The Pragmatic Engineer
20 stories
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesThe Pulse: tech companies move to open AI models Cost-saving efforts reveal that moving simpler workloads to open AI models is the easiest way to save ~50% on AI bills. Also: automated software maintenance experience, and more
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesThe Pragmatic Engineer: Five years As the newsletter reaches its fifth birthday, we reflect on how the publication has changed, and what to expect. Also: the launch of the ‘How Software Engineering is Changing’ essay contest
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesThe Pulse: Meta wanted to reduce teams by 60% because of AI We find out why Meta destroyed its standout engineering culture: it feared AI-native startups doing more with less. Also: thoughts on Ramp’s AI infra, GitHub’s load doubles in four months, and more
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesWhy performant code matters (but gets widely ignored), with Casey Muratori Casey Muratori explains why software performance matters, how developers can write faster code, and why he challenges conventional engineering practices.
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesWhy Ramp built its own in-house coding agent, Inspect A fintech company rejected the easy route and homebrewed its own coding agent – and is now a step ahead of coding agents from frontier AI labs. An in-depth look
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesThe Pulse: We need to talk about migrations with AI Asana completed a testing framework migration in two weeks, that they would have delayed for years more, and they’re not alone. Also: AI startups could make Gartner much less relevant, and more
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesFrom Chrome DevTools to AI Engineering, with Addy Osmani Addy Osmani shares lessons from 14 years at Google and how AI agents are reshaping software engineering, developer workflows, and the skills engineers need to succeed.
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesHeaded for the Exit: the Great Engineering Leader Career Break Trend: more CTOs, VPEs, and Heads of Engineering are walking away from their high-status, in-demand positions. There are many reasons, mostly related to AI, and to "founder mode"
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesThe Pulse: Meta’s self-inflicted resignation-wave The social media giant is offering $1M+ retainer equity grants to staff who are leaving: and even this is not effective. Also: is Grok Bot the “OpenClaw moment” for managed AI agents?
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesStop being skeptical about AI for development with Charity Majors In 2025, it was rational to be skeptical about AI. In 2026, it's not, anymore. With Charity Majors, CTO and co-founder of Honeycomb.
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesSoftware engineering at a proprietary trading company: Optiver A shift from a focus on latency to building better AI models, owning the full stack from applications to building custom hardware, very different incentives to most tech companies in play, and more
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesFormal methods with Hillel Wayne Hillel Wayne explains why formal methods like TLA+ matter, how they help build reliable software, and whether AI will finally bring formal verification into the mainstream.
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesHow building software is changing at Anthropic A deepdive on what’s changed in how the leading AI lab makes software. Ever more code review and testing is done by AI, two-pizza teams very much alive, and more. Details from inside of Anthropic
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesThe Pulse: Quitting Spotify Podcasts over reliability Also: Chinese open models match closed ones from Anthropic and OpenAI, AWS’s “heart-attack” billing error, and more
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesPushing software engineering limits with “napkin math” Turbopuffer cofounder Simon Eskildsen on the benefits of longer tenure, using first principles to build durable software – and why founders should be cautious when raising VC money
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesThe Pulse: Grok’s CLI caught uploading all your local files to the cloud Also: engineering leaders concerned about continued increase in code review load, devs at enterprises surprised by high enterprise pricing, and more
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesContext engineering with Dex Horthy Dex Horthy explains why context engineering is key to building more effective AI-assisted software without sacrificing code quality.
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesWhat is “loop engineering?” There’s talk about loop engineering, but what is it exactly? I looked into it, and found triggers, cron jobs, AI slop & more. Is it a “here today, gone tomorrow” trend?
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesThe Pulse: What can we learn from Bun’s rapid Rust rewrite with AI? A rewrite done in 11 days that would have taken a small team a year to complete, for $165K in tokens. Also: coding LLM “wars” heat up, AI fakers from North Korea still a problem when hiring, and more
The Pragmatic EngineerVoicesThe Pragmatic Engineer AMA In this AMA episode, Gergely Orosz answers listener questions on AI, engineering, hiring, and careers.
Nothing matches this filter yet.