On reading.
I know two types of book readers.
The first type is the "quota" reader. This reader wants to make sure that he hits the set out number of pages in a day and has an annual quota of books. You'll know how many books he read because he'll offer this information voluntarily.
The second type is the "hungry for knowledge" kind of reader. This person reads because he has insatiable hunger for knowledege. He doesn't necessarily read books from start to finish, but he's looking to learn about the world surrounding him. Reading one book triggers an interest in another topic, which is enough for this reader to go ahead and order another book.
I know about these two types because I've been both. It's much better to be the second type. I am not certain how to become the second type, but maybe reading books we like which pique our interest is a good start.
On prompt engineers.
There's a clear difference between being a prompt engineer and a software engineer.
Prompt engineer:
- vibe codes
- doesn't understand what AI wrote
- never typed git init before
- pushes to prod without running locally because Claude it's good
Software engineer:
- codes for real
- only understands his code for a few days after writing it
- writes unit tests prior to prod release
I think we'll discover a third archtype of a software engineer which will amelgamete the two types above. The
10x software engineer propped up by AI tools with the ever increasing context size will be able to develop and maintain a massive, but well designed code base. Well designed as opposed to tactically developed (big difference to be explained soon).
A book worth a mention:
- The Practice by Seth Godin