Coding With David

For the past year, we’ve been asking the wrong question. “Will AI replace software developers?” The answer is both simpler — and more uncomfortable — than most people expect. AI is not replacing developers. It’s replacing the part of the job that never should have defined us in the first place. The Lie We Built Our Careers On For decades, we measured developer value by output: lines of code number of features tickets completed We turned software engineering into a production line. Write more code. Ship more features. Move faster. But that model had a flaw: It assumed writing code was the hard part. It isn’t. AI Just Exposed the Truth Today, tools like GitHub Copilot can generate: APIs UI components database queries unit tests in seconds. Not perfectly — but fast enough to change everything. And when that happens, something becomes very clear: If code can be generated instantly… then code was never the...

  For years, Agile was treated as the answer to software development. Standups.  Sprints.  Story points.  Velocity. It gave teams structure in a world where building software was slow, expensive, and uncertain. But that world no longer exists. AI has changed the economics of software development — and Agile hasn’t caught up. Agile Was Built for a Different Problem Agile emerged in a time when: Writing code was slow Changing direction was expensive Planning too far ahead was risky So we adapted. We broke work into: small tasks short iterations continuous feedback loops It made sense. Because the bottleneck was production . Getting code written was the hardest part. AI Eliminates the Old Bottleneck Today, tools like GitHub Copilot can generate: entire features APIs UI components test scaffolding …in seconds. Suddenly, writing code is no longer the constraint. So what happens to a methodology designed to optimize… writing code? It starts to crack. The “Ceremony Economy”...

  Agents, Skills, Hooks, Prompts, Custom Instructions, and GitHub Instructions—what they are, how they differ, and when to use each one GitHub Copilot is getting more powerful, but it is also getting more layered. If you have been exploring Copilot customization, you have probably run into a pile of terms that seem similar at first glance: Agent , Skill , Hook , Prompt , Custom Instructions , and GitHub Instructions . And that is where the confusion starts. They all shape how Copilot behaves, but they do very different jobs . If you do not separate them clearly in your mind, it becomes easy to misuse them. You end up trying to force one feature to solve a problem that another feature was designed to handle much better. This article is the practical guide I wish I had the first time I started thinking seriously about building a real Copilot workflow. By the end, you should be able to answer these questions with confidence: What is each feature actually for? How are they d...

  There’s a quiet revolution happening on Windows—and most developers are missing it. In the video above, the creator walks through the new Command Palette Dock in Microsoft PowerToys. At first glance, it looks like a simple macOS-style dock. But under the hood, it’s something much more powerful: It’s a developer-grade command launcher + customizable workspace hub And if you're someone optimizing workflows, AI tooling, and developer productivity—this is a big deal. What the Video Shows (Key Takeaways) 1. It’s Not Just a Dock — It’s a Command Surface The dock is actually an extension of the Command Palette , not just pinned apps. That means: You’re not limited to apps You can pin commands, scripts, tools, and extensions It becomes a workflow launcher , not just a shortcut bar This aligns perfectly with how modern dev environments are evolving: Less clicking → more intent-driven execution 2. Persistent, Always-On UI Unli...

  Why AI looks brilliant in demos, struggles in production, and delivers real value only when teams build the right operating system around it. If you have watched AI coding demos lately, you have probably seen something that looks almost unbelievable. A model spins up a feature in minutes. It creates a clean UI. It wires up some logic. It even explains itself confidently. The whole thing feels smooth, fast, and oddly effortless. Then you try to use the same approach on a real production application, and the experience changes immediately. Suddenly, the AI misses conventions, breaks patterns, invents abstractions, touches files it should not touch, and produces code that looks polished but does not really belong in your system. So what happened? The demos were not fake. They were just operating under kinder conditions. The hidden reason demos look so good AI tends to look brilliant in environments with very few constraints. A greenfield prototype, a standalone script, or ...