iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by John Crickett

Overcommitted Podcast @overcommitted.dev · 28/04/2026

@johncrickett.bsky.social built Coding Challenges (90k+ subs) by posting honestly on LinkedIn with 3,200 followers. No funnel, no growth hacks. The post that broke through was him publicly walking the walk on a $100 MVP. 🎙 New Overcommitted out now!

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

"Forget 10x programmers. 1,000x programmers really exist, we just don't fully acknowledge it." Naval Ravikant He's right. The difference isn't speed or talent. It's direction. I have spent weeks building features that nobody used. Asking "should we build this?" would have created more value.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

GitHub Copilot will beat Claude Code. Not because it's better. Copilot is the new IBM. Checks the enterprise box. Microsoft is already on the PLS. If it under-delivers, everyone else bought it too. "You won't get fired for buying X" really means "you won't get blamed for buying X." Big difference

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

An OpenAI forward deployed engineer is coming on my podcast tomorrow. FDEs sit between the models and the companies using them. They see what works, what breaks, and what surprises everyone. I've got my questions ready, but what would you ask?

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

Every programmer should learn C. Implement a linked list, hash table, and binary tree. Then build a simple CLI program and a basic network server. Not because you'll use it daily, but because it strips away the abstractions and shows you what's really beneath whatever language you use daily.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

What AI newsletters are you actually reading? Not the ones covering the latest model. The ones writing about AI in healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, defense, energy. Drones, autonomous vehicles, robotics. The applied stuff. The "boring" stuff. The stuff that's actually changing industries.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Who are the people writing about applying AI to real-world problems? Not the next coding agent, not the latest LLM wrapper. What about AI for robotics, logistics, healthcare, manufacturing? The other 99% of AI. Drop names below. I want to follow them.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

In any new role you should always seek to understand before you act. Make sure you understand not just the what, but also the why. Only then should you start changing the what, if the why is no longer valid. Exception: if you've been hired to put out a raging fire.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

There's a take going around that not knowing how to code is an advantage when using AI. It’s wrong. The more you understand coding and software engineering, the better your prompts, the better you manage the context, the better your feedback, and the better the product you ship.

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Reposted by John Crickett

Rob Bowley @robbowley.net · 29/01/2026

Joined @johncrickett.bsky.social's Coding Chats podcast, if you like podcasts Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9Rr... Spotify: lnkd.in/eNJw955r Apple Podcasts: lnkd.in/epZnMjZz Overcast: lnkd.in/eFNPGVvS

youtube.com

What to do when AI gets expensive and other CTO challenges

YouTube video by Coding Chats

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 25/11/2025

Tips for AI-assisted software development: Boring tech gives AI superpowers. AI coding agents performs best with tools, languages, and frameworks that have been around long enough to show up in its training data. When use the bleeding edge, it hallucinates.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 23/11/2025

Tips for AI-Assisted software development: Work in small batch sizes. Humans and AI have limited short term memory. Ensure the task you're working on fits within your and AI's short-term memory. When switching tasks start a new session, clear the context of you and the AI.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

“AI is incapable of programming well thought out and complex code” This is both true and irrelevant. The goal is to write well thought out and simple code (which may solve a complex problem).

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

If you use AI to help you build software professionally, has your organisation provided any training? If so, what did it cover? What was missing? If not, why not?

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 22/11/2025

Software Engineers - need a project for the weekend? How about building your own LLM powered chatbot? codingchallenges.fyi/challenges/c... Or one of the 80+ other real-world projects you can build to level up your coding skills: codingchallenges.fyi/challenges/i...

codingchallenges.fyi

Build Your Own LLM Powered AI Chatbot | Coding Challenges

This challenge is to build your own LLM powered AI chatbot. The chatbot will play a specific role and offer advice to the user. For example I’ve created one that is trained to behave like me and recom...

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

If you code with AI, and don't do Test-Driven Development, have you tried or are you going to try doing Spec-Driven Development? What is the attraction? What do you see as being a blocker to doing it?

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

Why do people feel the need to post stuff like this: "So far only the uninformed and b-players are using LLM" LLMs are way over-hyped, but attacking people is a weak argument.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

If you use AI to develop software, do you vibe code or do you do AI assisted engineering?

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 08/11/2025

In today's Coding Challenges I used Augment Code to develop a project in Gleam: codingchallenges.substack.com/p/using-ai-t...

codingchallenges.substack.com

Using AI To Solve A Coding Challenge

Trying out augment code on the Spelling Correction Tool Coding Challenges.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 07/11/2025

If this doesn't look like an AI bubble, what does?

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

There aren’t enough good software engineering managers in most companies. And this problem is getting worse. The biggest, hardest and most common problems we have with software delivery are not technical, they're people problems. AI won't fix that.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

In software engineering, “it depends” often sounds like a smart answer. But if it’s the only answer, it’s useless. It suggests enough experienced to know that context matters, but not enough to be able to articulate why. Next time you are tempted to say “it depends”, complete the sentence.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

“If someone was a very good communicator but a terrible software engineer would you hire them?” This is a false dilemma. To be a good communicator, you need to understand the domain that you are communicating about. "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough"

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

The hardest part of software engineering has always been writing good clear requirements in a natural language. Using current AI requires we do more of the hard bit to automate the easier bit of writing code.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

I’ve met many tech executives frustrated that their software teams were failing to deliver. In each case they’ve been advised by their software engineers that the answer was to rewrite all their software with some awesome new approach, technology, language, library, platform or architecture. 🧵👇

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Is anyone using Zig in production? If so, what and why did you pick it?

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

31 things I’ve learned writing 91 coding challenges over the last 27 months: 1. You can build some amazing software in less than 8 hours of focused time. 2. Breaking projects down into steps is a skill that many software engineers don’t have. 3. And one that many want to learn. 🧵👇

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Software Engineers - need a project for the weekend? How about building your own Monkeytype? open.substack.com/pub/codingch... Or one of the 90+ other real-world projects you can build to level up your coding skills: codingchallenges.fyi/challenges/i...

open.substack.com

Coding Challenge #91 - Monkeytype

This challenge is to build your own online typing test tool.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 12/05/2025

Networking tip: lead with curiosity, not your job title. Curious leaders ask better questions, build stronger relationships, and spot opportunities others miss. That’s where the good stuff starts. If you’re a senior engineering leader, I’m building a community — DM me if you’re curious.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

Software Engineers - need a project for the weekend? How about building your own ELIZA chatbot? codingchallenges.substack.com/p/coding-cha... Or one of the 80+ other real-world projects you can use to level up your coding skills: [codingchallenges.fyi/challenges/int…

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Networking tip: just talk to the other awkward person at the event.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

If you say you can’t prioritise a bug fix over a feature because “features generate revenue,” what you’re really saying is: you lack the judgment, experience, or data to prioritise effectively. Here’s how you do it:

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

Q: How do you find open source projects to contribute to? A: Use Google to find a site that covers issues marked "good first issue" then look through those to find a project that interests you.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

Who do you turn to when you're the most senior engineering leader in the room? When your team looks to you for clarity, vision, and direction, but you aren’t sure what to do. It can feel like there's no one you can turn to. That’s why I’m building a peer community of engineering leaders.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

What are the leading communities for software engineering leaders?

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Why is 13+ years of experience in engineering all of a sudden in every job ad?

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Yesterday’s coding challenge was to build your own strace. Even if you don't build it, do please read the challenge and learn about and use strace. You'll learn a useful tool and skill gain an insight into the system calls and levels of abstraction in something as simple as a Hello World program.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

9 tips for building high-performing software development teams. 1. Create a shared vision for the team to believe in and be inspired by. 2. Present the vision in terms of a concrete roadmap. 3. Promote communication – software is a team sport!

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

If you’re looking for work as a software engineer in a tech company and struggling to find one then consider applying for related roles. Use them to get your foot in the door. It worked for me, though not quite in the way I expected.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

Old school programming this evening! I implemented quicksort and mergesort for the first time in years! No I’m not prepping for a DSA interview, it’s some new material for Coding Challenges!

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 18/03/2025

“It is hard to describe how much you learn by actually doing — by carefully considering all factors, making a decision, and then taking responsibility for the outcome. Unlocks wisdom that cannot be arrived at any other way.” Greg Brockman What happens if we stop doing and start blindly trusting AI?

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 15/03/2025

Who else is enjoying listening to Sleep Token’s new song Emergence as they go about their weekend?

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

There are so many engineering fails in this post.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Too few software engineers understand this simple fact. We are not paid to write code. We are paid to solve problems. We often solve with code, but not always. Those who fail to recognise this, neglect the skills needed to be software engineers. They are the ‘coders’ who will be replaced by AI.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Software Engineers - need a project for the weekend? How about building your own Time Zone Converter? codingchallenges.substack.com/p/coding-cha... Or one of the 80+ other real-world projects you can build to level up your coding skills: codingchallenges.fyi/challenges/i...

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Reposted by John Crickett

Gregor Ojstersek @gregorojstersek.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

It's been a pleasure being on Coding Chats podcast with @johncrickett.bsky.social We talked about a LOT of interesting topics, especially how to grow beyond Senior Engineer and thrive in a lead role (Team Lead, Tech Lead (Staff), Engineering Manager).

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

I saw another post saying AI is getting better and it really does understand what we ask for. So I asked for a picture of a left handed guitarist to see if it was better than last time I tried. Spoiler, nope it's not.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

What’s stopping you writing code like this: ``` ++++++++++[>+>+++>+++++++>++++++++++<<<<-]>>>++.>+.+++++++..+++.<<+++. ``` If you’re having trouble following the code I’ll give you a clue, it’s written in the Brainf*ck programming language.

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

18 computer science books - that you can get for 5% of the cover price right now! I’m excited by Nora Sandler’s Writing a C Compiler and Code Craft by Pete Goodliffe! 👉 Writing A C Compiler 👉 Data Structures The Fun Way 👉 Computer Architecture 👉 Dive Into Systems 👉 Effective C 👉 Code Craft

humblebundle.com

Humble Tech Book Bundle: Computer Science the Fun Way by No Starch

Master Computer Science the Fun Way with this library of tech courses by No Starch. Learn new skills, pay what you want, support charity!

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John Crickett @johncrickett.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

If you have a behavioural interview coming up do yourself a favour and watch this week's Coding Chats. Austen McDonald explains on how to prepare for behavioural interviews and why they are so important in the hiring process.

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