Short takes on building software · Vicky Hariadi · Your Tech Right Hand

For a year I typed every exam question into that system myself. A…

Mon, 10 Aug 2026 21:10:00 +0700

For a year I typed every exam question into that system myself. A hundred and thirty-odd sets, usually after dinner, always the night before. In August I built the teachers an editor and lost the job. Best thing I shipped all year.

The problem with the app AI built you over a weekend isn’t the code.…

Sat, 08 Aug 2026 09:20:00 +0700

The problem with the app AI built you over a weekend isn’t the code. It’s that when it breaks on a Saturday, there is exactly one person who can go and look at it, and it’s you.

Every system works on demo day. That is more or less what demo day is…

Wed, 05 Aug 2026 14:40:00 +0700

Every system works on demo day. That is more or less what demo day is for. The thing worth asking about is the fourth time it got used in anger.

“It needs a rewrite” is hardly ever about the code. Nine times in ten…

Sun, 02 Aug 2026 11:05:00 +0700

“It needs a rewrite” is hardly ever about the code. Nine times in ten it means nobody wants to open the one file everything depends on, and proposing a rewrite is a respectable way of saying so.

It built exactly what was asked for. Nobody asked for backups, so…

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 20:15:00 +0700

It built exactly what was asked for. Nobody asked for backups, so there aren’t any. The AI wasn’t being careless. It was being obedient, which is the harder problem to spot.

Picking the exotic option feels like ambition at the time. Two years…

Mon, 27 Jul 2026 16:30:00 +0700

Picking the exotic option feels like ambition at the time. Two years on it is a maintenance bill with nobody left in the building who can read it.

A business running on WhatsApp and spreadsheets isn’t disorganised.…

Thu, 23 Jul 2026 08:50:00 +0700

A business running on WhatsApp and spreadsheets isn’t disorganised. Usually it’s the opposite. One person is holding the whole thing together in their head, flawlessly, and hasn’t taken a proper holiday in three years.

Four hundred lines land in a pull request and get approved ninety…

Sun, 19 Jul 2026 13:25:00 +0700

Four hundred lines land in a pull request and get approved ninety seconds later. Whatever that is, it isn’t review.

Half the owners who ask me about hiring a CTO don’t need one. They…

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 10:00:00 +0700

Half the owners who ask me about hiring a CTO don’t need one. They need one person whose actual job is deciding, so that it stops being them by default.