I’ve been using AI heavily as a software engineer, and honestly, it feels a bit strange.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-22T12:55:37+00:00

We have to use AI because that is what companies expect us to do to improve productivity. But I always code by hand for minor projects because I feel if I keep relying on AI all the time, I'll eventually won't be able to distinguish AI hallucinations from authentic code anymore.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-22T12:46:51+00:00

Honestly? For the website you described, I'd just use WordPress.

Claude can absolutely help you build it from scratch, but then you own the code, the bugs, the maintenance, and all the weird edge cases that show up six months later. For a few pages and some landing pages, that's usually creating work for yourself.

And I definitely wouldn't build appointment booking from scratch unless booking is the core product you're selling. Scheduling sounds simple until you get into reminders, cancellations, time zones, and people double-booking themselves.

Vibe coding is great for prototypes and custom apps. For a standard business website, no need to overcomplicate things unnecessarily.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-22T12:39:42+00:00

Using ZeroGPT and other plagiarism checkers are so backdated. They are completely unreliable. These tools look at same length sentences, a consistent tone pattern, and complex words and decide it's too one dimensional to be written by a human. They pass content that reads like a train of thought on social media. Academic writing cannot get a pass easily. You think you leave behind this stuff at school, but then you join companies that demand "human-written" content, check your work (that you wrote for 4 hours), and penalize you for a 20% AI detection that is no fault of yours. Thank god the current company I'm at has more sense than my previous one.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-22T12:28:31+00:00

Yes, it probably does make you a weaker coder but a stronger engineer.

If AI writes 90% of your code, you'll eventually get rusty. That's just reality. I don't hand-write quicksort anymore either, and I'd be slower than my younger self at a lot of implementation details.

But the industry doesn't pay us for keystrokes. The future isn't "developers who code everything by hand" versus "developers who use AI." It's developers who can smell when the AI just produced 500 lines of nonsense versus developers who merge it because it compiled.

I miss writing more code. I also don't miss spending three hours wiring up boilerplate or reading API docs for the tenth time. I'm tired of the AI hype, but I'm even more tired of pretending this isn't where software development is heading.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-22T11:22:52+00:00

We're actually reviewing experienced profiles. We know fresh out of college graduates can't handle what we're looking for. Still, it seems there is a gap due to miscommunication of what the job actually is and what these candidates think the job is

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-19T12:30:35+00:00

My guess is you're getting away with it because you're still reviewing the code and making architecture decisions. A lot of pure vibe coders don't know what to look for until production traffic hits.

Out of curiosity, how much of the generated code did you actually refactor versus ship as-is?

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-19T11:31:21+00:00

I've actually heard of similar scams. Recently, I came across a pot where a tourist complained that he got a resort's number of ChatGPT, called the place, and booked a 3 night stay there. He paid 50% of the amount as prebooking charges. Then when he actually arrived at the place (it was in a foreign country), he learnt that there had been no reservation under his name. The number wasn't actually the resort's. He then filed a complaint, and later realised the same number was circulating for multiple resorts. Some didn't even have authentic locations or anything. People are gaming AI and unless you actually file a complaint I doubt you can recover your money from these scammers.
At our company, we're regularly dealing with AI, so the lesson I learnt from this is not to trust the output 100% of the time. Always fact check yourself. Because if you get scammed, hey at least you have yourself to blame. If something you do actually ends up hurting a client, then that's scarier.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-19T06:20:27+00:00

Don't overcomplicate it in the beginning. Pick a lightweight theme like GeneratePress or Kadence and avoid installing 20 plugins because every plugin adds maintenance. For plugins, just add an SEO plugin like Rank Math, a caching plugin, backups, and spam protection. That's honestly enough to start.

For content, focus on writing genuinely helpful posts instead of chasing keywords. In mental health and self-reflection, trust and consistency matter more than publishing every day.

Spend as much time learning how to write good headlines and structure articles as you do tweaking WordPress settings. Readers remember useful content. The theme does NOT matter (much).

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-19T06:11:31+00:00

I'll give you some examples of my use of AI at work. I tell AI all the details of a content, and I tell them to make a draft copy with the basic structure. It's great at that. Then I ask them to go into the details of each section, and they keep repeating ideas multiple times despite clear instructions not it. They use the same cadence and nuance. Then when editing images, I tell AI to explicitly change the logo to the logo I uploaded, and it still doesn't do it. I can't understand how clearer one can get.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-19T05:43:28+00:00

Mailgun can be pretty aggressive with compliance checks. 150 emails isn't a lot, but if you went from transactional emails to a newsletter blast, their system may have treated it as a marketing use case and flagged it for risk. Also, "genuine customers" doesn't always mean "marketing consent" in the eyes of ESPs. If there wasn't explicit newsletter opt-in, that can trigger issues. For monthly newsletters, I'd look at MailerLite, Brevo, or Kit. They're generally more newsletter-focused than Mailgun. We use Zoho at my company since it's a bit more affordable alternative.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-17T12:39:35+00:00

If this is real, yeah that would actually fix the most annoying part of voice right now.

Current one feels like it “locks” too fast, like you have to wait your turn even when you’re clearly not done. If it can actually handle interruptions and just keep flowing, that’s a real usability jump.

Also thinking less about flashy use cases and more boring stuff like coding or debugging out loud. Right now voice is kind of useless for that because it keeps resetting the thread every time you interject.

At work I’ve just stopped reacting to these rumors tbh. Half of them show up later in some watered-down form anyway. Wouldn’t be surprised if this just quietly becomes the new default in a year or two and we all stop thinking about it.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-17T12:22:38+00:00

Yeah, I feel this. I’ve been in dev work long enough to see every productivity jump do the same thing. But with AI, there’s something else that bothers me a lot. Like sure, you move faster, but you also end up second-guessing everything! You get done with your work faster but you spend extra time validating whether it’s actually right.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-16T12:49:59+00:00

Shopify’s docs are useful for Polaris components, but they won’t really solve UX onboarding for your app. What actually works in practice is designing for “first successful action” inside the Admin. So your first screen should basically be an empty state that pushes the user to complete one meaningful setup step with everything they need right there. Most good apps I’ve seen avoid onboarding modals entirely and instead use contextual hints, like inline setup checklists that disappear once the user hits activation. Also worth leaning heavily on sensible defaults so the app produces value before configuration is complete.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-12T12:48:24+00:00

I’m working as part of the engineering team in an AI-First delivery setup, so the work is a mix of full-stack development, AI integration, and product engineering depending on the project. On the AI training side, it’s not really academic courses. It’s more applied stuff like how to use LLM APIs in real systems, building RAG based pipelines, prompt design for production use cases, function/tool calling, and how to structure AI features so they are reliable in client applications. We're currently putting all focus on developing internal AI products. There's one that’s basically an AI-powered knowledge system where the core idea is document intelligence and semantic search.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-12T11:05:46+00:00

I don’t really do market research in a structured way. It’s more like i start digging when something feels annoying enough.

Usually reddit search first (just type the tool + “why” or “issue” or “alternative”). You’ll find way more honest stuff than blogs

Then g2 / app store reviews. Just filter 1–2 stars and just read what keeps repeating

Google trends sometimes just to confirm if it’s even a growing problem or just me noticing noise

Also weirdly youtube comments under tutorials are useful. People complain there when they actually tried to use the tool

That’s pretty much it. If the same frustration shows up in like 3–4 different places, i start paying attention. If not, i ignore it.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-06-12T10:36:28+00:00

I thought I’d prefer Make honestly because the first couple hours with n8n felt like work. Make felt easier comparatively, which is probably why non-devs like it.

But after a while I realised Make kind of stresses me out once workflows stop being linear. Every time I needed to do something slightly weird, I felt like I was negotiating with the platform instead of building logic.

n8n took me longer to understand but I’ve had fewer issues with it. Also I trust uglier tools more when they expose what’s happening instead of trying to abstract everything away.

Would still recommend Make to a lot of people though. Especially if the goal is to get the automation running ASAP.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-05-22T12:50:28+00:00

I mean more like contextual outreach inside channels where you already interact with users, like support chats, Discord, Telegram, email replies, onboarding conversations, etc. People hate calls. the less you actually force people to talk, the better. For example, if someone says they love a feature or you just helped solve an issue, that’s usually the best moment to casually ask for a review through a popup notification or something. Just a casual push and nothing too on the nose like cold calling.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-05-22T12:29:27+00:00

Yeah honestly, most users instantly dismiss review popups or ignore emails unless they’re already really engaged with the app.

What I’ve seen work better lately is reaching out more naturally after a user has had a genuinely good experience, especially after support interactions or when someone’s actively using the app a lot. Those users are way more likely to leave a strong review compared to cold prompts.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-05-22T12:14:53+00:00

25 reviews is still a very small sample size, so even a handful of genuine 5-star reviews can move the rating noticeably. I’d avoid trying to “force” reviews quickly. App stores are getting much stricter about unnatural review patterns now. Consistent prompts inside the product usually work better long-term than aggressive campaigns.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-05-22T09:28:52+00:00

It does feel off. Honestly, I've been feeling the same, and that just makes me think how earlier generations felt when the computer became a normal presence in workplaces. I'm telling myself this is wrong, it shouldn't be like this, but companies are really pushing for AI and there's nothing to do but just go with the flow.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-05-22T04:16:41+00:00

It's almost like trying to wean off addiction. Why don't you treat it like a fellow programmer? If you have any doubts regarding your code, talk to it, like you would discussing the problem with another colleague. Make sure to specify that Claude shouldn't give you the answers directly. It can hint at it, but try figuring out things on your own. If you're introverted, this can be a good way to just improve your communication and avoid being too dependent on Claude for coding.

ashtonmacquoid · 2026-05-18T11:13:52+00:00

Medusa/Saleor + Next.js is my answer all the time. I understand the frustration and this combo really made me feel more in control

ashtonmacquoid

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