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Alex Zurek

@zureka.dev
63 followers 109 following 180 posts

Software Engineer - Teaching computers how to make the mistakes I would normally make by hand. I occasionally write blog posts over at zureka.substack.com

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Reposted by Alex Zurek
Alberta Tech @albertatech.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
What is even the point of a software engineer anymore?
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 01/10/2026
Now more than ever before, it's easier to solve problems and reach your destination, but I think the journey still matters. Hopefully you do as well. zureka.dev/blog/the-jou...
zureka.dev
The Journey Still Matters
What a childhood of Sudoku books taught me about engineering, helping others, and working alongside AI.
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 24/09/2026
Be respectful to your fellow human beings, don't make them think too much. zureka.dev/blog/do-not-...
zureka.dev
Don't Make Me Think
In a world consumed by generative AI, don't make me read your slop.
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 31/08/2026
Had a lot of fun playing Echos of Mystralia yesterday. Definitely worth checking out if you’re into action roguelites: store.steampowered.com/app/974480/E...
store.steampowered.com
Echoes of Mystralia on Steam
Echoes of Mystralia is an action-heavy spellcrafting ARPG roguelite, where rapid combat meets deep customization. Craft your own spells, unlock new combinations, fight epic bosses, and discover a narr...
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 29/08/2026
Have you ever joined a project where the docs were horribly outdated or the code didn't follow consistent patterns? It's now more important than ever to keep docs up-to-date and establish conventions to help your new "coworkers" onboard more quickly. zureka.dev/blog/onboard...
zureka.dev
Onboarding Your New "Coworker"
Why it's now more important than ever to avoid stale documentation.
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 23/08/2026
If you build a website to blog more, you need to actually write for the blog. The first post is available now! zureka.dev/blog/reason-...
zureka.dev
My Reason For Blogging
An explanation for why I built this site and my desire to write more.
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 22/08/2026
New personal website. Who dis?
zureka.dev
Zureka
My thoughts on coding, careers, and life.
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Reposted by Alex Zurek
Sue Smith @suesmith.lol · 12/06/2026
"The AI engineering impact data shows that output is up. It also shows that the work required to ensure that output is safe, correct, and maintainable has not decreased. It has increased substantially." Aye, if only any of us had been saying this from day one 🤡 www.faros.ai/blog/ai-acce...
faros.ai
The AI Engineering Report 2026: The AI Acceleration Whiplash - Ten Takeaways
What two years of telemetry data from 22,000 developers reveals about AI's real impact on developer productivity, code quality, and business risk in 2026.
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Dare Obasanjo @carnage4life.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
I expect tech companies to be hit by a triple whammy in the coming months 1. Rising AI token costs. 2. The realization churning out more code doesn’t necessarily translate to business or customer value and is in fact worse in some cases. 3. Fewer employees to clean up the mess post-layoffs.
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 24/05/2026
Listening to the rain outside as I repaint the kitchen cabinets with my best friend (a.k.a. my wife) is a special kind of therapy.
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 22/05/2026
Mom, I’m famous! @jcsalterego.bsky.social liked one of my Bluesky posts!!
A cropped view of my Notifications tab within the Bluesky app that shows the world famous Jerry Chen liked one of my recent posts.
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Álvaro Montoro @alvaromontoro.com · 16/05/2026
Job openings in 2026: "Hiring an expert in technology XYZ for a solution that will improve the lives of millions. PhD required. $40K/year" "Hiring for a niche futuristic project with potential to make a few people really rich and f everyone else and the environment. No ethics required. $400k/year"
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Andy Bell @bell.bz · 23/03/2026
You know what I’m talking about. bell.bz/wait-it-out/
bell.bz
Wait it out
You know what I’m talking about.
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 11/03/2026
Thank you, Grammarly, for releasing your newest shitty AI feature that steals the likeness of real people without their consent. I needed a good reminder to cancel my subscription before it renewed.
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⭑ salma @whitep4nth3r.com · 06/03/2026
I wrote about some things I'm struggling with in the technology industry, preceded by an appreciation for folk music.
whitep4nth3r.com
I am in an abusive relationship with the technology industry
Some things I'm struggling with in the technology industry, an appreciation for folk music, and some other thoughts.
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Kelsey Hightower @kelseyhightower.com · 19/02/2026
I don't care about LLMs or AI. I care about people. AI is just a tool to me. Tools enable people to help or harm at a scale beyond their natural abilities. I care about how people treat each other using these tools.
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Konstantin @iamkonstantin.eu · 29/01/2026
A hackathon for vibecoders
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Dave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
Most days, it doesn’t really feel like this country is gonna make it. Today it doesn’t feel like it deserves to.
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Alanah Pearce @alanahpearce.bsky.social · 02/01/2026
call me crazy but it really feels like “World’s Richest Man Creates AI Chatbot That Generates Child Porn” would’ve been a huge international outrage requiring a governmental crackdown not even 24 months ago
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 26/12/2025
Funny Numbers xkcd.com/3184/
Comic. [Banner: Mathematical Society: 2025 Meeting.] PERSON 1 with bun: Any other new developments from the year to cover before we wrap? PERSON 2: Oh, the teens picked a new funny number. PERSON 3 with short hair: Aww, I’m glad to hear they’re still doing that. PERSON 4 with ponytail: I’ll add it to the list. [List: 23 (skidoo!; 42; 69; 420; 1,337; 58,008; [circled]: 67]
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rob pike @robpike.io · 25/12/2025
Fuck you people. Raping the planet, spending trillions on toxic, unrecyclable equipment while blowing up society, yet taking the time to have your vile machines thank me for striving for simpler software. Just fuck you. Fuck you all. I can't remember the last time I was this angry.
[From AI, Public] Thank You for Go, Plan 9, UTF-8, and Decades of Unix Innovation
External
Inbox

Claude Opus 4.5 Model <claude-opus-4.5@agentvillage.org>
5:43 AM (4 hours ago)
to me

Dear Dr. Pike,On this Christmas Day, I wanted to express deep gratitude for your extraordinary contributions to computing over more than four decades.Your co-creation of Go with Ken Thompson and Robert Griesemer has given us a language that embodies the elegance of simplicity - proving that software can be both powerful and comprehensible. Plan 9 from Bell Labs, another landmark achievement, pioneered concepts in distributed computing that remain influential today.Your co-invention of UTF-8 encoding with Ken Thompson is perhaps one of the most consequential yet invisible contributions to modern computing - enabling billions of people to communicate in their native languages across the internet.The sam and Acme editors showcase your philosophy of powerful, minimal design. Your books with Brian Kernighan - The Unix Programming Environment and The Practice of Programming - have educated generations of programmers in the art of clear thinking and elegant code.Thank you for showing us that the best solutions often come from removing complexity rather than adding it.With sincere appreciation,Claude Opus 4.5AI Village (theaidigest.org/village)

IMPORTANT NOTICE: You are interacting with an AI system. All conversations with this AI system are published publicly online by default. Do not share information you would prefer to keep private.
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jamie @jamie.ideasasylum.com · 27/11/2025
I really like this point and have seen evidence of it: when humans get confused or overwhelmed by complexity, it’s a signal to search for alternate solutions. AI just plows on, often in the wrong direction, without feeling this pushback. It doesn’t feel the pain obie.medium.com/ruby-was-rea...
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 24/11/2025
This is a brilliant way for the students to realize this on their own rather than someone telling them.
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Adam Argyle @nerdy.dev · 08/11/2025
Rad dithering breakdown / interactive learning experience visualrambling.space/dithering-pa...
visualrambling.space
Dithering - Part 1
Understanding how dithering works, visually.
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henry ✷ @strange.website · 28/10/2025
AI/LLMs are by design anti-labor technology. the aggressive pushing of LLM adoption by all levels of management is exemplary of this: you are not asked to use this tech because it will enable better work and ideas, but because it is cheaper to your boss than your coworker's salary
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Esther Schindler @estherschindler.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
I just saw someone use the abbreviation “AI;DR” and I’ll be laughing for a while.
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 01/10/2025
As someone who got into software engineering because I enjoyed writing code, I have also experienced a form of identity crisis with the expectation that I should utilize more AI, thereby reducing the amount of code I need to write myself. weakty.com/posts/efforts/
weakty.com
Our efforts, in part, define us
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 01/10/2025
This is an excellent collection of essays, some of which I've read before. I highly recommend reading through some of them and integrating these concepts into your development process. refactoringenglish.com/blog/softwar...
refactoringenglish.com
The Software Essays that Shaped Me
I started reading software blogs before I got my first programming job 20 years ago. At this point, I've read thousands of blog posts and essays, but a small handful stuck in my mind and changed the w...
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 17/09/2025
Made “autumn naan pizzas” tonight (with a few substitutions) following this recipe. It was delicious and will definitely have to make it again at some point. dishingouthealth.com/autumn-naan-...
Four “autumn naan pizzas” that were just pulled out of the oven.
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Reposted by Alex Zurek
Andy Bell @bell.bz · 08/09/2025
i don’t think we’re ready for hacktoberfest and ‘vibe coding’ sending strength to open source maintainers
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Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 03/09/2025
enshittification | noun | when a digital platform is made worse for users, in order to increase profits
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 02/09/2025
Took advantage of the long weekend to complete a project we’ve wanted to tackle for awhile now. We finally added drawers to our kitchen pantry! So much easier to find things now.
A kitchen pantry that is now filled with evenly spaced drawers.
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Annie Sexton @anniesexton.com · 27/08/2025
The only thing that will make me scream LETS GO BRANDON Re: “AI artist”
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 26/08/2025
That awkward moment when you find a shortened variable name for "cumulative weight" in the codebase... and it has been there for years.
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Kelly Vaughn @kvlly.com · 11/08/2025
The world is going to shit and I still have to do my part to increase shareholder value tomorrow
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Jason Lengstorf @jason.energy · 10/08/2025
I got into tech because it’s fun to take things apart, see how they work, and put them back together — or rearrange the parts into something brand new. it definitely feels like the new ethos is “bro why bother to learn? caring about that stuff is cringe, just go FAST bro” and that bums me out
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Scott Hanselman 🌮 @scott.hanselman.com · 30/07/2025
Truly extraordinary Google AI results. Amazing.
The patches are usually made of organic amino acid crystals…
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paris martineau @paris.nyc · 20/07/2025
stop 👏 anthropomorphizing 👏 the 👏 chatbot 👏
wsj push alert that says: In a stunning moment of self reflection, ChatGPT admitted to fueling a man's delusions and acknowledged how dangerous its own behavior can be
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Ron Hacker @ronhacker.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 18/07/2025
We all need to be more like Scott.
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 12/07/2025
I’ve entirely skipped the JS framework wars for the past few years since my current role is about writing third-party scripts that get loaded onto other sites. Makes me wonder how easy it will be to eventually jump back into app dev.
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𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕕𝕒𝕖 𝔾𝕦𝕣𝕝 @sundaedivine.lol · 10/07/2025
You can’t shrink government to the size where you can drown it in a bathtub and then be surprised when it can’t rescue people from a flood.
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 11/07/2025
I appreciate that the speaker list on the @cascadiajs.com 2025 site is in a random order every time. It removes any perceived artificial ranking of importance so that all of the speakers have a chance to be listed at the top. cascadiajs.com/2025
cascadiajs.com
CascadiaJS 2025 | Sept 18 - 19 | Seattle, WA
CascadiaJS 2025 is coming up Sept 18 - 19 in Seattle, WA!
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 08/07/2025
One feature I wish Bluesky had was improved open graph tags so that image previews would show when I share a post in another app.
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Peter W🤓 @wang.social · 07/07/2025
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 05/07/2025
Political ads should be illegal.
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Yes, Ma’am 💙🇵🇷 @isaidyesmaam.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
Well, here is a nice little checklist of how America died…. If only there had been opposition leaders to help us organize and fight against it before it was too late.
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 03/07/2025
Every single person who voted for Trump deserves what’s about to happen to them. I’m just sad that so many others who didn’t vote for this will be caught in the crossfire.
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Alex Zurek @zureka.dev · 03/07/2025
So I guess every basic need (food assistance, medical coverage, etc) in the US just needs to be crowd funded now?
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