Aider: a Real AidI'm no fan of the GitHub Copilot IDE extension. Talking to the model through a chat interface felt slow and cumbersome. I couldn't figure out how to configure and automate it, or use it effectively in TDD. However, Copilot does offer a range of power...Sep 12, 2025 · 3 min readexecutable-ideas.hashnode.dev
Harness your AI assistantAI assistants are great at spitting out code at lightning speed. One of the reasons that this has not so far led to a massive increase in developer productivity is that reading someone else's code is not cheap. It requires only a little less attentio...Aug 28, 2025 · 5 min readexecutable-ideas.hashnode.dev
Automate for outcomesEffective process automation is essential for modern business. Handing mundane tasks off to a computer frees up people to solve the difficult problems. However, poorly designed process automation can cost more people-time than having no automation at...Aug 21, 2025 · 2 min readexecutable-ideas.hashnode.dev
How to make TDD click in practiceIn my experience, almost nobody is good at explaining how to do test-driven development in practice. Developers who don't naturally "get it" tend to abandon it quickly. Developers who grasp it intuitively sometimes struggle to clearly explain their t...Aug 14, 2025 · 5 min readexecutable-ideas.hashnode.dev
Models don't have a sense of smellModern IDEs are great at highlighting errors as soon as you type them. AI assistants improve on this by spotting antipatterns and suggesting alternatives. Neither of them identify the root cause that led to the antipattern in the first place. Human d...Aug 7, 2025 · 2 min readexecutable-ideas.hashnode.dev
