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Rob Bowley

@robbowley.net

2.2K followers 1.1K following 5K posts

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

blog.robbowley.net

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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.

1/4

Selfi of Rob Bowley on a rainy morning in Manchester with his garden in the background

Reposted by Rob Bowley

Dave Farley @davefarley77.bsky.social · 1d

AI programming’s worrying stat: 70% of developers trust the output. We need an intervention.

New research from DORA confirms AI is ubiquitous. 95% of developers rely on it, and 80% report productivity gains. But there is a massive and dangerous disconnect.

🧵 1/5

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d

Indeed, the diet fad gets the credit when sustainable habits is what led to weight loss.

As is often the case with any successful technology change, perhaps it was the org change all along.

Maybe it wasn’t the tech after all | Rob Bowley

blog.robbowley.net

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d

There are of course already lots of known, proven good practices and fundamentals that already unlock smaller teams, which the vast majority of the industry are not following.

Which, as it happens, are also essential to get any benefit from AI assisted software development

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d

Depends what mean by optimistic e.g

- Augmenting humans and making us more productive by e.g. 20-30% - I'm optimistic
- The next industrial revolution, fundamentally transforming the way we live and work, massively boosting GDP and economies, major job displacement & new roles - I'm less optimistic

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d

Learning based on ongoing feedback feels like a biggie still

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d

They’re not necessarily wrong about AI’s potential, but their view is often abstracted from delivery, adoption, and change.

Those who’ve led in complex systems tend to be more balanced, grounded in what it actually takes to make things work.

3/3

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d

They’re more often academics, commentators, futurists, solopreneurs, or techies/hackers.

They’re not familiar with the organisational friction, dependencies, governance, or accountability that come with leading teams and delivering real outcomes.

2/3

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d

An interesting observation - the people I see most optimistic about the impact of AI (aside from those selling it, of course) tend not to have held roles that involve working in teams, leading organisations, or being accountable for delivery.

1/3

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d

I have seen just as awful code written by humans

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d

One of my all-time favourite books is Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers, which is all about how to safely get tests around legacy code (defined as code with no tests)

www.oreilly.com/library/view...

Working Effectively with Legacy Code

This book provides programmers with the ability to cost-effectively handle common legacy code problems without having to go through the hugely expensive task of rewriting all... - Selection from Worki...

www.oreilly.com

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 1d

The thing about having e.g.a rules.md file and when it decides to actually follow it...

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 2d

Not weird, me too! When I was more hands on, refactoring messy code was always the bit I enjoyed the most

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 2d

What's galling is hearing AI leaders/boosters brush off overbuild or bubble risks as if they don’t matter

The BoE warns a burst could dry up finance for households and businesses.

When people with power say ‘don’t worry’, what they really mean is ‘we’ll be fine’

Bank of England warns of growing risk that AI bubble could burst

Possibility of ‘sharp market correction has increased’, says Bank’s financial policy committee

www.theguardian.com

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 2d

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Reposted by Rob Bowley

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 2d

BoE flags risk of ‘sudden correction’ in tech stocks inflated by AI on.ft.com/3WqHK5t

BoE flags risk of ‘sudden correction’ in tech stocks inflated by AI

Financial Policy Committee warns equity prices are at levels comparable with dotcom bubble

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 2d

Refactoring, I love it

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 2d

Only from my knowledge/recall, but I found this article

www.marketingweek.com/ritson-nike-...

Four big strategic mistakes Nike needs to reverse

Outgoing CEO John Donahoe set Nike on the wrong trajectory, thanks to bad assumptions about product and distribution, and an insufficient focus on brand.

www.marketingweek.com

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 2d

I quite enjoy cleaning up crappy code

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 2d

Some reflections on @duncanjbrown.com's recent article "Team dynamics after AI", which is one of the best/most important pieces of writing I've read on AI in a long time

Reposted by Rob Bowley

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 2d

NVIDIA and OpenAi:

Concerns that their “increasingly complex and interconnected web of business transactions is artificially propping up the trillion-dollar AI boom.“

@bloomberg.com $NVDA 👀
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 2d

From a CTO WhatsApp group I'm in

Message in CTO WhatsApp group:

I did a code and architecture review for a company yesterday who had vibe coded their MVP - there were no common classes, modules, functions, etc. every "feature" was a separate file with literally a main method full of all the code required for that one function - no reuse anywhere and loads of bits of code that were declared but never used, variable names that didn't make sense, the same variables defined everywhere, etc. Because they were quite far down this path the tidy-up process is going to be a long and difficult road

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 3d

This is now the favourite thing I've read on AI.

Why the idealistic AI maximalist dreams just do not stack up.

Can't recommend it enough. Long read, so grab yourself 15 mins without distraction.

Sure I'll be coming back to it many times

Duncan Brown @duncanjbrown.com · 7d

Why I don't believe in "small giants": mechanicalsurvival.com/blog/team-dy...

Team dynamics after AI

Small giants and real giants

mechanicalsurvival.com

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 3d

Had me with Ian Mckaye and skateboarding, stayed for to A++ article

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 4d

When my brother bought his house in the U.S, it took *2 weeks*

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 4d

Long overdue reform.

Sellers should be responsible for surveys etc through and offers should be binding commitments.

Confounded why not been addressed sooner. Is it because means less incentive to sell?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Buyers could save hundreds in new house buying shakeup

Under new proposals, sellers and estate agents will have to provide key information about a property up front.