This is a learning-in-public blog about figuring out AI-assisted engineering from the inside, with all the flattering lighting turned off. I am not trying to sell you a framework, a course, or the idea that the future has conveniently resolved itself. I am trying to notice what actually changes when you work with AI tools every day, what stays stubbornly human, and where the craft gets stranger than expected.
That means the posts are usually written from the middle of the mess. Sometimes that mess is a tactical wargame that started as a sensible board game prototype and immediately grew legs. Sometimes it is an agentic coding kata, a benchmark harness, or a production-shaped problem from the day job that made me realise I had been using the tool wrong. The point is not to emerge looking clever. The point is to leave a trail that another engineer can recognise.
If you are sceptical of AI hype but still using the tools, you are probably who I am writing for. If you have an agent open in one window and a growing suspicion that your process matters more than your prompt, definitely. If you lead engineers and are trying to separate useful change from theatre, also yes. I do not have the clean answers. I do have receipts, false starts, and a habit of overbuilding small experiments until they become educational.
I am Peter, a South African engineer living in London and a Staff Software Engineer. I’ve just joined Orbital; before that I was at The Economist, most recently working on the e-commerce funnel. That perspective leaks into the writing: production constraints, real users, old systems, team context, and the boring verification work that decides whether a clever idea survives contact with reality.
Expect irregular essays, not tutorials. Some posts are about code, some about games, some about the uncomfortable bit where process, judgement, and tooling collide. There will be no promotional content, no neat victory laps, and no pretend certainty. If something worked, I will say so. If it went sideways, that is usually the better post.