I Built Software Entirely with Claude Code. Here's What Actually Happened.
An honest experiment in AI-assisted development: one day, one tool, and a working (but brittle) result.
James Luterek
Blog and portfolio of James Luterek - Writing about technology, programming, and software development.
Latest posts
From Assembly to AI: Programming Abstractions
The fear and resistance to AI coding tools mirrors exactly what happened when high-level languages emerged. AI isn't replacing programmers. It's the next abstraction layer.
CS Degree vs Bootcamp: The debate is over.
While bootcamp graduates panic over AI stealing their jobs, computer science majors are thriving. The reason? AI eliminated the need to memorize syntax, but amplified the importance of understanding how systems actually work.
Composable Commerce Vindicated: Why 2025 is the Year Legacy Platforms Die
With 73% of businesses adopting headless architectures and unified commerce experiences delivering 20% revenue uplifts, the MACH revolution isn't coming—it's here. Legacy monolithic platforms are the real technical debt crisis.
The Clean Code Trap: When 'Best Practices' Become Bottlenecks
The obsession with clean code is creating a generation of developers who can write beautiful, over-engineered solutions to simple problems while missing deadlines and confusing their teammates.
Developer Experience is Just Productivity Theater
58% of engineering leaders think DevEx is critical, but most are measuring the wrong things. DORA metrics tell you nothing about whether developers actually want to write code.
The Next.js Complexity Tax: Why Astro Beats React for Content Sites
While developers debate framework performance, they're missing the real cost: Next.js forces you to pay a 'complexity tax' on every content-heavy site that Astro makes obsolete.
Pair Programming is Mostly Performance Theater
Pair programming is supposed to improve code quality and knowledge sharing, but it's often just expensive theater that makes both developers less productive while managers feel good about 'collaboration.'
Remote Work Killed the Traditional Engineering Manager (And That's Great)
The old model of engineering management—status meetings, shoulder taps, and visual oversight—died with remote work. The managers who survived learned to manage outcomes, not activities.
Stop Treating Technical Debt Like a Backlog Item: The 80/20 Priority Framework
Technical debt consumes 40% of IT budgets, but most teams prioritize it wrong. The 80/20 rule reveals that 20% of your codebase causes 80% of your problems—so why are you refactoring everything else first?
The AI Productivity Jump is a Lie
60% of engineering leaders admit AI hasn't boosted productivity. A VP Engineering's data-driven analysis of why that's good news and what actually drives developer velocity.
First Impressions: Switching to a MacBook Air M4
First Impressions: Switching to a MacBook Air M4
Why Your Corporate YouTube Channel Has No Traction
Why Your Corporate YouTube Channel Has No Traction
44 React Interview Questions you should NEVER ask!
44 React Interview Questions you should NEVER ask!
Your company may be growing, but your role is shrinking.
Your company may be growing, but your role is shrinking.
I hate "headless" commerce
Rant on poor naming.
My experience as a presales engineer.
My experience as a presales engineer.
Programmers are immune to advertising and allergic to sales.
Programmers are immune to advertising and allergic to sales.
GitHub enters eCommerce
GitHub announced yesterday a new feature for developers, sponsors-only repositories. Creating a code marketplace.
Generating Order Numbers in a high-volume distributed system.
Generating Order Numbers in a high-volume distributed system.
Deploying Your Microservices
Deploying Your Microservices
Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose
Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose
Big data just got bigger
Big data just got bigger
A/B Significance Test - You may be doing it wrong.
A/B Significance Test - You may be doing it wrong.
The link between music and code.
The link between music and code.