# Fragments: August 18

DevFeed: [Fragments: August 18](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/fragments-august-18-4434.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://martinfowler.com/fragments/2026-08-18.html>)

Author: Martin Fowler (martin@martinfowler.com)

Published: 2026-08-18T15:04:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Martin Fowler](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/martin-fowler.md>)

Topics: [rachels-ramblings](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/rachels-ramblings.md>), [Artificial Intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai.md>), [Software Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/software-engineering.md>), [Programming](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/programming.md>)

Tags: [agentic](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/agentic.md>), [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [compliance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/compliance.md>), [performance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/performance.md>), [programming](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/programming.md>), [software](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software.md>), [software-development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/software-development.md>)

## AI overview

A collection of August 18 fragments covering Rachel Laycock's new "Rachel's Ramblings" writing, the upcoming XConf Europe sessions in London, and Noah Smith's discussion of AI's capabilities, intelligence, and the lack of clear evidence so far for massive productivity growth or job losses.

## Source excerpt

Part of the reason why I'm at Thoughtworks is because I'd like to see a software development organization founded on technical excellence as an example for the rest of the industry. The trouble is that I have little aptitude or inclination for the hard work of building such an organization. So I rely on working with people who are prepared to actually put the effort in. A key partner in all of this is Rachel Laycock, who is the global CTO of Thoughtworks. Not just is she far better than me at running a technology organization, she's also a keen observer and connector of ideas. I've been urging her to write these down, even if her busy schedule makes it difficult for her to compose them into something substantial. Happily she's starting writing "Rachel's Ramblings" Fast, imperfect, thinking out loud. Naming ideas early rather than waiting until they're fully formed. Because the reality is, most of what I do day to day isn't answering known questions. It's spotting patterns and asking questions we haven't quite figured out yet. ❄ ❄ ❄ ❄ ❄ My colleagues in Europe are organizing XConf Europe in London on September 11th. The sessions examine what happens when agentic systems meet compliance, how to run sovereign models, performance patterns in data migrations and how to safely navigate legacy codebases. Lu Wilson will give a keynote on 'Jam-oriented programming'. ❄ ❄ ❄ ❄ ❄ Noah Smith recognizes the high usage of AI, and its impressive feats - but also that there aren't signs of massive productivity growth or job losses. This may be the calm before the storm, but Smith thinks there may something else in play. He quotes a metaphor from François Chollet One of the biggest misconceptions people have about intelligence is seeing it as some kind of unbounded scalar stat, like height. "Future AI will have 10,000 IQ", that sort of thing. Intelligence is a conversion ratio, with an optimality bound. Increasing intelligence is not so much like "making the tower taller", it's more l