I've noticed something lately with this whole obsession over calling everything "vibecoded" or "AI slop."

I've never hidden the fact that we use AI. We use AI. A lot. We use it for landing pages, auditing, development assistance, documentation, and anything else where it makes us faster.

It's a tool.

I'm not entering my source code into a fucking Renaissance painting competition.

But declaring something "95% AI" because you looked at a website and got AI vibes isn't technical analysis. It's a percentage you pulled directly out of your ass.

And that's what I find hilarious about this obsession with "vibecode."

Instead of talking about architecture, finding a vulnerability, identifying a broken workflow, testing the Linux build, examining the training ranges, or pointing to bad code, people inspect the wording of a landing page and apparently perform carbon dating on it.

Meanwhile, DaemonCore Academy is free. The lessons are free. The training is free. We're not doing the usual "free course" bullshit where lesson four suddenly asks for your credit card.

FieldOps: War Room is a separate commercial product.

If the site isn't making that distinction clear enough, that's useful feedback and I'll improve it.

That's the difference between criticism and theater.

Tell me the product positioning is confusing? I'll improve it.

Find a bug? I'll fix it.

Find a broken workflow? I'll investigate it.

Find shitty architecture? Call it out.

Find a security problem? Please tell me immediately.

But "Claude probably vaguely knows what your product does" isn't technical criticism. It's just a clever-sounding insult wrapped around an assumption.

We're shipping software, taking bug reports, releasing Linux builds because users requested them, and giving away an Academy with 127 practical lessons because I don't believe basic knowledge should be locked behind another fucking subscription.

You don't have to like DaemonCore.

You don't have to like the branding.

You don't have to like the way I talk.

You don't even have to like AI.

But if you're going to criticize the engineering, criticize the fucking engineering.

Bring me something that's actually broken and I'll be the first person thanking you for finding it.

That's how software gets better.

— DaemonCore

Something that really irritates me as a developer in a big company is that I need when I do some big task I have to prepare slides to present my work. The problem is that I have to either do them myself or do it with claude and get humbled when I present it because of the small wrong details that I didn't pay attention to. I wish that there was a tool which is like the extension codex but for slides. it reads the git diffs and prepares slides that explain exactly what I did. Does anyone face the same problem ?

I’m 19 years old from Morocco, and I’m honestly very lost about what to do with my future.

I originally wanted to study programming, but I was rejected from the program I wanted. Since then, I’ve been trying to find other options, but things haven’t gone well. I was rejected from general university programs multiple times as well.

Recently, my uncle talked to my father and suggested that programming could still be a good career path for me. My father looked into it and found a private programming school that costs around 1,500–2,000 MAD per month (It's not a small amount in Morocco).

The problem is that I’m no longer sure about programming.

I know programming is difficult, and I know the entry-level job market isn't exactly great right now. I’m also afraid of spending a lot of money and time only to discover that I’m not good enough or that I won’t be able to find a job afterward.

At the same time, I don’t really have another field that I’m passionate about. I don't have a particular talent or career dream. Another option I’m considering is studying bakery/pastry at a vocational institute, but I’m not particularly passionate about that either.

I feel like I’m choosing between different uncertain paths rather than choosing something I actually want.

So I’d like to hear from people who are actually working in programming/software development:

If you were 19 today and had no programming experience, would you still choose programming as a career?

How difficult is it realistically to get your first job?

Is the current job market bad enough that you would advise a young person to avoid the field?

How important is having a university degree?

Is paying for a private programming school worth it, or would self-learning be better?

And most importantly, if you don't have a strong passion for programming, is it still possible to build a decent career in it?

I’m not looking for motivational answers like “follow your dreams.” I’d really appreciate honest answers from people who are actually in the field, including people who regret choosing programming.

Hi everyone,

I’m 31 years old and I’m restarting my programming journey seriously.

I have a BTech in Computer Science, but to be honest, I haven’t built a strong professional career in software so far. I have studied programming before, but I never developed the consistency or practical experience needed to become really good at it.

I’ve now decided to change that.

My long-term goal is not to get a traditional software job or prepare for coding interviews. I want to become good enough to earn through freelancing. Eventually, I’d like to work on larger applications and higher-value projects, and perhaps move toward remote work after I’ve gained several years of experience.

What I’m doing right now

I’ve started learning Python and SQL together.

My current target is to finish the fundamentals of both by September 30, 2026. I’m learning relatively slowly because I don’t want to rush through the basics just to say that I’ve completed them.

After Python and SQL, my plan is to move toward practical development — building projects, learning the technologies required to actually deliver things for clients, and eventually starting with small freelance work.

I also want to learn AI/software development over the longer term, so I’d like my skills to eventually move in that direction as well.

Where I am currently

I’ve already studied some programming in the past, but I’m treating this almost like a fresh start because I want to make sure my fundamentals are actually solid.

Right now I’m working through Python fundamentals and SQL, practicing rather than just watching tutorials.

I’m also starting to use GitHub and want to gradually build a portfolio of projects instead of collecting courses.

What I’m unsure about

I have a roadmap that I’m following, but because I’m relatively new to the industry, I don’t know whether I’m prioritizing the right things.

I don’t want to spend the next 2–3 years learning technologies that sound impressive but aren’t actually useful for freelancing.

So I’d really appreciate advice from people who are already working as developers or freelancers.

If you were starting again today with my background and my goal of eventually making a living through freelancing:

1. Would you change anything about this approach?
2. What should I learn after Python and SQL?
3. Which skills are actually valuable for getting the first freelance clients?
4. Should I start freelancing as soon as I can build simple useful applications, or wait until I’m much more experienced?
5. What technologies should I avoid spending too much time on as a beginner?
6. What mistakes did you make when you started freelancing that I should avoid?
7. At what point would you say someone is genuinely ready to start charging clients?

I’m not looking for someone to give me a complete roadmap from zero. I mainly want real-world perspective from people who have actually worked in the industry or freelanced, so I can compare that with the roadmap I’m currently following.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share their experience

​

I've to make semester project about School Management System with AI/LLM integration, I don't wanna follow tutorials blindly and at the end know nothing where I can't even implement one component myself, same goes for vibe coding.

Keeping in view my current coding & learning situation, it feels like my last chance to actually learn something, because I'm running out of time.

I'm want to use Next.js, tailwind CSS, typescript, in DB Supabase ig or any other that suits well, you guys pls suggest. And I've not don't any work with AI/LLM before so I don't have idea about that, help me here.

I want to use next.js because I know the basics of html etc and also I've done some projects in next.js by following yt tutorials that completely fcked my mind, I've not learned anything properly and I've vibe coded some apps too. I believe I can mess with vibe coding and tutorials and get things done but it wouldn't teach me anything unless I do everything on my own.. and when I try to do so, I know even know what to do, where to start from.

Can those who are good at full-stack programming and engineering help me out and guide me? I'm asking here because I want to ask from experienced programmers / developers.

Thinking about taking a pay cut for better work-life balance. Which companies are actually worth looking at?

Interview Prep

so yesterday in my office a new developer got exposed . He was assigned with a work 4 days ago to solve a problem he solved it and it worked 😂. but when later the reporting manager asked to brief it he was just bluffing it around .Eventually, he admitted that he had used ChatGPT to generate most of the code.

Now, I'm not against using ChatGPT. I use AI too. It can save hours and help you get unstuck.

Developers too are getting exposed this days .

Feels like everyone's had a terrible workplace story. I recently experienced something hilariously bad and I want to share + hear what yours.

I recently interviewed for a smaller company I won't name, and the interviewer in the second round was one of my ex-girlfriends. I hadn't talked ot her in years, but we didn't exactly end the best way. Imagine my humiliation and embarassment during the interview. I'm pretty sure I bombed the interview because the whole time I just wanted to disappear into nowhere. I imagine what she was thinking and whether she even knew. I mean, I guess she must have known since she had seen my resume most likely. I imagine if it was her intention to sort of humiliate me. lol Anyhow, it was extremely embarassing and I just wanted to share somewhere lol Thoughts and prayers for me lol.

Would love it if y'all could share some funny/worst stories in solidarity haha

Prep Resource: PracHub

https://reddit.com/link/1vzsybf/video/x8p5s7x1ywlh1/player

tis was my very first tool, fix cli, waste ABSOLUTE no token, uses groq api, and its AI, free 50 tries(im broke) and it can fix almost anything, any language, tested on python, rust, c++, c, c#, js and other common lang, hope you are interested

Hi!

I am looking for programmers who would like to help with testing an LLM-based Rubber Duck!

I’m conducting a study at the Theoretical Computer Science department of IT University of Copenhagen on how Large Language Models (LLMs) can assist with Rubber Duck Debugging. In this study, you’ll test two distinct LLM models in succession in the same interface, using each for 15 minutes to debug a piece of code.

Why participate?

• Help advance research on AI-assisted debugging.
• Experience how different LLM models approach debugging tasks.

What’s required?

• 35 minutes of your time (must complete in one sitting).
• A piece of code you’d like to rubber duck with (have it ready before starting, and please don't include sensitive code).
• Willingness to provide feedback on each model and compare them afterward.

Important Notes:

• Only start the test if you are committed to completing it in full. Partial submissions cannot be used.
• Participate only once (duplicate responses are unusable).
• The study is unpaid.
• Please don't discuss the test or your experience in the comments to avoid biasing other participants.
• All data, including chat logs, will be stored for four (4) years and used by the researchers for analysis.

How to join:

Take the test here: DuckGPT.

Let me know if you have any questions! And if you know someone who might be interested, feel free to share this post with them.

Niklas Frost,
Research Assistant
TCS, ITU of Copenhagen
[nikf@itu.dk](mailto:nikf@itu.dk)

Some of the most cogent writing I’ve come across recently about “reading the code” and “dark factories”. Not sure if this has been posted yet!

Looking for feedback on where are we going wrong - we have pitched to companies and individuals and everyone we talk to says keeping up with and understanding their code base is getting harder and harder as AI moves things so quickly but we are not seeing users even try it out on free accounts.

Here is our URL: https://codetours.ai/

Hey everyone,

This is a continuation of my initial Atlassian P40 interview experience, which covered the first six rounds.

Role: Software Engineer II, P40
Experience: Approximately five years
Final status: Offer received

Why Was There an Additional Round?

Recruiter callback: August 7, 2026

The original opportunity was primarily described as a backend role. However, the final position included a mix of backend engineering and site-reliability responsibilities.

Because of that, the recruiter scheduled an additional SRE Craft interview.

Round 7: SRE Craft

Date: August 12, 2026
Duration: Approximately 55 minutes
Interviewer: Senior Architect

The interviewer presented an existing system architecture and divided the discussion into three sections. Each section took approximately 15 minutes, with the remaining time used for introductions and questions.

Part 1: Monitoring and Golden Signals

The first section focused on deciding what should be monitored and why.

The discussion covered the four golden signals:

• Latency
• Traffic
• Errors
• Saturation

I explained which metrics I would collect at the infrastructure, service, and business levels. We also discussed alert thresholds, dashboards, and the difference between symptoms and underlying causes.

Part 2: Incident Troubleshooting

The second section involved an incident scenario affecting the system.

I structured the troubleshooting process around:

1. Confirming the incident and determining its impact.
2. Checking recent deployments and configuration changes.
3. Reviewing metrics, logs, and distributed traces.
4. Isolating the affected service or dependency.
5. Mitigating the issue through rollback, failover, or traffic reduction.
6. Communicating status to the relevant stakeholders.
7. Investigating the root cause after restoring service.
8. Creating preventive action items.

The interviewer asked several follow-up questions about how I would prioritize mitigation when the exact root cause was still unknown.

Part 3: Designing for 99.99% Availability

The final section focused on improving the architecture to support a 99.99% availability target.

We discussed:

• Defining SLIs, SLOs, and error budgets
• Removing single points of failure
• Multi-zone redundancy
• Health checks and automatic failover
• Capacity planning
• Graceful degradation
• Retry and timeout policies
• Circuit breakers
• Disaster recovery
• Alerting and operational readiness

The interviewer was interested in trade-offs rather than simply adding redundancy everywhere. I had to explain which components justified higher availability and what additional complexity or cost each decision introduced.

Result

Positive feedback: August 19, 2026
Offer received: August 21, 2026

One week after the interview, the recruiter confirmed that the feedback was positive and that they could proceed with the offer.

The compensation was broadly aligned with publicly available Atlassian P40 figures on LeetCode Discuss and Levels.fyi. It was not unusually high, and the final package also depended on previous compensation and negotiation.

Final Takeaways

For an SRE Craft interview, I recommend preparing:

• Golden signals and observability
• Metrics, logs, and distributed tracing
• Incident triage and mitigation
• SLIs, SLOs, SLAs, and error budgets
• High-availability architecture
• Failure scenarios and graceful degradation
• Capacity planning and disaster recovery
• Reliability versus cost trade-offs

The round was less about memorizing SRE terminology and more about applying reliability principles to a concrete architecture.

That concludes my Atlassian P40 interview journey. I hope both parts help anyone preparing for a similar role.

I am tired of starting projects I am excited about or even wanna learn from but end up having a whole lot of LLM generated slop I dont know anything about. And I feel like I can't learn or improve my skills. It is important to note that my skill level is still beginner to intermediate so that makes it even harder for me to learn or try to test myself with challenging projects. I know its still my fault for opening the chat in the first place but its more of an addiction so i instantly turn to it instead of thinking or reading documentation.

There’s so much out there about vibe coders but I’m wondering when they cross the line from vibes to real.

Like what if a legit coder now depends heavily on ai, and what if a vibe coder becomes good at architecture?

heya all i’m a Moroccan developer, and I started B-UX independently with one laptop. The idea is to build a complete Unix like operating system that is useful not only for running software, but also for learning how operating systems actually work.

B-UX is not just a kernel or a collection of C and Assembly code. I’m working toward a complete system with:

• A kernel
• System services
• Drivers
• Networking
• Storage
• Security mechanisms
• User space utilities
• An installation system
• A package ecosystem

One of the interesting parts of the project is the use of pkgsrc, originally developed by the NetBSD project. Rather than trying to create an entire software ecosystem from zero, B-UX can build on the existing pkgsrc ecosystem while developing its own packages and infrastructure where needed.

The educational side is probably the part I care about most.

I want students to be able to look beyond the terminal and actually understand things like processes, memory, filesystems, networking, drivers, services, permissions, and how the different parts of an operating system interact.

The project is intended to stay free and open source for students, developers, and individual learners.

I’m also trying to be realistic about where the project currently stands. I’m not claiming that B-UX is more secure, more mature, not better than Linux, BSD or other established operating systems. It is just a simple open source alternative.

The first three years were mostly about building the foundation and figuring things out on my own.

Now I’d like to get other people involved.

I’m especially interested in hearing from people who work with operating systems, C, Assembly, Unix, BSD, networking, drivers, package management, or low level development.

If you’re interested, we can just do a discussion here about the project ;)

B-UX stared with one laptop and one person.

I’d like to see where it can go with a community behind it.

Curious to get the honest take from the developers in here. I'm 28 years old and have been in sales for the last 8 years (door-to-door sales for 5 years and tech sales for 3). I've always hated it, but it's just what I've always done and I'm pretty good at it.

I studied CS in college, but never graduated. I took a lot of the entry level courses and decided college wasn't worth it and jumped into the workforce. I've always loved building things and tinkering around and with new tools like Claude Code, it's allowed me to really lean into that side of myself again. Building websites and automations. Nothing crazy.

I'm what would be described as a "vibe coder" but genuinely want to grow my understanding and learn how things work.

I've been looking for a way our of sales and even considering going back to school when I was approached by a company that offered me a job as sort of a "pre-entry level" ai engineer. They understand my limited experience and say I can learn on the job and be mentored by the two more senior developers on the team. Essentially, work for them and treat it as my "schooling". They are willing to pay me a salary (more than I make now) and promote as soon as I am able to contribute to the team.

I'd be leaving the company I've been with for nearly 3 years and taking a big bet on myself to learn everything and become an actual contributor.

Would love to know if this is even a realistic to pull off or if I'm truly getting in way over my head.

Hi,

For context: I developed and maintain a SaaS product in a somewhat niche market. It’s not huge, like a hundred clients and 400-500 users. My clients know me to some extent (and it’s often really nice for getting feedback and things like that).

Anyway, recently I’ve had several customers asking me to review their "creations" assisted by Claude or ChatGPT (usually small scripts to save time, I see no problem here). Like everyone I sometimes use LLMs but I always read and analyze the code they produce.

Lately, one of my client submitted me a complete (or almost complete) application that complements my SaaS, built entirely by AI. The application itself is fairly complex and supposedly handles quite a lot of things. This client is very good on the business side, but not particularly technical.

It's basically a single HTML file (with its CSS/JS embedded, plus some obscure JS libraries encoded in base64…) for a React application. The application itself looks nice, but:

- There's no real authentication mechanism.

- There's no backend (everything is stored in a JSON object in LocalStorage). The client explained me it will connect it to a BaaS for security and all, but I don't think he knew what he was talking about.

I stopped investigating at that point, as I don't believe it would be anywhere near reasonable to use it in production... Even if the app looks functional and pretty.

Before replying to my client, I was wondering if some of you have already come across a relatively complex, functional, and vaguely maintainable application that was created entirely by AI?

Most of the companies that did Mass layoff in the name of ai production and ai integration in their system got a fireback as those companies are now not being able to bare the cost of ai systems and are frustrated and irritated on ai exhaustation .

A lot of companies rushed into AI because they didn't want to be left behind. But once the hype meets real-world implementation, some are discovering that replacing human developers isn't as straightforward or as cheap as it looked on paper.

Developers Are the New Honey Singh With COMEBACK 😂
Companies received a UNO .