@jasongorman@mstdn.business

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · 5d ago

Replying to on mcnulty.social

@ciaran@mcnulty.social I've only been trying for 3 weeks and I suspect it's going to take a lot longer, too

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 06, 2026

Quick shameless plug for my Code Craft & AI workshop on Tues Oct 6th at 18:45 BST. Just £99 + VAT. First one sold out in < 5 days! 30% already sold for this second one. Do practices like TDD, refactoring & CI help when we're using AI? You betcha! https://www.tickettailor.com/events/codemanship/2324138

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 06, 2026

Replying to @thirstybear@agilodon.social

@thirstybear@agilodon.social Sad, but true. In the 90s, the % of us who saw software development fundamentally as a learning process was tiny. In 2026, it's still tiny. The money wants the reassuring fantasy of factories, blueprints and predictability, and it always will.

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 06, 2026

Replying to on mastodon.social

@pgoetz@mastodon.social You mean if we were working on multiple unconnected problems at the same time?

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 06, 2026

In today's episode of "Spec-Driven Development isn't Waterfall"... "Agile never said to do that. It said deliver in small increments and learn as you go, not skip understanding what you're building. SDD just asks that your team fully understands what it's building before it starts." U-huh?

0

1

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 05, 2026

Replying to @jasongorman@mstdn.business

The fun part is that when you look at software engineering and AI-assisted software engineering through that lens, they're *exactly* the same. Same game, different dice.

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 05, 2026

The dominant theoretical model in software development over the last few decades has been systems theory. But this is the factory metaphor again. I increasingly think in terms of learning systems and information theory. I don't optimise for "flow". I optimise for learning. They're related, but not necessarily the same thing. It's quite possible - common, even - to optimise one at the expense of the other.

0

1

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 05, 2026

"But with AI, some of the skills of technical management are becoming part of the job: defining the problem, decomposing work, providing context, reviewing output, spotting unintended consequences and maintaining a coherent architecture." You misspelled "micromanagement"

6

0

6

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 04, 2026

Replying to @cmiles74@indieweb.social

@cmiles74@indieweb.social I think they may be referring to a couple

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 04, 2026

Replying to @davido1975@mas.to

@davido1975@mas.to I think the new Spider-man is on course to break records

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 04, 2026

So we've had "Barbenheimer". What will this summer's blockbusters be abbreviated to?

0

2

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 04, 2026

Germans have a big advantage in those "Can you describe in one word...?" questions

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 04, 2026

IME, speculative generality is driven by folks who don't refactor much, or... well, at all, let's be honest.

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 04, 2026

In today's episode of "Agile is dead. Instead, "...

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 02, 2026

Due to demand, I've scheduled a second Code Craft & AI workshop on Tues Oct 6th at 18:45 BST. Join me and learn how classic software engineering principles and practices are not just compatible with AI, but *essential* It's funny how that turned out 🙂 https://www.tickettailor.com/events/codemanship/2324138

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 02, 2026

Filter pronouncements by AI vendors through a lens of the biggest sunk cost in business history.

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 01, 2026

Extending the horizon of agentic coding requires much, much stronger automated quality gates. But how do we gauge how strong those gates are in practice? Van Halen had the answer. https://codemanship.wordpress.com/2026/08/01/do-your-quality-gates-see-the-brown-mms-in-the-bowl/

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 01, 2026

Replying to @jasongorman@mstdn.business

It's a tacit admission that harnesses are not, in fact, reusable - that they are sensitive to changes in the ecosystem and what worked for Bill might not work for Ben. It suggests what's really needed is principles and heuristics for harness design that can adapt rapidly to each setup.

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 01, 2026

I find it very telling that the people promoting their reusable agent harnesses and the people now saying that you should delete everything and start again with each new model are the same people.

0

1

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 01, 2026

The first one sold out in < 5 days, so I've scheduled another Code Craft & AI workshop on Tuesday October 6th at 18:45 BST. Still just £99 + VAT. If you're tired of the hype and the hopium, and are looking for a practical, *evidence-based* approach to taming the code-generating firehose, this is the workshop for you. https://www.tickettailor.com/events/codemanship/2324138

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 01, 2026

Replying to @jasongorman@mstdn.business

It's surprising that so few software-intensive businesses see that capability as strategically important, and will invest as little as possible in building and maintaining it. Instead, they'll pay far more to rebuild the car for every journey, and even more in opportunity costs while they're doing it.

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 01, 2026

Replying to @jasongorman@mstdn.business

Here's the rub, though: if your business is what I'd called "software-intensive" - you can't change your business model without software being created or adapted - then being able to do that is a core capability, and how rapidly and reliably you can do it a differentiator. When creating or adapting software involves hiring a team and getting them up to speed on your business - and each other - and your existing software, that's like building a new car for every journey.

0

1

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 01, 2026

Replying to @jasongorman@mstdn.business

@RonJeffries@mastodon.social @GeePawHill@mastodon.social @marick@mstdn.social And I was just a customer 🙂

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 01, 2026

I've been arguing for many years that the team is the real product of software development, learning is the real outcome, and that organisations need to optimise for *that* Software, and its impact in the real world, is an ephemeral byproduct of learning. But teams aren't usually seen as an asset by management. When the software's shipped, orgs will often throw away the toy and play with the box.

0

1

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 01, 2026

Replying to @jasongorman@mstdn.business

@RonJeffries@mastodon.social @GeePawHill@mastodon.social @marick@mstdn.social Somebody wrote those bespoke systems and, I'd wager, perhaps never set foot in a store to see them in action.

0

1

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 01, 2026

Replying to @jasongorman@mstdn.business

@RonJeffries@mastodon.social @GeePawHill@mastodon.social @marick@mstdn.social I asked "Does it usually take this long?" Apparently, yes. Multiple times a day, across hundreds of stores.

0

1

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 01, 2026

Replying to @jasongorman@mstdn.business

@RonJeffries@mastodon.social @GeePawHill@mastodon.social @marick@mstdn.social Like the time I watched the sales person in Carpetright manually copying dimensions from one IT system to another, while potential customers went unattended and left the store.

0

1

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 01, 2026

Replying to @jasongorman@mstdn.business

@RonJeffries@mastodon.social @GeePawHill@mastodon.social @marick@mstdn.social When I've been involved in the whole loop, the "team" were actively involved in observing and experiencing the impact of software releases first-hand. I've gone out on delivery vans, shadowed junior lawyers, worked on store checkouts etc etc, to see releases in action. almost always noticed things the business analysts, UX designers and product managers didn't. Very often came up with ideas for improvements myself.

0

4

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Aug 01, 2026

Replying to @RonJeffries@mastodon.social

@RonJeffries@mastodon.social @GeePawHill@mastodon.social @marick@mstdn.social I suppose it depends on whether they're involved in that outer loop, or just waiting for someone else to bring them feedback

0

1

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

Shut down any "Elon Musk predicts..." thread with this simple reply: "Was he on Mars when he said it?"

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

Something something new model just dropped something gamechanger something. Thanks for coming to my TED something.

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

Right then. Let's finish up the week with some Win https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0GB_r-0J80

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

Replying to @JeffGrigg@mastodon.social

@JeffGrigg@mastodon.social @nobsagile@mastodon.social @scrumschau@mastodon.social You may be overthinking this 🙂

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

Replying to @JeffGrigg@mastodon.social

@JeffGrigg@mastodon.social @nobsagile@mastodon.social @scrumschau@mastodon.social The dashed lines represent syntactic dependencies, not decision dependencies. The thing that makes these trees so difficult to unpick the deeper they go.

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

Replying to @JeffGrigg@mastodon.social

@JeffGrigg@mastodon.social @nobsagile@mastodon.social @scrumschau@mastodon.social

1

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

Replying to @JeffGrigg@mastodon.social

@JeffGrigg@mastodon.social @nobsagile@mastodon.social @scrumschau@mastodon.social Absolutely. But do teams explore both D2 *and* D3?

0

1

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

Replying to @nobsagile@mastodon.social

@nobsagile@mastodon.social @scrumschau@mastodon.social One interesting consequence is that teams can accelerate learning by *slowing* production

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

Replying to @nobsagile@mastodon.social

@nobsagile@mastodon.social @scrumschau@mastodon.social There's a very interesting parallel in Reinforcement Learning you could check out. Higher feedback latency creates a bigger credit assignment problem. The feedback signal is much harder to attribute to specific decisions, and resultant learning is much slower. I call it "LGTM-speed" when production outpaces feedback.

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

Replying to @nobsagile@mastodon.social

@nobsagile@mastodon.social @scrumschau@mastodon.social When we traverse the tree, the further down we go - the more decisions we make on a branch - the fewer our options get. High feedback latency means we lose more optionality before we validate decisions - it's harder to change direction

0

1

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

Replying to @jasongorman@mstdn.business

@nobsagile@mastodon.social @scrumschau@mastodon.social Some interesting analogs have fallen out of it around, for example, optionality

0

1

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

Replying to @nobsagile@mastodon.social

@nobsagile@mastodon.social @scrumschau@mastodon.social It's a similar model, absolutely. The main difference is that I measure feedback latency in consequent decisions instead of time. I've been playing with visualising design processes as trees, like this one.

0

2

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

Replying to @GeePawHill@mastodon.social

@GeePawHill@mastodon.social It's counter-intuitive enough that almost nobody does it 🙂

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

Replying to @jasongorman@mstdn.business

Counter-intuitively, many teams could accelerate learning by *slowing down* execution

4

1

2

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

Replying to @jasongorman@mstdn.business

Folks mistakenly believe feedback latency to be about how long it takes to get feedback. It's actually about how far ahead of feedback execution happens - how many unanswered questions are in progress? How many questions never get answers? How much do we build on top of untested guesses? Ship more and ship faster without accelerating real-world feedback, signal-to-noise in the feedback degrades and *learning* slows down.

0

12

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 31, 2026

The original sin of software development

39

5

35

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 30, 2026

I can't disprove that you saw a ghost or a flying saucer or that you achieved 10x productivity using an LLM. But I don't need to. The burden of proof is on the one making the claim. Hitchen's razor: What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.

33

0

16

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 30, 2026

Replying to @jasongorman@mstdn.business

For sure, software developers have a long history of misjudging the impact of tools, technologies and techniques on team outcomes. What *feels* like being more productive at the individual level can easily turn out to be counter-productive at the system level.

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 30, 2026

On the one hand, we've got folks claiming productivity gains of up to 10x using AI in software development. On the other, we've got folks saying most teams aren't getting any kind of overall boost from it. Who should we believe? Science answers these questions with data. And given the very high - economy and environment-warpingly high - stakes, I choose to be led by the data.

0

1

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 29, 2026

Replying to @armstrong@mastodon.design

@armstrong@mastodon.design impact / cost

0

Jason Gorman @jasongorman@mstdn.business · Jul 29, 2026

Replying to @schwaigbub@mastodon.social

@schwaigbub@mastodon.social There are 6 people on the waiting list, so i'm thinking I might dare scheduling another one in October

0

Jason Gorman

Posts

Remote instance

Media