting another chunk of my current build over the line:) Getting close now💪
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Happy Sunday friends! Hope you all get a well deserved break💕
Nearly all pre-ai programmers do not know how interpreters and compilers work, but they were productive anyway.
This is not that different.
The abstraction just went up a level.
Nobody said “vibe” coders are replacing senior engineers on a 12 year old enterprise platform.
They’re building the other 90% of software:
a tracker for the shop
a family recipe app
a WordPress workflow that used to take a whole Saturday
a local agent that actually does one job
You don’t need to know every framework convention to ship that.
You do need taste, persistence, and the ability to tell the model “that smells wrong, try again.”
That’s the new class.
Not “fake developers.”
Just people who can now finish things they used to only describe.
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@br11k_dev If you were a billionaire and said to a car company I want a car that does X. You'll get a car that does X. And YOU won't have any clue how it does it. Does it do X though? Yep.
@br11k_dev If you were a billionaire and said to a car company I want a car that does X. You'll get a car that does X. And YOU won't have any clue how it does it. Does it do X though? Yep.
Finished a few tweaks to my reporting system at Very happy with the output:) Time for a beer:)
I think AI coding is creating a new class of software developer.
People who’d never call themselves programmers, but can describe a system properly, test it, argue with the model, spot when something smells wrong and keep pushing until they get what they want.
They don't know every language feature or framework convention.
But they ship real software anyway.
Seems to be annoying the hell out of quite a few pre-ai programmers😂
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Friday night thought: AI has definitely made me faster at starting projects.
I’m still not convinced it’s made me any better at deciding which ones deserve to exist😂
Where do you actually go when you’re properly stuck on a dev problem and AI + the docs aren’t enough?
GitHub issues? Stack Overflow? Discord? Reddit? Some tiny forum nobody else knows about? @X?
I need more good rabbit holes😂
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I’ve spent a lot of time building useful little tools. Building a game for a change is reminding me that software is allowed to just be FUN too😂
Another mate of mine just launched as well! Go get some🙌🙌
Hey crew 🤙
I’ve just launched UniUrl, a public portfolio and discovery network for people who build things.
➡️ I’m giving ten builders a Pro account for life. You will get an unlimited board, full Showcase pages for your products, video, custom share cards and a custom domain.
➡️ I’m looking for people with several real products or projects who want one strong place to present everything they build. In return, I’d like honest feedback while I improve the first version.
If that sounds like you, send me your work.
UniUrl .app
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AI can make a web app look finished LONG before it actually is.
The form works. The button works. The page looks great.
Then you ask what happens on retry, bad input, expired auth, duplicate requests or a dead database😂
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I’m starting to think a decent UI mockup is becoming almost like source code.
Show the model what the thing should look like, then argue with it until the HTML/CSS catches up😂
What’s one tool you pay for that you’d happily replace with a tiny ugly version that only did the 3 things you actually use?
I think AI coding gets much better the moment you stop asking it to “build the feature” and start giving it one boundary at a time.
One change. One test. One thing to verify. Then move on.
I still think one of the biggest advantages of boring web stacks is that you can actually see where everything lives.
Files, routes, database, server. Less magic is very underrated when you’re debugging after work at 10pm😂
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Morning folks💪 Friday builder roll call.
What are you working on this weekend? SaaS, PHP, CMS stuff, AI tools, hardware, games, automations, something completely pointless... whatever.
I’ll be back on my web game again😂
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