Rob Bowley
@robbowley.net
Product & Tech Leadership Advisor, Consultant, Coach & Mentor
Tech, Software Development, Science, History, Economics, Politics
https://blog.robbowley.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertbowley
https://pragmaticpartners.co.uk
Manchester, UK
Tech, Software Development, Science, History, Economics, Politics
https://blog.robbowley.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertbowley
https://pragmaticpartners.co.uk
Manchester, UK
Pinned
Rob Bowley
@robbowley.net
· Nov 16
Lots of new followers so thought I'd do an intro 🙂
This is me, without hat, in my garden, on a rainy morning in Manchester 🐝, UK
Been working in tech for 25 years - software engineer then various leadership roles. Nowadays I'm a product & tech leadership advisor, coach, consultant.
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This is me, without hat, in my garden, on a rainy morning in Manchester 🐝, UK
Been working in tech for 25 years - software engineer then various leadership roles. Nowadays I'm a product & tech leadership advisor, coach, consultant.
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I've been using Claude Code for a lot more than just coding (thanks to @chrismdp.com) - a good guide for non-devs for how to get set up.
hannahstulberg.substack.com/p/claude-cod...
hannahstulberg.substack.com/p/claude-cod...
Claude Code for Everything: Finally, that Personal Assistant You’ve Always Wanted
Everything you need to get started (no coding required)
hannahstulberg.substack.com
January 10, 2026 at 12:30 PM
I've been using Claude Code for a lot more than just coding (thanks to @chrismdp.com) - a good guide for non-devs for how to get set up.
hannahstulberg.substack.com/p/claude-cod...
hannahstulberg.substack.com/p/claude-cod...
"The hardest single part of building a software system is deciding precisely what to build. [...] No other part of the work so cripples the resulting system if done wrong. No other part is more difficult to rectify later."
Fred Brooks, "No Silver Bullet"
Fred Brooks, "No Silver Bullet"
January 10, 2026 at 11:25 AM
"The hardest single part of building a software system is deciding precisely what to build. [...] No other part of the work so cripples the resulting system if done wrong. No other part is more difficult to rectify later."
Fred Brooks, "No Silver Bullet"
Fred Brooks, "No Silver Bullet"
One thing in this I do agree on - the relevance of CS/SE degrees
Already many decades behind modern technologies & practices
Ofc learning fundamentals very important, more so even but only a small part of the gig
Like many, I never did a CS degree & self-teaching now vs late 90s...
Already many decades behind modern technologies & practices
Ofc learning fundamentals very important, more so even but only a small part of the gig
Like many, I never did a CS degree & self-teaching now vs late 90s...
January 9, 2026 at 4:14 PM
One thing in this I do agree on - the relevance of CS/SE degrees
Already many decades behind modern technologies & practices
Ofc learning fundamentals very important, more so even but only a small part of the gig
Like many, I never did a CS degree & self-teaching now vs late 90s...
Already many decades behind modern technologies & practices
Ofc learning fundamentals very important, more so even but only a small part of the gig
Like many, I never did a CS degree & self-teaching now vs late 90s...
The person who wrote the "AI 2027" piece that got everyone in a tizzle last year, predicting the arrival of AGI by then, is now rowing back on that timeline.
It is now, of course, at least 3 years away (as it always is)
It is now, of course, at least 3 years away (as it always is)
Leading AI expert delays timeline for its possible destruction of humanity
Former OpenAI employee Daniel Kokotajlo says progress to AGI is ‘somewhat slower’ than first predicted
www.theguardian.com
January 6, 2026 at 3:15 PM
The person who wrote the "AI 2027" piece that got everyone in a tizzle last year, predicting the arrival of AGI by then, is now rowing back on that timeline.
It is now, of course, at least 3 years away (as it always is)
It is now, of course, at least 3 years away (as it always is)
Even in the punchcard and batch era, coding was not the main bottleneck with software delivery.
You may have read 1st version of this already - I've significantly updated/re-written, going back to the 1940s.
Full timeline below 👇
blog.robbowley.net/2026/01/05/c...
You may have read 1st version of this already - I've significantly updated/re-written, going back to the 1940s.
Full timeline below 👇
blog.robbowley.net/2026/01/05/c...
Coding has never been the bottleneck | Rob Bowley
blog.robbowley.net
January 6, 2026 at 12:43 PM
Even in the punchcard and batch era, coding was not the main bottleneck with software delivery.
You may have read 1st version of this already - I've significantly updated/re-written, going back to the 1940s.
Full timeline below 👇
blog.robbowley.net/2026/01/05/c...
You may have read 1st version of this already - I've significantly updated/re-written, going back to the 1940s.
Full timeline below 👇
blog.robbowley.net/2026/01/05/c...
I keep seeing posts claiming GenAI means coding is no longer the bottleneck.
It never was.
I wrote this as something to point people to, showing many practitioners have been saying this for decades.
blog.robbowley.net/2026/01/05/b...
It never was.
I wrote this as something to point people to, showing many practitioners have been saying this for decades.
blog.robbowley.net/2026/01/05/b...
“Because of GenAI, coding is no longer the bottleneck” | Rob Bowley
blog.robbowley.net
January 5, 2026 at 4:12 PM
I keep seeing posts claiming GenAI means coding is no longer the bottleneck.
It never was.
I wrote this as something to point people to, showing many practitioners have been saying this for decades.
blog.robbowley.net/2026/01/05/b...
It never was.
I wrote this as something to point people to, showing many practitioners have been saying this for decades.
blog.robbowley.net/2026/01/05/b...
Reposted by Rob Bowley
Here's my enormous round-up of everything we learned about LLMs in 2025 - the third in my annual series of reviews of the past twelve months
simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/31/...
This year it's divided into 26 sections! This is the table of contents:
simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/31/...
This year it's divided into 26 sections! This is the table of contents:
December 31, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Here's my enormous round-up of everything we learned about LLMs in 2025 - the third in my annual series of reviews of the past twelve months
simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/31/...
This year it's divided into 26 sections! This is the table of contents:
simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/31/...
This year it's divided into 26 sections! This is the table of contents:
Reposted by Rob Bowley
As dust settling on ChatGPT5.2 and Gemini 3, the pattern appears to be capability reallocation rather than general improvement.
Better scores on narrow reasoning and benchmarks, but trade offs elsewhere like consistency & hallucinations.
Better scores on narrow reasoning and benchmarks, but trade offs elsewhere like consistency & hallucinations.
December 18, 2025 at 5:07 PM
As dust settling on ChatGPT5.2 and Gemini 3, the pattern appears to be capability reallocation rather than general improvement.
Better scores on narrow reasoning and benchmarks, but trade offs elsewhere like consistency & hallucinations.
Better scores on narrow reasoning and benchmarks, but trade offs elsewhere like consistency & hallucinations.
Reposted by Rob Bowley
I see a lot of complaints about untested AI slop in pull requests. Submitting those is a dereliction of duty as a software engineer: Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/18/...
Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work
In all of the debates about the value of AI-assistance in software development there’s one depressing anecdote that I keep on seeing: the junior engineer, empowered by some class of …
simonwillison.net
December 18, 2025 at 2:57 PM
I see a lot of complaints about untested AI slop in pull requests. Submitting those is a dereliction of duty as a software engineer: Your job is to deliver code you have proven to work simonwillison.net/2025/Dec/18/...
From fire and cooking, agriculture, to fossil fuels, the biggest jumps in human living standards came from unlocking more usable energy.
Any future industrial-revolution-scale shift will almost certainly involve a comparable change in energy availability, not information technology alone.
Any future industrial-revolution-scale shift will almost certainly involve a comparable change in energy availability, not information technology alone.
Faster horses, not trains | Rob Bowley
blog.robbowley.net
December 18, 2025 at 1:38 PM
From fire and cooking, agriculture, to fossil fuels, the biggest jumps in human living standards came from unlocking more usable energy.
Any future industrial-revolution-scale shift will almost certainly involve a comparable change in energy availability, not information technology alone.
Any future industrial-revolution-scale shift will almost certainly involve a comparable change in energy availability, not information technology alone.
How funny this comes up in my feed when I've just written a piece saying GenAI is not like steam or electricity
December 17, 2025 at 3:34 PM
How funny this comes up in my feed when I've just written a piece saying GenAI is not like steam or electricity
How AI Is Transforming Work at Anthropic
How AI Is Transforming Work at Anthropic
www.anthropic.com
December 17, 2025 at 1:45 PM
I’ve been trying to work out why new GenAI models don’t feel much different to me
GenAI operates through a narrow, lossy interface. Good at helping with slices of work, but real constraints sit elsewhere
Better models don't change the boundary. So it doesn’t really matter how “smart” models get
GenAI operates through a narrow, lossy interface. Good at helping with slices of work, but real constraints sit elsewhere
Better models don't change the boundary. So it doesn’t really matter how “smart” models get
Faster horses, not trains | Rob Bowley
blog.robbowley.net
December 17, 2025 at 12:47 PM
I’ve been trying to work out why new GenAI models don’t feel much different to me
GenAI operates through a narrow, lossy interface. Good at helping with slices of work, but real constraints sit elsewhere
Better models don't change the boundary. So it doesn’t really matter how “smart” models get
GenAI operates through a narrow, lossy interface. Good at helping with slices of work, but real constraints sit elsewhere
Better models don't change the boundary. So it doesn’t really matter how “smart” models get
GenAI feels like faster horses, not trains. Powerful and useful, but not yet the kind of change you can point and say “this could not exist before”
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Faster horses, not trains. Yet | Rob Bowley
blog.robbowley.net
December 16, 2025 at 2:52 PM
GenAI feels like faster horses, not trains. Powerful and useful, but not yet the kind of change you can point and say “this could not exist before”
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The industrial revolution broke hard limits. You could point at a train and say this could not exist before - people and goods moving in hours, not days.
GenAI = more like faster horses - better versions of what we already had: writing, code, analysis, planning
Useful, but not the kind of shift
GenAI = more like faster horses - better versions of what we already had: writing, code, analysis, planning
Useful, but not the kind of shift
December 16, 2025 at 9:36 AM
The industrial revolution broke hard limits. You could point at a train and say this could not exist before - people and goods moving in hours, not days.
GenAI = more like faster horses - better versions of what we already had: writing, code, analysis, planning
Useful, but not the kind of shift
GenAI = more like faster horses - better versions of what we already had: writing, code, analysis, planning
Useful, but not the kind of shift
Observation: I don't think AI having a habit of creating duplication in code is just a consequence of being trained on poor code. When I'm using it to support writing/documentation, it's constantly repeating and duplicating things.
December 11, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Observation: I don't think AI having a habit of creating duplication in code is just a consequence of being trained on poor code. When I'm using it to support writing/documentation, it's constantly repeating and duplicating things.
Thought's in my head today, now on paper.
AI will more likely mean more with the same rather than the same or more with less.
AI will more likely mean more with the same rather than the same or more with less.
More with less, or is it more with the same | Rob Bowley
blog.robbowley.net
December 11, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Thought's in my head today, now on paper.
AI will more likely mean more with the same rather than the same or more with less.
AI will more likely mean more with the same rather than the same or more with less.
Good write up on/experience report on working with Claude Code.
Only one thing I strongly disagree with:
"Claude is trained on real-world code. Real-world code has crappy tests."
Most real-world code has NO tests.
Only one thing I strongly disagree with:
"Claude is trained on real-world code. Real-world code has crappy tests."
Most real-world code has NO tests.
How I Built a Production App with Claude Code
The follow-up everyone asked for...
leadershiplighthouse.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Good write up on/experience report on working with Claude Code.
Only one thing I strongly disagree with:
"Claude is trained on real-world code. Real-world code has crappy tests."
Most real-world code has NO tests.
Only one thing I strongly disagree with:
"Claude is trained on real-world code. Real-world code has crappy tests."
Most real-world code has NO tests.
One of the interesting things from picking up running this year - not how fast I can run at full effort, but I can now run 5k in ~30 mins whilst barely getting out of breath or breaking into a sweat
December 10, 2025 at 7:05 AM
One of the interesting things from picking up running this year - not how fast I can run at full effort, but I can now run 5k in ~30 mins whilst barely getting out of breath or breaking into a sweat
Reposted by Rob Bowley
🧵 As we figure out what role LLMs and Gen AI systems will play in developing software, I await with interest actual experience reports, such as this one:
(> next)
(> next)
December 9, 2025 at 2:51 PM
🧵 As we figure out what role LLMs and Gen AI systems will play in developing software, I await with interest actual experience reports, such as this one:
(> next)
(> next)
I tried this with ChatGPT. Spent a long time building up a profile of a relative who is hard to buy for. All I got were pretty generic bland suggestions, none were any good - nothing much better then e.g. Google Shopping or web search
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
AI tools transform Christmas shopping as people turn to chatbots
Shopper are increasingly using chatbots for their hard-to-buy-for family and friends, with implications for bargain hunters and businesses.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 9, 2025 at 3:30 PM
I tried this with ChatGPT. Spent a long time building up a profile of a relative who is hard to buy for. All I got were pretty generic bland suggestions, none were any good - nothing much better then e.g. Google Shopping or web search
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Good guide if you're needing to create policy for use of LLMs at your org (which you should)
I have put together a (long overdue!) draft RFD on using LLMs at @oxide.computer, but I know that there is a ton more to be said on the topic; thoughts and experiences welcome!
rfd.shared.oxide.computer/rfd/0576
rfd.shared.oxide.computer/rfd/0576
576 - Using LLMs at Oxide / RFD / Oxide
rfd.shared.oxide.computer
December 7, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Good guide if you're needing to create policy for use of LLMs at your org (which you should)