A tiny history of software engineering

Is incredibly difficult to shift your frame of mind while in the middle of an activity.https://josvisser.substack.com/p/change-the-plan

There is nothing new under the sun and from much wisdom comes much grief.Full article: https://josvisser.substack.com/p/career-advice-remember-things

The ancient Greeks told us to “know thyself.” They probably didn’t anticipate software engineers armed with AI assistants, dashboards, personality tests, and enough browser tabs to heat a small village. Yet somehow, understanding ourselves remains just as difficult and we continue to make mistakes because we attempt things that just do not match who we are...https://josvisser.substack.com/p/know-thyself

Or maybe: Security is more than a feeling. I couldn't quite decide on the title.There seems to be a pervasive idea that you do not have to "be technical" in order to qualify for many security-related roles. Personally I think that if you are working on dealing with attacks from computers on computers, it might be helpful if you understand how computers work. Health and safety warning: More rant than wisdom in this week's article and perhaps too many references to IBM mainframes.https://josvisser.substack.com/p/security-is-not-just-a-feeling

When you are done with late nights and answering pages at night, a remote sister team is usually the way to go. This week's Wednesday Wisdom explains how to start such a remote team and why Kazakhstan is not a great location for that. Warning: Contains strong language and children should only watch/listen under adult supervision.

Hiring is still a thing. Unfortunately, I still see a lot of terrible interview feedback. In the age of ChatGPT, there really is no reason anymore to write bad interview feedback, provided that you put a little bit of effort in keeping good notes during the interview. Throw the notes, the job description, the candidate's resume, and the question rubric into ChatGPT and it will write the feedback for you.https://josvisser.substack.com/p/on-writing-interview-feedback

AI coding tools are changing software engineering, but not in the simple “everyone gets replaced” way the headlines suggest. The real story is messier: more productive senior engineers, fewer easy entry-level paths, shifting salaries, more software getting built, and a profession trying to figure out where its next generation will come from.This week’s Wednesday Wisdom looks at what AI coding tools actually mean for software engineers — and why the future is neither doom nor hype.https://josvisser.substack.com/p/a-possible-future-of-software-engineering

NOTE: Because of a mistake, this episode has been posted out of order and was supposed to be published on 5/20/2026.It should be listened to before the episode on 5/27/2026 called: Coding with AI tools is still hard. Apologies for the confusion.https://josvisser.substack.com/p/a-tiny-history-of-software-engineering

AI coding tools excel at the part of software development that was never really a problem to begin with: Typing in the statements. Because of this, coding with AI tools is still hard.https://josvisser.substack.com/p/coding-with-ai-tools-is-still-hard

Welcome to this week's Wednesday Wisdom, in which we cover a reader question on how to deal with managers who insist on "accurate ETAs" for software development projects. Obviously, no software project in the history of time has ever been delivered according to a pre-established immutable plan and there is no more common sound in software than the sound of a deadline, whooshing by. But how to convince your manager of that?