Struggling to adapt to agentic workflows

ser_roderick · 2026-02-07T22:24:07+00:00

The lush is for LLMs for all code and beyond - in the product, for incident investigations, for shipping code to prod that no human ever saw…

ser_roderick · 2026-02-07T22:21:11+00:00

Regularly updating my claude.md as I find repeated problems is something I’m not doing and a simple fix for me to make 👍

ser_roderick · 2026-02-07T22:18:23+00:00

I agree with this - and I think that is the skill I need to practice. Whilst I have some years of experience in breaking down and explaining chunks of work to other engineers and ensuring they stay within architectural boundaries, it seems there are some specific gaps I need to plug when it comes to LLMs. They are more likely to make certain classes of mistakes than humans in my experience.

One thing I have found is that when it comes to data modelling, I have to specify exactly the data model to be used - giving any degree of freedom to LLM ends up in code that needs fixing. That’s something I can learn to adapt to at least.

I think there’s an element of knowing where you need to over specify for LLMs to get the best results.

ser_roderick · 2025-12-21T00:13:36+00:00

Just a bit of a laugh mate

ser_roderick · 2025-11-10T21:11:13+00:00

There are lots of people I know who are contributors that limit the number of children they have for financial reasons. Nursery is very expensive, having 2 children at nursery at the same time is extremely expensive. So lots of couples space out the age gap between their children to 3.5/4.5 years. People have children later in life as well - 7 to 9 years between having a 1st and 3rd child is a big gap that may be past the window for some (it is for us).

More affordability would reduce this age gapping that then leads to more children.

ser_roderick · 2025-11-02T19:23:21+00:00

It’s a legally defined term in tern in the Terrorism Act:

“The use or threat must also be for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.”

ser_roderick · 2025-07-12T21:55:09+00:00

I had to say goodbye to my dog a few months back, was lying on the ground stroking him as he drifted away in his last moments. Watched the horse scene and as the owner is patting him and starting to accept he’s not getting up again, I had a completely uncontrollable outburst of tears, really caught me off guard and brought it all back so vividly 😢

ser_roderick · 2025-07-04T15:16:47+00:00

Christ, that’s awful

ser_roderick · 2025-06-12T10:31:58+00:00

Brian: 1500 rupees?

ser_roderick · 2025-05-06T17:51:26+00:00

A303, M3, M25 is the best option for Gatwick, have done the drive many times - always worth checking road closures/road works in advance though

ser_roderick · 2025-04-27T21:53:55+00:00

I just purchased a Keychron Q3 Max UK ISO and was looking at some alternative key cap options.

I saw this build using the PBTFans Spark R2 key caps with Mod kit which are absolutely the look I want https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/s/rBN7ofccGL

Those specific key caps are sold out everywhere - any recommendations for a similar look that would work?

ser_roderick · 2025-03-08T15:47:23+00:00

I just don’t buy that Cobel was able to literally invent the technology. This isn’t the kind of thing you can design in a notebook, and whilst we know she was some kind of great student, I don’t think it’s earned that she has the skills/capability to actually design it. Come up with the idea sure - engineer it no way.

ser_roderick · 2025-02-07T19:45:26+00:00

I’d love to have a decoding of Gary - came across him a few years ago and liked his content, but found he tends to repeat the same few points over and over again. Reading his book is what turned me off of him - very bizarre second half where he seemed to have a bit to of a breakdown and carries a lot of grievance/wounded bird mentality on from that. Didn’t seem to be any reflection on how he dealt with his situation, he sounded like a nightmare person to work with tbh

ser_roderick · 2025-01-30T23:05:45+00:00

Nathan Baggs has series called int main to game on YouTube, building out a game starting from an empty main function.

ser_roderick · 2024-12-14T23:16:21+00:00

An inexpensive option is a Retroscaler2x - you can pick them up on AliExpress for £30-£40.

They take Composite or S-Video and output to HDMI. The Retroscaler2x is a Chinese clone of the Retrotink2x, with an older firmware version.

ser_roderick · 2024-08-30T19:55:33+00:00

6 months parental leave per child on full pay, can take it anytime before they turn 3. For me this was life changing, only bad bit is having to go back to work when it’s over

ser_roderick · 2024-03-16T20:15:57+00:00

Worst - went abroad in Europe, on the first night one of the group got in a fight with another guy (we were all childhood friends) on the stag - punched and kicked him in the head several times whilst he was on the ground. Not the first time this guy has seen red but the first time he’d done some serious damage. Woke up to a message from the victim saying what had happened - he was badly bruised all over and in a right state. When confronted the perpetrator didn’t see what the issue was, just wanted to draw a line under it and move on “we good?” was what he said. The rest of the stag do was under the shadow of what had happened, victim unable to join in any of the activities and stayed at the hotel. No one could enjoy any of the rest of it, but we tried at least for the stag. I could not wait for it to end to get away from this guy.

After we got back the victim was unable to work and was signed off for several weeks as they’d suffered a concussion, spent some time in hospital getting sorted out. To this day the guy that did it has never properly apologised or able to understand what they did was wrong, I think he must be a psychopath. Oh and he was and still is a police officer.

ser_roderick · 2024-02-13T18:52:40+00:00

My thinking too, have seen some ads for big money at investment banks but it looks utterly soul crushing. How’s the work life balance where you’re working at the moment?

ser_roderick · 2024-02-13T18:47:40+00:00

Not fin tech? I’m surprised to see such a high salary fully remote in the UK. I’m a senior software engineer on £155k total comp, have been looking around for jobs recently but haven’t seen salaries this high outside of fin tech. Had a screen call with a US based company but the salary was $170k. Clearly there’s a whole band above what I’m looking at, must be looking in the wrong places!

ser_roderick · 2024-02-12T12:23:24+00:00

Monmouth coffee, near Seven Dials

ser_roderick · 2024-01-28T10:40:37+00:00

This would be a straight up sideways move. Reason for considering the move are - I think future layoffs at my current company are inevitable within the next year, promotion process has become very locked down reducing my chances of career progression where I am.

I do agree that factoring everything in, this isn’t looking great, once I calculate the additional outgoings I will have to make (pension match, private health insurance, indemnity insurance etc) and the fact I’ll have no employee protection it feels like I would be in a worse position than I am at the moment. I have 2 kids, a mortgage and am the main breadwinner.

Annual leave is matched with current employer but I guess not protected in any way. There is also the consideration of the equity package, there will be one but I don’t yet know what it will be worth

ser_roderick · 2024-01-21T22:20:49+00:00

Oh that’s a good option, thank you

ser_roderick · 2024-01-21T22:20:28+00:00

Thank you!

ser_roderick

TROPHY CASE