4 part series
The AI-First Journey
How my day-to-day engineering went from writing most of the code myself to directing a team of agents, and what that changed about the job.
Four posts, written across six months, tracking the same shift from different angles: the early practical lessons, the moment orchestration replaced authorship, and what all of it means for working as a staff engineer.
Read them in order or dip in wherever looks useful.
- 1Practical Lessons from Six Months of AI-First DevelopmentSix months of building software primarily through AI agents. Here's an honest account of what works, what doesn't, what surprised me, and what I'd tell teams considering the switch.15 Jan 20267 min read
- 2From Copilot to Conductor: My AI Development JourneyMy path from basic GitHub Copilot autocomplete to full AI-first orchestration wasn't planned. It was a series of realisations about what was actually slowing me down.20 Feb 20264 min read
- 3Why I Stopped Writing Code and Started Orchestrating AI AgentsI no longer write code directly. Instead, I manage a team of AI agents that do the implementation while I stay free to think, redirect, and make decisions in real-time.28 Mar 20265 min read
- 4Staff Engineering in the Age of AI: What Actually ChangesAI doesn't replace the staff engineer - it amplifies the parts of the role that matter most. Architecture, system design, mentoring, and high-leverage decision-making become even more important.14 Mar 20264 min read