Dragan Stepanović
@dstepanovic.bsky.social
Trying hard not to think about small batches, bottlenecks, and systems. In the meantime: XP, ToC, Lean, Systems Thinking.
Moved here from that other place for good.
Moved here from that other place for good.
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
How many times, in how many contexts, in how many ways am I going to have to say that this is what "AI" does— what it fundamentally *is*— before it sinks in? That all Bullshit engines do is statistically correlate training data & inputs via their weights to produce outputs you are likely to accept…
February 15, 2026 at 3:57 AM
How many times, in how many contexts, in how many ways am I going to have to say that this is what "AI" does— what it fundamentally *is*— before it sinks in? That all Bullshit engines do is statistically correlate training data & inputs via their weights to produce outputs you are likely to accept…
I keep seeing posts like: "It was never about the code!".
Let me rephrase that: "It was never ONLY about the code."
Let me rephrase that: "It was never ONLY about the code."
February 15, 2026 at 11:49 AM
I keep seeing posts like: "It was never about the code!".
Let me rephrase that: "It was never ONLY about the code."
Let me rephrase that: "It was never ONLY about the code."
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
Short musings on "cognitive debt" - I'm seeing this in my own work, where excessive unreviewed AI-generated code leads me to lose a firm mental model of what I've built, which then makes it harder to confidently make future decisions simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/15/...
How Generative and Agentic AI Shift Concern from Technical Debt to Cognitive Debt
This piece by Margaret-Anne Storey is the best explanation of the term cognitive debt I've seen so far. Cognitive debt, a term gaining traction recently, instead communicates the notion that …
simonwillison.net
February 15, 2026 at 5:22 AM
Short musings on "cognitive debt" - I'm seeing this in my own work, where excessive unreviewed AI-generated code leads me to lose a firm mental model of what I've built, which then makes it harder to confidently make future decisions simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/15/...
"“It matters how you use it” is something that an immature and self-absorbed young child would say, a child who has yet to reckon with the reality that they live in a society full of other people and other living organisms and participates in ...
www.frank.computer/blog/2025/05...
www.frank.computer/blog/2025/05...
Stop saying that AI is just a tool and it only matters how it is used
I’m tired of this phrase and this simple way of thinking about tools. This blog post is a wandering train of thought on the topic of what tools are and why it matters to be even slightly more mature i...
www.frank.computer
February 14, 2026 at 1:24 PM
"“It matters how you use it” is something that an immature and self-absorbed young child would say, a child who has yet to reckon with the reality that they live in a society full of other people and other living organisms and participates in ...
www.frank.computer/blog/2025/05...
www.frank.computer/blog/2025/05...
If we reduce the value of good design and architecture only to the reduction of marginal cost of change - instead of also how they deepen our understanding of the system, which in turn improves future design and architecture decisions
>>
>>
February 14, 2026 at 12:03 PM
If we reduce the value of good design and architecture only to the reduction of marginal cost of change - instead of also how they deepen our understanding of the system, which in turn improves future design and architecture decisions
>>
>>
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
AOC: "Extreme level of wealth inequality leads to social instability and drives authoritarianism, right-wing populism, and really dangerous domestic internal politics. That is a direct outcome of the failure of democracies over decades to deliver."
February 13, 2026 at 5:50 PM
AOC: "Extreme level of wealth inequality leads to social instability and drives authoritarianism, right-wing populism, and really dangerous domestic internal politics. That is a direct outcome of the failure of democracies over decades to deliver."
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
The message about comprehension debt is spreading far
When code's being created at "LGTM-speed", there's trouble ahead.
codemanship.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/c...
When code's being created at "LGTM-speed", there's trouble ahead.
codemanship.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/c...
February 13, 2026 at 4:14 PM
The message about comprehension debt is spreading far
When code's being created at "LGTM-speed", there's trouble ahead.
codemanship.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/c...
When code's being created at "LGTM-speed", there's trouble ahead.
codemanship.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/c...
I can guarantee you that addressing an actual bottleneck in the system definitely shouldn't look like pushing elephant-sized inventory through the boa constrictor (coding → review → integration → deployment → etc.).
And you can tell by the elephant rolling its eyes.
And you can tell by the elephant rolling its eyes.
February 13, 2026 at 12:42 PM
I can guarantee you that addressing an actual bottleneck in the system definitely shouldn't look like pushing elephant-sized inventory through the boa constrictor (coding → review → integration → deployment → etc.).
And you can tell by the elephant rolling its eyes.
And you can tell by the elephant rolling its eyes.
If you say you addressed a bottleneck in the system, and then you claim it moved to some other place without having observed a huge productivity increase of the whole system in between, it wasn't where you initially thought it was.
February 13, 2026 at 11:39 AM
If you say you addressed a bottleneck in the system, and then you claim it moved to some other place without having observed a huge productivity increase of the whole system in between, it wasn't where you initially thought it was.
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
NUDE ELON MUSK: The invisible clothes I'm wearing are a product of xAthleisure, which will roll out self-dressing outfits within two years at the latest
THE CREDULOUS PRESS: Fully Clothed Tesla Innovator Does It Again
THE CREDULOUS PRESS: Fully Clothed Tesla Innovator Does It Again
February 12, 2026 at 7:10 PM
NUDE ELON MUSK: The invisible clothes I'm wearing are a product of xAthleisure, which will roll out self-dressing outfits within two years at the latest
THE CREDULOUS PRESS: Fully Clothed Tesla Innovator Does It Again
THE CREDULOUS PRESS: Fully Clothed Tesla Innovator Does It Again
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
"The political ineptitude of the magnates of industry and finance was no less than that of the generals and led to the mistaken belief that if they coughed up large enough sums for Hitler he would be beholden to them."
Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (p. 237)
Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (p. 237)
Can Tim Cook now get his 24-karat slab of gold back from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
www.bbc.com/news/article...
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Apple warned by FTC over alleged lack of conservative news
The tech giant is facing pressure over claims that its news app does not feature articles from conservative outlets.
www.bbc.com
February 13, 2026 at 1:29 AM
"The political ineptitude of the magnates of industry and finance was no less than that of the generals and led to the mistaken belief that if they coughed up large enough sums for Hitler he would be beholden to them."
Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (p. 237)
Shirer, William L. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (p. 237)
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
Thanks for the reposts the last couple of weeks 🙏
February 12, 2026 at 7:35 AM
Thanks for the reposts the last couple of weeks 🙏
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
"AI has removed the developer bottleneck"
If developers really were your bottleneck, throwing developers at a problem would actually have worked in the past 20 years
If developers really were your bottleneck, throwing developers at a problem would actually have worked in the past 20 years
February 12, 2026 at 12:15 PM
"AI has removed the developer bottleneck"
If developers really were your bottleneck, throwing developers at a problem would actually have worked in the past 20 years
If developers really were your bottleneck, throwing developers at a problem would actually have worked in the past 20 years
"The problem is not agentic AI. The problem is developers not taking responsibility."
Ah, those pesky, irresponsible developers...
Ah, those pesky, irresponsible developers...
February 12, 2026 at 9:29 AM
"The problem is not agentic AI. The problem is developers not taking responsibility."
Ah, those pesky, irresponsible developers...
Ah, those pesky, irresponsible developers...
I feel this slide from Jez Humble's talks has become more relevant than ever.
It's not about generating bigger batches faster, but thinner slices validated sooner.
It's not about generating bigger batches faster, but thinner slices validated sooner.
February 11, 2026 at 11:56 AM
I feel this slide from Jez Humble's talks has become more relevant than ever.
It's not about generating bigger batches faster, but thinner slices validated sooner.
It's not about generating bigger batches faster, but thinner slices validated sooner.
If you don’t get that the code is influencing your mental model of the domain to the same extent your mental model is influencing the code, you’re in for a nasty ride that every linear, mechanistic, reductionist thinking encounters when trying to reduce complex reality to something it’s not.
February 11, 2026 at 9:11 AM
If you don’t get that the code is influencing your mental model of the domain to the same extent your mental model is influencing the code, you’re in for a nasty ride that every linear, mechanistic, reductionist thinking encounters when trying to reduce complex reality to something it’s not.
"You don't need to understand the code you're shipping to production, you can have guardrails" is my new favourite mechanistic, linear way folks are trying to reduce complex reality to something it's not.
February 11, 2026 at 8:57 AM
"You don't need to understand the code you're shipping to production, you can have guardrails" is my new favourite mechanistic, linear way folks are trying to reduce complex reality to something it's not.
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
A friendly reminder that developers using agentic AI just add an abstraction onto this. At least a developer writing their own code still roughly understands the model they're writing. With Agentic AI, they don't and critically engaging with the model dilutes even more, and the model drifts more
February 11, 2026 at 8:25 AM
A friendly reminder that developers using agentic AI just add an abstraction onto this. At least a developer writing their own code still roughly understands the model they're writing. With Agentic AI, they don't and critically engaging with the model dilutes even more, and the model drifts more
I wonder how many folks jumped on the AI hype train scared of losing their jobs, which in turn drives the incentive not to be critical of it. I'd guess a lot.
February 10, 2026 at 9:45 PM
I wonder how many folks jumped on the AI hype train scared of losing their jobs, which in turn drives the incentive not to be critical of it. I'd guess a lot.
Reposted by Dragan Stepanović
Best CIs are dumb CIs.
February 10, 2026 at 9:19 AM
Best CIs are dumb CIs.
Wait, so you're telling me that the biggest constraint of every product development team in the world is the amount of code it's able to generate in a unit of time and thus using heavy AI machinery will lead to higher throughput of value they create?
Right.
#toc
Right.
#toc
February 9, 2026 at 8:47 AM
Wait, so you're telling me that the biggest constraint of every product development team in the world is the amount of code it's able to generate in a unit of time and thus using heavy AI machinery will lead to higher throughput of value they create?
Right.
#toc
Right.
#toc
I'll stop calling it GenAI and call it The Mother of All Local Optimizations instead.
TMALO for the shorthand.
TMALO for the shorthand.
February 1, 2026 at 10:12 AM
I'll stop calling it GenAI and call it The Mother of All Local Optimizations instead.
TMALO for the shorthand.
TMALO for the shorthand.
"The bottleneck has shifted to pre- and post-code activities."
Well, no.
The fact that there are bigger queues and inventory piling up in front of these activities now doesn't mean at all that the previous bottleneck was in the place >>>
Well, no.
The fact that there are bigger queues and inventory piling up in front of these activities now doesn't mean at all that the previous bottleneck was in the place >>>
January 31, 2026 at 5:16 PM
"The bottleneck has shifted to pre- and post-code activities."
Well, no.
The fact that there are bigger queues and inventory piling up in front of these activities now doesn't mean at all that the previous bottleneck was in the place >>>
Well, no.
The fact that there are bigger queues and inventory piling up in front of these activities now doesn't mean at all that the previous bottleneck was in the place >>>
One good thing about AI is that compared to other things happening around us it does not add to the already massive polarization of people.
Not at all.
Not at all.
January 31, 2026 at 1:40 PM
One good thing about AI is that compared to other things happening around us it does not add to the already massive polarization of people.
Not at all.
Not at all.