I built Ferryman to solve a simple problem: manual cross-posting is low-leverage work that drains your time. With 18,600+ posts ferried for 460+ users, the system is proven to help you grow on all your socials with zero extra effort. Start scaling your reach automatically. Use code “BREAKSTUFF” for 30 days free of the Creator plan.

Try Ferryman (Free)

We’re currently living through the most radical shift in the history of software development. Code generation models have become so frictionless that you can scaffold entire features, debug complex stack traces, and deploy apps without ever truly understanding the underlying mechanics. Because of this, the engineering community is splitting into two distinct camps. The first camp is using AI to automate away their critical thinking. The second camp is using AI to accelerate it.

If you want to thrive in this new landscape, you have to fundamentally shift how you interact with these models. Here are the three rules for using AI to accelerate your learning, not outsource it.

1. Think More, Not Less

It’s never been easier to think less, but it’s also never been more important to think more. The temptation with AI is to treat it as an escape hatch from cognitive heavy lifting throwing a prompt at a model, wait for its output, and move on. That is a trap that will slowly but surely degrade your skills. Instead of outsourcing your learning to the tool, you should be leaning on it to deepen your understanding.

Use it as a world-class, hyper-patient tutor. When it gives you a solution, hopefully it’s one you’ve architectured and crafted together. Ask it to explain the trade-offs, the edge cases, and the performance implications. The goal isn’t to let the AI do the thinking for you; it’s to use the AI to pull your own understanding to a higher level, faster than any textbook ever could.

The biggest differencec with AI is that you no longer need to spend the time finding the resources that has the answer you need; now you can just ask for that information, regardless of what it relates to, in one centralized place.

2. Tools Shouldn’t Be Your Ceiling

If you aren’t better than the tool, you are only as good as the tool. If your value as a developer is limited to writing boilerplate code, debugging simple syntax errors, or doing basic API integrations, you are effectively operating at the baseline of the current best model. If you’re operating at the level of the current model you’re only as good as the models that are released.

AI should enhance you as an engineer; it shouldn’t replace your technical judgment. You need to stay ahead of the models by using them to handle the low-level, repetitive tasks so you can free up your brain to focus on the high-level system design, product strategy, and complex problem-solving. If you don’t use the tool to climb higher, you are letting it become your ceiling.

3. Methods Change Your Goals Shouldn’t

At the end of the day, you have to remember that AI is simply a tool. If you look at the history of computer science, programming has undergone massive shifts every few decades. We moved from physical punch cards to assembly, from assembly to low-level languages, and from there to high-level abstractions. Every single leap was met with anxiety that some level of “real engineering” was dying. This is just the next stage of that evolutionary loop.

Look at the glass as half full, not half empty. The tool isn’t replacing you; it is freeing you up to do far more interesting, creative, and high-leverage work. It is saving you time, eliminating the tedious boilerplate, and allowing you to move toward your ultimate goals at an unprecedented speed. Writing raw code has always been just one small part of engineering. The true craft has always been, and will always be, problem-solving: the ability to come up with simple, novel solutions to complicated problems.

Where you can find me online:

• Ferryman

• X

• LinkedIn

• Twitch

• YouTube

Drop a like ❤️ and comment below if you made it to the end of the article.

Tripo AI builds AI 3D foundation models and world models for high-demand 3D workflows across interior design, home furnishing, e-commerce, gaming, film, VR/AR, digital twins, robotics, and interactive entertainment. Used by more than 20 million users worldwide, Tripo AI helps creators, developers, and studios turn ideas into high-quality 3D assets faster, supporting workflows across product visualization, interior and home design, gaming, film, VR/AR, digital twins, robotics simulation, and interactive experiences.

Start creating with Tripo AI →

When I first started creating content and building in public, I was actively against the idea of meeting other tech creators. I completely avoided it because I assumed it would just involve endless internet drama, superficial clout-chasing, and be a massive waste of energy.

But, I was completely wrong.

Over the last handful of years of being in tech and putting my work out there, networking has completely transformed my life. I haven’t just built a professional safety net; I’ve met lifelong friends, secured amazing advisors, and constructed a powerful circle of people who elevate me both professionally and personally.

If you are an introvert, an engineer, or a solo builder who hates the traditional, cringey definition of networking, here are the three rules I used to build a strong network of like-minded individuals.

1. Just Make Friends

Stop treating networking like a high-stakes corporate sales. When you approach someone with the angle of “What can I extract from this person?” they can smell it instantly. Lower the stakes. Networking is literally just making friends as an adult. Be normal. Ask people what they are building, what’s keeping them up at night, or what they’re genuinely excited about. The most valuable professional relationships always start as casual human connections, not business transactions.

2. Reverse-Engineer Your Desired Network

Opportunities don’t happen in a vacuum; they happen in proximity. You have to commit to physically showing up to events, especially if you are living in or visiting major tech hubs like San Francisco or New York (this past week was Tech Week in NYC, for example). But don’t just show up blindly to generic mixers. Reverse-engineer your goals: think about the exact type of person you want to connect with, deduce where that specific caliber of person hangs out, and place yourself in those rooms. Meeting just one right person at the right time can entirely alter the trajectory of your next venture.

3. Build Cool Things

The absolute easiest way to network is to let your work do the talking for you. Whether it’s creating videos, posting text on LinkedIn, or documenting the messy behind-the-scenes journey of building your business, you need to talk about your work. The best way to network and meet interesting people is by doing cool and interesting things yourself.

The best way to attract the people you want to run with is to simply become that person. When you consistently execute and share high quality and interesting work, people will begin to seek you out instead of the other way around. The right people will eventually find you, respect your craft, and pull you into their orbit without you ever having to chase them down.

Where you can find me online:

• Ferryman

• X

• LinkedIn

• Twitch

• YouTube

Drop a like ❤️ and comment below if you made it to the end of the article.

Every day, my timeline is flooded with the same underlying panic: Is AI going to destroy the software engineering profession? If you look at the rapid advancement of LLMs and autonomous coding agents, it’s easy to see why people are anxious. The nature of writing code is shifting but if consider where we’ve been, the current panic starts to look less like an existential end-state and more like a predictable historical loop.

Here is how I’m framing the reality of AI coding, the shift in my own relationship with programming, and how to approach the transition.

1. The Natural Evolution of Coding

I used to think the rapid rise of AI coding was a terrifying anomaly. But if you look at the history of computer science, it’s simply a continuation. We started with binary and physical punch cards. Then we abstracting that away with assembly language. Next came low-level languages like C, followed by high-level languages like Python and JavaScript.

Read more

This week, Meta laid off another 8,000 employees. These layoffs feel so dystopian nowadays especially since Meta employees ended up learning the exact day the massive cuts would happen. Imagine having to do your job the last few weeks knowing that thousands of people were going to be laid off by the end of the month.

Read more

Most people believe that to win at a high level, you have to be the smartest, most inherently gifted person in the room. They treat success like a lottery ticket you’re either born with or you aren’t. In reality, an immense amount of alpha is sitting right in the open for anyone willing to stop competing on raw intellect and start competing on strategy, observation, and relentless focus. Here’s the three items to focus on if you want to get ahead in life.

Read more

I’ve spent the last few days in a small village in the south of France, thinking about a concept I’m historically bad at: living in the present.

We’re all professional worriers. We obsess over the future, worrying if our long-term goals will be met, if our ventures will succeed, or if we’ll hit the arbitrary milestones we’ve set for ourselves. But I’ve realized that any time you aren’t living in the present, you’re essentially dead to it. When you really think about it, the present is the only thing we actually have; if you aren’t in it, you’ve lost the only time that’s real (the past has come and gone and the future isn’t yet here).

Read more

Building Ferryman has involved plenty of trial and error, especially moving from the chaos of Telegram threads and spreadsheets for tracking my work to a proper system. Switching to Linear was the turning point, providing the most streamlined way to prioritize features while maintaining a high shipping velocity. If you want to clean up your own workflow…

Read more

Most AI tools trap your ideas in a sidebar, but the Miro’s AI embeds intelligence directly into your canvas to bridge the gap between ideation and execution. I’ve been using Flows to scale Ferryman, instantly transforming high-level feature concepts into visualized technical roadmaps and actionable dependencies.

Try Miro Flows

Read more

I built Ferryman to solve a simple problem: manual cross-posting is low-leverage work that drains your time. With 10,500+ posts ferried for 380+ users, the system is proven to help you grow on all your socials with zero extra effort. Start scaling your reach automatically. Use code “BREAKSTUFF” for 30 days free of the Creator plan.

Try Ferryman

Read more

I built Ferryman to solve a simple problem: manual cross-posting is low-leverage work that drains your time. With 10,500+ posts ferried for 380+ users, the system is proven to help you grow on all your socials with zero extra effort. Start scaling your reach automatically. Use code “BREAKSTUFF” for 30 days free of the Creator plan.

Try Ferryman

Read more

I built Ferryman to solve a simple problem: manual cross-posting is low-leverage work that drains your time. With 10,500+ posts ferried for 380+ users, the system is proven to help you grow on all your socials with zero extra effort. Start scaling your reach automatically. Use code “BREAKSTUFF” for 30 days free of the Creator plan.

Try Ferryman

Read more

I built Ferryman to solve a simple problem: manual cross-posting is low-leverage work that drains your time. With 9,800+ posts ferried for 350+ users, the system is proven to help you grow on all your socials with zero extra effort. Start scaling your reach automatically. Use code “BREAKSTUFF” for 30 days free of the Creator plan.

Try Ferryman

Read more

I built Ferryman to solve a simple problem: manual cross-posting is low-leverage work that drains your time. With 8,400+ posts ferried for 330+ users, the system is proven to help you grow on all your socials with zero extra effort. Start scaling your reach automatically. Use code “BREAKSTUFF” for 30 days free of the Creator plan.

Try Ferryman

Read more

I built Ferryman to solve a simple problem: manual cross-posting is low-leverage work that drains your time. With 8,400+ posts ferried for 330+ users, the system is proven to help you grow on all your socials with zero extra effort. Start scaling your reach automatically. Use code “BREAKSTUFF” for 30 days free of the Creator plan.

Try Ferryman

Read more

Building Ferryman has been a journey of trial and error, and that includes how I manage the work itself. I’ve gone from the chaos of tracking tasks in endless Telegram threads to the “organized” mess of a massive spreadsheet. Switching to Linear was the turning point. It is easily the most streamlined way I’ve found to prioritize what actually matters a…

Read more

I built Ferryman to solve a simple problem: manual cross-posting is low-leverage work that drains your time. With 7,00+ posts ferried for ~300 users, the system is proven to help you grow on all your socials (LinkedIn, X, Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon) with zero extra effort. Start scaling your reach automatically. Use code “SWEEKLY” for 30 days free o…

Read more

I built Ferryman to solve a simple problem: manual cross-posting is low-leverage work that drains your time. With 6,00+ posts ferried for over 270 users, the system is proven to help you grow on all your socials (LinkedIn, X, Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon) with zero extra effort. Start scaling your reach automatically. Use code “SWEEKLY” for 30 days fr…

Read more

With AI agents, a lot of the actual engineering work isn’t always visible to the rest of the team. Linear acts as the coordination layer for that high-velocity output, tracking work done by tools like Cursor or Claude at the issue level so you never lose visibility. It’s the first project management tool I’ve experienced that’s genuinely a joy to use.

Get 6 months of Linear Business for free

Read more

I built Ferryman to solve a simple problem: manual cross-posting is low-leverage work that drains your time. With 4,200+ posts ferried for over 200 users, the system is proven to help you grow on all your socials (LinkedIn, X, Threads, Bluesky, and Mastodon) with zero extra effort. Start scaling your reach automatically. Use code “SWEEKLY” for 30 days f…

Read more

I’ve loved using Linear to organize my work and get tasks done while building Ferryman. Starting from tracking work in a chain of Telegram messages, to then migrating tasks to a giant spreadsheet, and finally using Linear, it’s hands down the best way I’ve found to prioritize my tasks and maintain a high level of productivity while building software. Us…

Read more