Gergely Orosz
@gergely.pragmaticengineer.com
Writing The Pragmatic Engineer (@pragmaticengineer.com), the #1 technology newsletter on Substack. Author of The Software Engineer's Guidebook (engguidebook.com). Formerly at Uber, Skype, Skyscanner. More at pragmaticengineer.com
There's a new trend on LinkedIn where people with zero original thoughts have AI generate what they assume are next-level posts.
Except the AI hallucinates.
The whole thing is nonsense.
Everyone rolls eyes -except the person posting it, thinking "wow, AI makes this easy!"
Except the AI hallucinates.
The whole thing is nonsense.
Everyone rolls eyes -except the person posting it, thinking "wow, AI makes this easy!"
December 23, 2025 at 8:10 PM
There's a new trend on LinkedIn where people with zero original thoughts have AI generate what they assume are next-level posts.
Except the AI hallucinates.
The whole thing is nonsense.
Everyone rolls eyes -except the person posting it, thinking "wow, AI makes this easy!"
Except the AI hallucinates.
The whole thing is nonsense.
Everyone rolls eyes -except the person posting it, thinking "wow, AI makes this easy!"
Whenever I see a prediction on how AI will result in fewer hours worked, I think of AI startups:
They have no budget limit on how much devs can spend on AI (so they spend a TON)
And yet, their devs tend to work MORE than anywhere else though... to outcompete other AI startups!!
They have no budget limit on how much devs can spend on AI (so they spend a TON)
And yet, their devs tend to work MORE than anywhere else though... to outcompete other AI startups!!
December 23, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Whenever I see a prediction on how AI will result in fewer hours worked, I think of AI startups:
They have no budget limit on how much devs can spend on AI (so they spend a TON)
And yet, their devs tend to work MORE than anywhere else though... to outcompete other AI startups!!
They have no budget limit on how much devs can spend on AI (so they spend a TON)
And yet, their devs tend to work MORE than anywhere else though... to outcompete other AI startups!!
Why Revolut is winning and traditional banks left behind:
Last time my “traditional” credit card # got stolen: I noticed it, spent ~15 minutes on the phone to report it; got a new card 1 week later
With Revolut: THEY noticed it, 1 tap to cancel; 1 minute for a new card! Amazing
Last time my “traditional” credit card # got stolen: I noticed it, spent ~15 minutes on the phone to report it; got a new card 1 week later
With Revolut: THEY noticed it, 1 tap to cancel; 1 minute for a new card! Amazing
December 22, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Why Revolut is winning and traditional banks left behind:
Last time my “traditional” credit card # got stolen: I noticed it, spent ~15 minutes on the phone to report it; got a new card 1 week later
With Revolut: THEY noticed it, 1 tap to cancel; 1 minute for a new card! Amazing
Last time my “traditional” credit card # got stolen: I noticed it, spent ~15 minutes on the phone to report it; got a new card 1 week later
With Revolut: THEY noticed it, 1 tap to cancel; 1 minute for a new card! Amazing
My most awkward job offer: when Skyscanner offered a contract, I had to request a weird amendment to it. Independent of my hiring (done by a different division), Skyscanner acquired my brother's startup the same month...
Screenshot from the podcast: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/design-fir...
Screenshot from the podcast: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/design-fir...
December 21, 2025 at 8:43 PM
My most awkward job offer: when Skyscanner offered a contract, I had to request a weird amendment to it. Independent of my hiring (done by a different division), Skyscanner acquired my brother's startup the same month...
Screenshot from the podcast: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/design-fir...
Screenshot from the podcast: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/design-fir...
What was the Dotcom Boom like? Bryan Cantrill (@bcantrill.bsky.social - cofounder and CTO at Oxide):
"One of my early life lessons: that boom will go on longer than you think possible, and when it switches, it will collapse faster than you can fathom."
"One of my early life lessons: that boom will go on longer than you think possible, and when it switches, it will collapse faster than you can fathom."
December 21, 2025 at 7:56 PM
What was the Dotcom Boom like? Bryan Cantrill (@bcantrill.bsky.social - cofounder and CTO at Oxide):
"One of my early life lessons: that boom will go on longer than you think possible, and when it switches, it will collapse faster than you can fathom."
"One of my early life lessons: that boom will go on longer than you think possible, and when it switches, it will collapse faster than you can fathom."
Probably the most entertaining -and unlikely!- story in tech this year:
A software engineer tricking more than a dozen Y Combinator startups: acing the interview, then delivering little to no work, collecting paychecks, and swindling the next company newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-10x-ov...
A software engineer tricking more than a dozen Y Combinator startups: acing the interview, then delivering little to no work, collecting paychecks, and swindling the next company newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-10x-ov...
December 20, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Probably the most entertaining -and unlikely!- story in tech this year:
A software engineer tricking more than a dozen Y Combinator startups: acing the interview, then delivering little to no work, collecting paychecks, and swindling the next company newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-10x-ov...
A software engineer tricking more than a dozen Y Combinator startups: acing the interview, then delivering little to no work, collecting paychecks, and swindling the next company newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-10x-ov...
One really, really, really good use case for AI and coding:
Writing unit integration tests.
I always hated doing these, because most of the effort was about the setup (remembering how to use the test framework, how to create a fake, a mock, the syntax)
Love handing it off!!
Writing unit integration tests.
I always hated doing these, because most of the effort was about the setup (remembering how to use the test framework, how to create a fake, a mock, the syntax)
Love handing it off!!
December 20, 2025 at 3:19 PM
One really, really, really good use case for AI and coding:
Writing unit integration tests.
I always hated doing these, because most of the effort was about the setup (remembering how to use the test framework, how to create a fake, a mock, the syntax)
Love handing it off!!
Writing unit integration tests.
I always hated doing these, because most of the effort was about the setup (remembering how to use the test framework, how to create a fake, a mock, the syntax)
Love handing it off!!
It's interesting to see different experiments on what to do with so much more AI code generated - with much less effort?
Share the prompt itself to code reviewers?
Meta is experimenting with this - good on them! (we need to experiment more IMO)
Share the prompt itself to code reviewers?
Meta is experimenting with this - good on them! (we need to experiment more IMO)
Interesting AI coding feature rolled out at Meta called "trajectories." On diffs, devs can see the prompts used to generate it (if it was AI-generated.) Rolled out to everyone.
Given more code is generated prompting: interesting experiment! Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-...
Given more code is generated prompting: interesting experiment! Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-pulse-...
December 19, 2025 at 8:53 AM
It's interesting to see different experiments on what to do with so much more AI code generated - with much less effort?
Share the prompt itself to code reviewers?
Meta is experimenting with this - good on them! (we need to experiment more IMO)
Share the prompt itself to code reviewers?
Meta is experimenting with this - good on them! (we need to experiment more IMO)
Confirmed: Laura Tacho (@lauratacho.com ) will deliver the keynote for The Pragmatic Summit on how AI+coding agents are changing engineering productivity. 11 Feb 2026, SF.
Laura is one the top experts on AI + developer productivity: no fluff, just things that work, and things that don't
(cont'd)
Laura is one the top experts on AI + developer productivity: no fluff, just things that work, and things that don't
(cont'd)
December 18, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Confirmed: Laura Tacho (@lauratacho.com ) will deliver the keynote for The Pragmatic Summit on how AI+coding agents are changing engineering productivity. 11 Feb 2026, SF.
Laura is one the top experts on AI + developer productivity: no fluff, just things that work, and things that don't
(cont'd)
Laura is one the top experts on AI + developer productivity: no fluff, just things that work, and things that don't
(cont'd)
Interesting: I am hearing both inside Meta and inside Google AI coding models simply don't work nearly as well as they do outside:
Models work great on greenfield projects and when using standard tooling.
Both Meta and Google have monoliths and non-standard tooling!
Models work great on greenfield projects and when using standard tooling.
Both Meta and Google have monoliths and non-standard tooling!
December 18, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Interesting: I am hearing both inside Meta and inside Google AI coding models simply don't work nearly as well as they do outside:
Models work great on greenfield projects and when using standard tooling.
Both Meta and Google have monoliths and non-standard tooling!
Models work great on greenfield projects and when using standard tooling.
Both Meta and Google have monoliths and non-standard tooling!
Devs who write about their work/company; talk at conferences - lots of companies in the past used to not care much about this and not value it the least.
Feels like the tide is changing: people who do this but are not valued get hunted down by companies who understand this value
Feels like the tide is changing: people who do this but are not valued get hunted down by companies who understand this value
December 18, 2025 at 8:31 AM
Devs who write about their work/company; talk at conferences - lots of companies in the past used to not care much about this and not value it the least.
Feels like the tide is changing: people who do this but are not valued get hunted down by companies who understand this value
Feels like the tide is changing: people who do this but are not valued get hunted down by companies who understand this value
How have servers and the cloud evolved in the last 30 years, and what might be next? @bcantrill.bsky.social has been at the thick of the industry since the Dotcom Boom, and shares fascinating stories.
Bryan is one of my all-time favorite people to talk with - don't miss this one.
(cont'd)
Bryan is one of my all-time favorite people to talk with - don't miss this one.
(cont'd)
December 17, 2025 at 9:02 PM
How have servers and the cloud evolved in the last 30 years, and what might be next? @bcantrill.bsky.social has been at the thick of the industry since the Dotcom Boom, and shares fascinating stories.
Bryan is one of my all-time favorite people to talk with - don't miss this one.
(cont'd)
Bryan is one of my all-time favorite people to talk with - don't miss this one.
(cont'd)
More details than shared before about the us-east-1 outage in October.
No, it was not caused by “brain drain” (an assumption that those building the services left) - creators of the service causing the issue (DNS Enactor) were on the outage call!
Distributed systems are hard
No, it was not caused by “brain drain” (an assumption that those building the services left) - creators of the service causing the issue (DNS Enactor) were on the outage call!
Distributed systems are hard
December 16, 2025 at 6:54 PM
More details than shared before about the us-east-1 outage in October.
No, it was not caused by “brain drain” (an assumption that those building the services left) - creators of the service causing the issue (DNS Enactor) were on the outage call!
Distributed systems are hard
No, it was not caused by “brain drain” (an assumption that those building the services left) - creators of the service causing the issue (DNS Enactor) were on the outage call!
Distributed systems are hard
If you're wondering why January often brings the largest outages - here's a common reason
The code freeze is THE time to do all the big refactors that seemed too risky to do the rest of the year. Guess when it ships... all at once 🥶
The code freeze is THE time to do all the big refactors that seemed too risky to do the rest of the year. Guess when it ships... all at once 🥶
It's that time of the year... code freezes / deployment freezes will start at lots of companies. A deepdive on approaches at Big Tech; the upsides; downsides; and companies that don't do this at all:
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/code-freezes
newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/code-freezes
December 15, 2025 at 10:02 PM
If you're wondering why January often brings the largest outages - here's a common reason
The code freeze is THE time to do all the big refactors that seemed too risky to do the rest of the year. Guess when it ships... all at once 🥶
The code freeze is THE time to do all the big refactors that seemed too risky to do the rest of the year. Guess when it ships... all at once 🥶
Never seen so many copies of my book (The Software Engineer’s Guidebook) - 500 copies (mist still in boxes!) Tomorrow giving away signed copies at the Netflix booth at WAWTech, in Warsaw, Poland.
(These are all hardcovers!)
(These are all hardcovers!)
December 15, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Never seen so many copies of my book (The Software Engineer’s Guidebook) - 500 copies (mist still in boxes!) Tomorrow giving away signed copies at the Netflix booth at WAWTech, in Warsaw, Poland.
(These are all hardcovers!)
(These are all hardcovers!)
Unpopular opinion:
Current code review tools just don’t make much sense for AI-generated code
When reviewing code I really want to know:
- The prompt made by the dev
- What corrections the other dev made to the code
- Clear marking of code AI-generated not changed by a human
Current code review tools just don’t make much sense for AI-generated code
When reviewing code I really want to know:
- The prompt made by the dev
- What corrections the other dev made to the code
- Clear marking of code AI-generated not changed by a human
December 14, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Unpopular opinion:
Current code review tools just don’t make much sense for AI-generated code
When reviewing code I really want to know:
- The prompt made by the dev
- What corrections the other dev made to the code
- Clear marking of code AI-generated not changed by a human
Current code review tools just don’t make much sense for AI-generated code
When reviewing code I really want to know:
- The prompt made by the dev
- What corrections the other dev made to the code
- Clear marking of code AI-generated not changed by a human
Every time I search online for a recipe (today: pinco de gallo) - the #1, #2 #3 results on Google are endless text, 5 ads and then MAYBE you get the recipe.
Had enough now just asking an LLM that browses using sources - today, Perpexity.
FINALLY get what I actually wanted:
Had enough now just asking an LLM that browses using sources - today, Perpexity.
FINALLY get what I actually wanted:
December 13, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Every time I search online for a recipe (today: pinco de gallo) - the #1, #2 #3 results on Google are endless text, 5 ads and then MAYBE you get the recipe.
Had enough now just asking an LLM that browses using sources - today, Perpexity.
FINALLY get what I actually wanted:
Had enough now just asking an LLM that browses using sources - today, Perpexity.
FINALLY get what I actually wanted:
Confirmed for the first-ever Pragmatic Summit: @chiphuyen.bsky.social!
Writer, computer scientist, and author of the best-selling book AI Engineering (highly recommended book.)
We have an amazing lineup, check out other confirmed speakers: pragmaticsummit.com
11 Feb, San Francisco.
Writer, computer scientist, and author of the best-selling book AI Engineering (highly recommended book.)
We have an amazing lineup, check out other confirmed speakers: pragmaticsummit.com
11 Feb, San Francisco.
December 13, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Confirmed for the first-ever Pragmatic Summit: @chiphuyen.bsky.social!
Writer, computer scientist, and author of the best-selling book AI Engineering (highly recommended book.)
We have an amazing lineup, check out other confirmed speakers: pragmaticsummit.com
11 Feb, San Francisco.
Writer, computer scientist, and author of the best-selling book AI Engineering (highly recommended book.)
We have an amazing lineup, check out other confirmed speakers: pragmaticsummit.com
11 Feb, San Francisco.
Gmail and Google Workspace emails cut off emails arbitrarily after they reach the 102kb limit. Then they make reading the full email a bad user experience. There is no way to turn this off - not even for paying Google Workspace customers.
What email platforms do NOT do this?
What email platforms do NOT do this?
December 13, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Gmail and Google Workspace emails cut off emails arbitrarily after they reach the 102kb limit. Then they make reading the full email a bad user experience. There is no way to turn this off - not even for paying Google Workspace customers.
What email platforms do NOT do this?
What email platforms do NOT do this?
Repeat after me:
Global, immediate configuration rollouts are like playing with fire on large systems
(this is why DNS is so often the cause of global outages: configs there are, unfortunately, global by design)
Global, immediate configuration rollouts are like playing with fire on large systems
(this is why DNS is so often the cause of global outages: configs there are, unfortunately, global by design)
December 11, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Repeat after me:
Global, immediate configuration rollouts are like playing with fire on large systems
(this is why DNS is so often the cause of global outages: configs there are, unfortunately, global by design)
Global, immediate configuration rollouts are like playing with fire on large systems
(this is why DNS is so often the cause of global outages: configs there are, unfortunately, global by design)
Wow - The Japanese translation of The Software Engineer’s Guidebook has been the best-selling book of the week in several tech book shops in Japan! This is from a Kinokuniya store.
It’s the two books on the top. The Japanese cover has a twist on the original - I like it!
It’s the two books on the top. The Japanese cover has a twist on the original - I like it!
December 10, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Wow - The Japanese translation of The Software Engineer’s Guidebook has been the best-selling book of the week in several tech book shops in Japan! This is from a Kinokuniya store.
It’s the two books on the top. The Japanese cover has a twist on the original - I like it!
It’s the two books on the top. The Japanese cover has a twist on the original - I like it!
LinkedIn feels really desperate trying to upsell AI products, everywhere. “Rewrite with AI” on the bottom of my every post (and so my LI feed is full of AI slop)
Now recommending doing hiring with AI - when LI Jobs inbound is already flooded with AI applications and thus mostly useless as I hear
Now recommending doing hiring with AI - when LI Jobs inbound is already flooded with AI applications and thus mostly useless as I hear
December 10, 2025 at 8:50 AM
LinkedIn feels really desperate trying to upsell AI products, everywhere. “Rewrite with AI” on the bottom of my every post (and so my LI feed is full of AI slop)
Now recommending doing hiring with AI - when LI Jobs inbound is already flooded with AI applications and thus mostly useless as I hear
Now recommending doing hiring with AI - when LI Jobs inbound is already flooded with AI applications and thus mostly useless as I hear
Today, our MCP deepdive is out in @pragmaticengineer.com. Coveringthe on-the-ground realities of building and using MCP servers, the good and the bad) based on input from 40+ devs building MCPs.
Some surprising findings: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/mcp-deepdive
Some surprising findings: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/mcp-deepdive
December 9, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Today, our MCP deepdive is out in @pragmaticengineer.com. Coveringthe on-the-ground realities of building and using MCP servers, the good and the bad) based on input from 40+ devs building MCPs.
Some surprising findings: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/mcp-deepdive
Some surprising findings: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/mcp-deepdive
Exactly one week from now (on 16 Dec, Tue) I'll be in Warsaw, Poland, at the @netflix booth at WAWTECH, signing The Software Engineer's Guidebook books - hardcover editions!
Here's me holding one of the first hardcovers: these are brand new, out last month.
(cont'd)
Here's me holding one of the first hardcovers: these are brand new, out last month.
(cont'd)
December 9, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Exactly one week from now (on 16 Dec, Tue) I'll be in Warsaw, Poland, at the @netflix booth at WAWTECH, signing The Software Engineer's Guidebook books - hardcover editions!
Here's me holding one of the first hardcovers: these are brand new, out last month.
(cont'd)
Here's me holding one of the first hardcovers: these are brand new, out last month.
(cont'd)
There is no denying that there's a pull towards promotion-driven development at many Big Tech companies.
But if you think further: a lot of this not a bad thing for the company. It's how engineers + teams stay nimble, unafraid of building new stuff + migrating
Which is critical
But if you think further: a lot of this not a bad thing for the company. It's how engineers + teams stay nimble, unafraid of building new stuff + migrating
Which is critical
Impact-driven promotions almost always (eventually) lead to promotion-driven development. Little wonder it's so widespread throughout Big Tech and larger companies.
Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/preparing-...
Full: newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/preparing-...
December 9, 2025 at 8:44 AM
There is no denying that there's a pull towards promotion-driven development at many Big Tech companies.
But if you think further: a lot of this not a bad thing for the company. It's how engineers + teams stay nimble, unafraid of building new stuff + migrating
Which is critical
But if you think further: a lot of this not a bad thing for the company. It's how engineers + teams stay nimble, unafraid of building new stuff + migrating
Which is critical