Rob Bowley
@robbowley.net
Product & Tech Leadership Advisor, Consultant, Coach & Mentor
Tech, Software Development, Science, History, Economics, Politics
https://blog.robbowley.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertbowley
https://pragmaticpartners.co.uk
Manchester, UK
Tech, Software Development, Science, History, Economics, Politics
https://blog.robbowley.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertbowley
https://pragmaticpartners.co.uk
Manchester, UK
Pinned
Rob Bowley
@robbowley.net
· Nov 16
Lots of new followers so thought I'd do an intro 🙂
This is me, without hat, in my garden, on a rainy morning in Manchester 🐝, UK
Been working in tech for 25 years - software engineer then various leadership roles. Nowadays I'm a product & tech leadership advisor, coach, consultant.
1/4
This is me, without hat, in my garden, on a rainy morning in Manchester 🐝, UK
Been working in tech for 25 years - software engineer then various leadership roles. Nowadays I'm a product & tech leadership advisor, coach, consultant.
1/4
This Coxon guy who has managed to get on every major news channel over the last week now saying the risks of global warming have been overstated pretty much tells you everything you need to know
September 16, 2026 at 2:12 PM
This Coxon guy who has managed to get on every major news channel over the last week now saying the risks of global warming have been overstated pretty much tells you everything you need to know
Very good read, "Why Software Factories Fail"
advanced-context-engineering-for-coding-agents/wsff.md at main · humanlayer/advanced-context-engineering-for-coding-agents
Contribute to humanlayer/advanced-context-engineering-for-coding-agents development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
September 16, 2026 at 10:39 AM
Very good read, "Why Software Factories Fail"
Reposted by Rob Bowley
I rant, therefore I am. richardwbown.com/when-softwar...
When Software Engineering Lost It's Way
Software engineering has never been cool, but the current level of executive excitement in software development process is scary
richardwbown.com
September 15, 2026 at 4:51 PM
I rant, therefore I am. richardwbown.com/when-softwar...
My god, I am TIRED of orgs constantly doing this pendulum swing. 25+ yrs in the industry, some things never change
www.techradar.com/pro/meta-is-...
www.techradar.com/pro/meta-is-...
Meta is begging some employees to step up and become managers again
Meta wants more managers for its AI work
www.techradar.com
September 12, 2026 at 6:38 PM
My god, I am TIRED of orgs constantly doing this pendulum swing. 25+ yrs in the industry, some things never change
www.techradar.com/pro/meta-is-...
www.techradar.com/pro/meta-is-...
Reposted by Rob Bowley
“But how did the superintelligence gain access to all of our infrastructure and private data!?”
“You’d never guess it, but we gave it privileged access to all of our infrastructure and private data.”
“You’d never guess it, but we gave it privileged access to all of our infrastructure and private data.”
Half my feed is AI doom takes, when the risk most of us actually face in the near future is not a rogue superintelligence.
September 12, 2026 at 2:25 PM
“But how did the superintelligence gain access to all of our infrastructure and private data!?”
“You’d never guess it, but we gave it privileged access to all of our infrastructure and private data.”
“You’d never guess it, but we gave it privileged access to all of our infrastructure and private data.”
Half my feed is AI doom takes, when the risk most of us actually face in the near future is not a rogue superintelligence.
September 12, 2026 at 8:21 AM
Half my feed is AI doom takes, when the risk most of us actually face in the near future is not a rogue superintelligence.
Hard relate
Opusfived
Make one button blue. Change nothing else. A short interactive comedy about agentic AI assistants that can never just do the thing.
opusfived.dev
September 11, 2026 at 6:36 AM
Hard relate
Interesting article, I've seen a few articles recently from experienced XP background type folks saying they're dropping lower level TDD in favour of more outside in acceptance/E2E test driven approach
Practices I Abandoned with Agents: An Ode to Test-Driven Development
After 25 years with TDD, we are now parting ways. The incremental TDD steps were great for human cognition, but didn't survive the transition to agentic coding.
adamtornhill.substack.com
September 10, 2026 at 11:06 AM
Interesting article, I've seen a few articles recently from experienced XP background type folks saying they're dropping lower level TDD in favour of more outside in acceptance/E2E test driven approach
Really interesting article I just came across. Automating part of programming isn't new, and it has never removed a phase - the work gets absorbed and moves. It's about the 1950s, but the authors draw the line straight to AI coding today.
The Myth of the Coder – Communications of the ACM
cacm.acm.org
September 7, 2026 at 10:27 AM
Really interesting article I just came across. Automating part of programming isn't new, and it has never removed a phase - the work gets absorbed and moves. It's about the 1950s, but the authors draw the line straight to AI coding today.
Reposted by Rob Bowley
Rachel's Ramblings:
Maybe We Shouldn't Be Reviewing All This Code: Or, perhaps the problem isn't that AI has broken code review, maybe it’s that we've been using code review to solve the wrong problems
martinfowler.com/rachels-ramb...
Maybe We Shouldn't Be Reviewing All This Code: Or, perhaps the problem isn't that AI has broken code review, maybe it’s that we've been using code review to solve the wrong problems
martinfowler.com/rachels-ramb...
Maybe We Shouldn't Be Reviewing All This Code
Or, perhaps the problem isn't that AI has broken code review, maybe it’s that we've been using code review to solve the wrong problems
martinfowler.com
September 2, 2026 at 1:49 PM
Rachel's Ramblings:
Maybe We Shouldn't Be Reviewing All This Code: Or, perhaps the problem isn't that AI has broken code review, maybe it’s that we've been using code review to solve the wrong problems
martinfowler.com/rachels-ramb...
Maybe We Shouldn't Be Reviewing All This Code: Or, perhaps the problem isn't that AI has broken code review, maybe it’s that we've been using code review to solve the wrong problems
martinfowler.com/rachels-ramb...
Only taken 25+ yrs of domesticity to learn non-stick pans a complete waste of money
Spend a fortune on fancy Le Creuset, still landfill in 5yrs
Get quality stainless steel, can scrub with wire wool, stick in dishwasher, will last a lifetime + not had issues with stuff sticking if pre-heat properly
Spend a fortune on fancy Le Creuset, still landfill in 5yrs
Get quality stainless steel, can scrub with wire wool, stick in dishwasher, will last a lifetime + not had issues with stuff sticking if pre-heat properly
August 24, 2026 at 9:29 PM
Only taken 25+ yrs of domesticity to learn non-stick pans a complete waste of money
Spend a fortune on fancy Le Creuset, still landfill in 5yrs
Get quality stainless steel, can scrub with wire wool, stick in dishwasher, will last a lifetime + not had issues with stuff sticking if pre-heat properly
Spend a fortune on fancy Le Creuset, still landfill in 5yrs
Get quality stainless steel, can scrub with wire wool, stick in dishwasher, will last a lifetime + not had issues with stuff sticking if pre-heat properly
CGI in movies peaked with Jurassic Park. Can't think of a heavily CGI movie I rate since.
Watching Gladiator 2 coz on Netflix, first scene haeavily CGI boat battle, is just meh.
Watching Gladiator 2 coz on Netflix, first scene haeavily CGI boat battle, is just meh.
August 22, 2026 at 8:39 PM
CGI in movies peaked with Jurassic Park. Can't think of a heavily CGI movie I rate since.
Watching Gladiator 2 coz on Netflix, first scene haeavily CGI boat battle, is just meh.
Watching Gladiator 2 coz on Netflix, first scene haeavily CGI boat battle, is just meh.
Reposted by Rob Bowley
Write-up on the giga-outage and more from GitHub. Every chart I have seen internally too is literally doing a hockeystick on growth. IMHO this is also a canary in the coalmine for many other systems and products who have an API github.blog/news-insight...
The August 17 outage, and the work ahead
An update on the August 17 outage and the steps we're taking to improve reliability.
github.blog
August 20, 2026 at 11:38 PM
Write-up on the giga-outage and more from GitHub. Every chart I have seen internally too is literally doing a hockeystick on growth. IMHO this is also a canary in the coalmine for many other systems and products who have an API github.blog/news-insight...
Reposted by Rob Bowley
I wrote an essay about why I'm done using AI for coding, even if it costs me my job and career: brettcodes.com/im-done-usin...
The basic gist is: AI made me a worse, apathetic programmer. I think it's bad for humanity, the planet, and the craft of software engineering. And I'm done using it.
The basic gist is: AI made me a worse, apathetic programmer. I think it's bad for humanity, the planet, and the craft of software engineering. And I'm done using it.
I'm done using AI
Why I'm stopping using AI for coding (and anything else) after using it earnestly for a year and coming to understand the harms it causes on personal, societal, and environmental levels.
brettcodes.com
August 11, 2026 at 4:04 PM
I wrote an essay about why I'm done using AI for coding, even if it costs me my job and career: brettcodes.com/im-done-usin...
The basic gist is: AI made me a worse, apathetic programmer. I think it's bad for humanity, the planet, and the craft of software engineering. And I'm done using it.
The basic gist is: AI made me a worse, apathetic programmer. I think it's bad for humanity, the planet, and the craft of software engineering. And I'm done using it.
I go on holiday for a few weeks and we've already moved on from Loop Engineering to Graph Engineering
The half-life of a paradigm is getting shorter than my annual leave
My prediction: neuro-symbolic engineering by the end of August, at which point we'll have gone full circle and reinvented Prolog
The half-life of a paradigm is getting shorter than my annual leave
My prediction: neuro-symbolic engineering by the end of August, at which point we'll have gone full circle and reinvented Prolog
August 18, 2026 at 11:31 AM
I go on holiday for a few weeks and we've already moved on from Loop Engineering to Graph Engineering
The half-life of a paradigm is getting shorter than my annual leave
My prediction: neuro-symbolic engineering by the end of August, at which point we'll have gone full circle and reinvented Prolog
The half-life of a paradigm is getting shorter than my annual leave
My prediction: neuro-symbolic engineering by the end of August, at which point we'll have gone full circle and reinvented Prolog
Reposted by Rob Bowley
Okay then. Folks have been asking, and it seems a shame to waste 3 1/2 years of legwork, so I'm scheduling one Code Craft & AI workshop.
Tues Sept 1st - 18:45 - 21:00 BST
£99 + VAT
Plus you get a copy of my book-in-progress, The AI-Ready Software Developer
www.tickettailor.com/events/codem...
Tues Sept 1st - 18:45 - 21:00 BST
£99 + VAT
Plus you get a copy of my book-in-progress, The AI-Ready Software Developer
www.tickettailor.com/events/codem...
Register – Code Craft & AI – Zoom
Code Craft & AI – Zoom, Tue 1 Sep 2026 - Tuesday Sept 1st 18:45 BST
£99 + UK VAT
Large-scale studies by the DevOps Research & Assessment group, CircleCI, Faros and others show an undeniable pictu...
www.tickettailor.com
July 22, 2026 at 1:00 PM
Okay then. Folks have been asking, and it seems a shame to waste 3 1/2 years of legwork, so I'm scheduling one Code Craft & AI workshop.
Tues Sept 1st - 18:45 - 21:00 BST
£99 + VAT
Plus you get a copy of my book-in-progress, The AI-Ready Software Developer
www.tickettailor.com/events/codem...
Tues Sept 1st - 18:45 - 21:00 BST
£99 + VAT
Plus you get a copy of my book-in-progress, The AI-Ready Software Developer
www.tickettailor.com/events/codem...
I had never thought about it like this - code didn't matter before but it does now because the computers depend on it not humans - but now put this way it makes total sense. Is this a good thing? Dunno
davidwhitney.co.uk/blog/2026/07...
davidwhitney.co.uk/blog/2026/07...
Computers Finally Care About Code · David Whitney
David Whitney is a technologist, software architect, conference speaker and author based in London. Available for talks and corporate bookings.
davidwhitney.co.uk
July 21, 2026 at 4:44 PM
I had never thought about it like this - code didn't matter before but it does now because the computers depend on it not humans - but now put this way it makes total sense. Is this a good thing? Dunno
davidwhitney.co.uk/blog/2026/07...
davidwhitney.co.uk/blog/2026/07...
Heron House, the (temp) home for No 10 North, I know well. It's the home of the DiSH start up accelerator and event space I've been to many times, as well GCHQ
Also the home of the birth, death marriages registration office - always nice seeing new little babies and newlyweds when visiting!
Also the home of the birth, death marriages registration office - always nice seeing new little babies and newlyweds when visiting!
Whitehall officials offered move to No 10 North in Manchester
London-based civil servants willing to move north have been told they will be offered relocation packages, the BBC understands.
www.bbc.co.uk
July 21, 2026 at 1:54 PM
Heron House, the (temp) home for No 10 North, I know well. It's the home of the DiSH start up accelerator and event space I've been to many times, as well GCHQ
Also the home of the birth, death marriages registration office - always nice seeing new little babies and newlyweds when visiting!
Also the home of the birth, death marriages registration office - always nice seeing new little babies and newlyweds when visiting!
I was speaking to a friend, an in-house commercial lawyer, about their use of AI legal tools. Said they're using them a lot and v good if you're an experienced lawyer, though not cheap at £3-5k per seat. Main benefit = needing to rely less on external firms, which I'd heard elsewhere too
But... 1/3
But... 1/3
July 3, 2026 at 8:26 AM
I was speaking to a friend, an in-house commercial lawyer, about their use of AI legal tools. Said they're using them a lot and v good if you're an experienced lawyer, though not cheap at £3-5k per seat. Main benefit = needing to rely less on external firms, which I'd heard elsewhere too
But... 1/3
But... 1/3
Interesting titbit I learned today. Sales industry had largely rolled back from using AI agent SDRs (sales dev reps) after finding they spammed leads with low quality outbound and finding themselves getting blacklisted/blocked.
July 1, 2026 at 12:44 PM
Interesting titbit I learned today. Sales industry had largely rolled back from using AI agent SDRs (sales dev reps) after finding they spammed leads with low quality outbound and finding themselves getting blacklisted/blocked.
5,000 engineers weren't 'replaced by AI' - it was a gradual general headcount reduction since 2020, mainly due to the EV shift.
They lost veterans and institutional knowledge as a result.
Companies have ended up in situations like this for decades via offshoring and cost-cutting.
They lost veterans and institutional knowledge as a result.
Companies have ended up in situations like this for decades via offshoring and cost-cutting.
Ford has rehired hundreds of senior engineers after replacing them with AI backfired and has cost the company billions of dollars.
AI adoption is blamed for Ford being the most recalled automaker in the U.S. with 51 recalls covering over 11 million vehicles in the first half of 2026 alone.
AI adoption is blamed for Ford being the most recalled automaker in the U.S. with 51 recalls covering over 11 million vehicles in the first half of 2026 alone.
June 28, 2026 at 9:37 AM
5,000 engineers weren't 'replaced by AI' - it was a gradual general headcount reduction since 2020, mainly due to the EV shift.
They lost veterans and institutional knowledge as a result.
Companies have ended up in situations like this for decades via offshoring and cost-cutting.
They lost veterans and institutional knowledge as a result.
Companies have ended up in situations like this for decades via offshoring and cost-cutting.
Reposted by Rob Bowley
Anyway, my theory - FWIW - is that lots of the experienced and senior people who are hooked on LLMs are actually having a midlife crisis, and that spending money on Claude is cheaper than buying a Lambo buttondown.com/justenoughin...
The Sports Car Theory of LLM Adoption
If LLMs make decision makers feel stupid, maybe they'll stop using them?
buttondown.com
June 25, 2026 at 9:34 AM
Anyway, my theory - FWIW - is that lots of the experienced and senior people who are hooked on LLMs are actually having a midlife crisis, and that spending money on Claude is cheaper than buying a Lambo buttondown.com/justenoughin...