# Tech World With Milan Newsletter Practical insights on engineering judgment, software architecture, and AI for ambitious software engineers. Trusted by engineers at Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. This is one page of public article previews, not the complete archive. Follow Next page to continue. Summaries are not the original full articles. ## Thursday Notes on Architecture Trade-offs and High-Performing Teams DevFeed: [Thursday Notes on Architecture Trade-offs and High-Performing Teams]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-09-10T15:00:57Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [Architecture & Design](), [Microservice]() Tags: [architecture](), [fault-tolerance](), [security](), [software-architecture](), [split](), [team-topologies](), [transactions]() ### AI overview This issue of Thursday Notes discusses architecture as a search for acceptable trade-offs, including reasons to split or merge services. It also explains how teams cycle through forming, storming, norming, and performing, and how leadership should adapt to each stage. ### Source excerpt Hey, Milan here. ## How Coding Agents Are Shifting the Focus of Software Engineering DevFeed: [How Coding Agents Are Shifting the Focus of Software Engineering]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-09-03T15:00:51Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [Software Engineering](), [AI-assisted coding](), [future of software](), [AI Development]() Tags: [agent](), [architecture](), [coding-agents](), [future-of-software](), [guardrails](), [junior-developer](), [software-engineering]() ### AI overview This commentary argues that coding agents are making code generation, testing, refactoring, and bug investigation cheaper and faster. As a result, software engineering increasingly emphasizes judgment, specification, verification, architecture, ownership, team scope, and managing technical debt. ### Source excerpt Since the beginning of writing software, it has been a hard thing to do. ## 20 Lessons From 20+ Years in Tech DevFeed: [20 Lessons From 20+ Years in Tech]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-08-20T15:01:13Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [Software](), [coding]() Tags: [career](), [developer](), [growth](), [software-developer](), [tech]() ### AI overview A software developer reflects on 20 lessons from more than 20 years in technology, drawing on experiences of displacement, family, work, career, life, and personal growth. The article emphasizes building durable skills, focusing on what can be controlled, and taking initiative without waiting for permission. ### Source excerpt What losing everything twice taught me about building a great career ## Engineering management is a career change, not a promotion DevFeed: [Engineering management is a career change, not a promotion]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-07-30T15:00:17Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [Tech Lead](), [systems](), [debug]() Tags: [career](), [coaching](), [debugging](), [engineering-management](), [management](), [manager](), [metric](), [outage](), [promotion](), [support]() ### AI overview An interview with Ryan Murphy examines engineering management as a career path, including promotion criteria, management training, feedback, stakeholder communication, and the shift from optimizing code to owning outcomes. ### Source excerpt Ryan Murphy on what actually gets engineers promoted, why delayed feedback is cruelty, and the manager who told him on day one that he was a resource ## What is the future of software engineering with Adam Bender, Principal Software Engineer at Google DevFeed: [What is the future of software engineering with Adam Bender, Principal Software Engineer at Google]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-07-02T15:01:06Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [future of software](), [Software Engineering](), [AI-assisted coding](), [Testing](), [Integration testing](), [Google]() Tags: [ai](), [ai-coding](), [code-generation](), [conway-s-law](), [future-of-software](), [integration-testing](), [software-engineering]() ### AI overview The article discusses Adam Bender's view that the AI coding debate focuses too narrowly on speed. It argues that faster code generation increases pressure on testing, review, engineering culture, system understanding, and long-term maintainability, with integration testing becoming a particular challenge. ### Source excerpt Most of the AI coding debate is about speed. ## The Trends #11: AI agents still can't build software from scratch DevFeed: [The Trends #11: AI agents still can't build software from scratch]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-06-18T15:01:36Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [Artificial Intelligence](), [AI-assisted coding](), [cursor](), [Claude Code](), [MCP](), [GitHub](), [GitLab]() Tags: [ai](), [ai-agents](), [ai-coding](), [ai-coding-agents](), [claude](), [claude-code](), [coding-agents](), [github](), [gitlab]() ### AI overview A technology-trends roundup examines AI coding and software agents. It reports that Cursor-related productivity gains in a Carnegie Mellon study disappeared after three months while poor code quality remained, and that ProgramBench recorded zero end-to-end successes across 1,800 attempts to rebuild programs from compiled binaries and documentation. ### Source excerpt The Trends filter tracks tech trends: what moved, why it matters, and what to watch next. ## The Software Engineering Books I keep recommending DevFeed: [The Software Engineering Books I keep recommending]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-06-04T15:00:52Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [Software Engineering](), [Programming]() Tags: [books](), [software-engineering]() ### AI overview The author presents a shorter 2026 selection of software engineering books they continue to recommend, explaining that the books address enduring fundamentals as well as current AI and systems concerns. The recommendations are grouped by the problems they help readers solve. ### Source excerpt And what each one actually teaches you ## Code was the smallest part of the job DevFeed: [Code was the smallest part of the job]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-05-21T15:02:20Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [Software](), [Code](), [debugging](), [Artificial Intelligence]() Tags: [ai](), [code](), [debugging](), [engineering](), [software](), [tests]() ### AI overview An experienced software engineer argues that coding is only a small part of the job and presents 13 lessons about building durable software, including debugging, simplicity, planning, testing, problem selection, and collaboration. ### Source excerpt After more than twenty years in the industry, I now understand things are not like I imagined, nor what some people talked about. ## How corporate politics actually work DevFeed: [How corporate politics actually work]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-05-07T15:03:00Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [Job](), [meetings]() Tags: [advice](), [corporate](), [engineering](), [hr](), [job](), [manager](), [manipulation](), [mentor](), [relationships](), [remote](), [work]() ### AI overview An interview with former Amazon Vice President Ethan Evans about corporate politics and career advancement. It examines why strong technical work alone may not determine promotions, how managers evaluate visibility and collaboration, the role of influence and relationships, early warning signs before performance-improvement plans, and mentoring in remote teams. ### Source excerpt With Ethan Evans, a former Amazon Vice President. ## The 20 Software Engineering Laws DevFeed: [The 20 Software Engineering Laws]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-04-23T15:01:23Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [Software](), [Software Engineering](), [Development](), [engineering-culture](), [CAP theorem]() Tags: [cap-theorem](), [conway-s-law](), [development](), [engineering](), [software](), [software-engineering]() ### AI overview A field guide to twenty software engineering laws, including Gall's Law, KISS, Conway's Law, Hyrum's Law, the CAP Theorem, Brooks's Law, and others. The article explains how these principles describe recurring behavior in software projects, systems, and teams. ### Source excerpt A field guide to why software projects fail, systems rot, and teams slow down. ## The Trends #10: Amazon now requires senior approval for AI-assisted code from junior and mid-level engineers DevFeed: [The Trends #10: Amazon now requires senior approval for AI-assisted code from junior and mid-level engineers]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-04-09T15:02:37Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [amazon](), [Kiro](), [AI Agent](), [agentic-coding](), [Amazon Web Services](), [Claude](), [Claude Code](), [Cloud](), [cursor](), [debug](), [Resilience]() Tags: [agent](), [agentic](), [agentic-coding](), [ai](), [ai-agent](), [amazon](), [aws](), [claude-code](), [cloud](), [cursor](), [kiro](), [outage](), [permissions](), [production](), [resilience](), [review]() ### AI overview A technology trends newsletter examines Amazon's requirement for senior approval of AI-assisted code from junior and mid-level engineers after production outages involving AI coding tools. It also previews discussions of cloud resilience, AI and mathematics, Claude Code tool selection, LLM debugging behavior, and Anthropic's research on junior developers using AI. ### Source excerpt The Trends filter tracks tech trends: what moved, why it matters, and what to watch next. ## Agentic code workflows with Nick Tune DevFeed: [Agentic code workflows with Nick Tune]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-03-26T16:01:37Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [agentic-coding](), [ai-coding](), [Claude Code](), [Code quality](), [code reviews](), [Test-driven development](), [Testing](), [Command-line interface](), [Domain-driven design (DDD)](), [migration](), [Requirements](), [Continuous Delivery (CD)]() Tags: [agentic](), [agentic-coding](), [agents](), [ai-coding](), [ai-tools](), [best-practices](), [claude-code](), [cli](), [code-quality](), [code-reviews](), [continuous-delivery](), [domain-driven-design](), [migration](), [requirements]() ### AI overview An interview with Nick Tune about advanced agentic coding workflows. It covers planning requirements, modeling development as a tested state machine, implementing features with Claude Code and guardrails, enforcing architecture rules deterministically, reviewing pull requests, applying TDD, and using custom tooling. ### Source excerpt Most engineers who talk about AI productivity talk in abstractions. ## Software Engineering Requires Thinking Before Coding DevFeed: [Software Engineering Requires Thinking Before Coding]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-03-12T16:00:58Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [Software Engineering](), [Code](), [Artificial Intelligence](), [Claude](), [cursor]() Tags: [claude](), [copilot](), [cursor](), [engineering](), [software](), [software-engineering]() ### AI overview This opinion article argues that software engineers create more value by understanding problems, questioning requirements, planning, and exercising judgment before writing code. It says AI makes this thinking-first approach more important because code is cheaper to produce but still requires maintenance and validation. ### Source excerpt One thing I noticed in my engineering organizations is that when people get the problem to work on, the first step is to open the editor, create a new branch, and start coding. ## Lessons from Software Engineering at Google for Maintaining Healthy Codebases DevFeed: [Lessons from Software Engineering at Google for Maintaining Healthy Codebases]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-02-26T16:01:23Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [Software Engineering](), [Development](), [Dependency management](), [Code review](), [Refactoring](), [engineering-culture](), [Mocking](), [releases](), [upgrade]() Tags: [code-review](), [dependency-management](), [engineering](), [leadership](), [mocking](), [release](), [software-engineering]() ### AI overview A review of Software Engineering at Google argues that the book's lessons apply to teams of different sizes. It highlights practices for evolving, sharing, testing, releasing, and eventually deleting code, along with code review, dependency management, productivity measurement, and engineering culture. ### Source excerpt And what you can apply from today. ## Why Developers Should Prioritize Fundamentals Over Frameworks DevFeed: [Why Developers Should Prioritize Fundamentals Over Frameworks]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-02-12T16:02:12Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [Frameworks](), [Learning](), [Programming](), [Vibe coding]() Tags: [ai](), [ai-tools](), [frameworks](), [fundamentals](), [learning](), [programming]() ### AI overview The article argues that developers should spend more time learning durable fundamentals than chasing fast-changing frameworks. It discusses framework lifecycles, programming principles, AI-generated code, debugging, architectural trade-offs, and an 80/20 learning approach. ### Source excerpt Frameworks have a half-life of 3 years. The fundamentals behind them? Decades. Here's how to spend your learning time wisely. ## Why focused coding time may be limited to a few hours per day DevFeed: [Why focused coding time may be limited to a few hours per day]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-01-29T16:02:51Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [coding](), [meetings](), [Computer science]() Tags: [burnout](), [coding](), [context](), [cycle-time](), [developer](), [meetings](), [strategies](), [techniques]() ### AI overview This commentary argues that developers may have only three to four hours of high-focus coding capacity per day. It discusses cognitive limits, interruptions, meetings, flow, and deep-work strategies, while recommending practices such as time-blocking, batching communication, async defaults, and no-meeting days. ### Source excerpt Most of us have felt it: after a few solid hours of coding, your brain starts shutting down. ## Software Development Waste DevFeed: [Software Development Waste]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2026-01-15T16:01:54Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [software-development](), [Software Engineering](), [Agile](), [code productivity]() Tags: [agile](), [best-practices](), [cognitive-load](), [cross-functional-teams](), [development-process](), [productivity](), [quality](), [software-development](), [switching]() ### AI overview This article explains software development waste through lean thinking. It reviews the traditional seven wastes, discusses an expanded taxonomy that includes issues such as wrong features, backlog mismanagement, over-engineering, cognitive load, communication problems, and waste from AI-generated code, and presents practices for reducing waste. ### Source excerpt Many of us can look back at a completed software project and think, "If I'd known then what I know now, I'd have done much faster." This familiar feeling reveals just how much waste creeps into the software development process. ## 10 software essays that changed how I think DevFeed: [10 software essays that changed how I think]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2025-12-18T16:02:04Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [Software](), [Programming](), [Optimization](), [Framework](), [Databases]() Tags: [advice](), [api](), [coding](), [databases](), [design](), [engineering](), [essays](), [frameworks](), [github](), [github-actions](), [optimization](), [software]() ### AI overview The author reflects on software essays that changed their engineering mindset, covering technology selection, architecture, parsing, coding practices, software quality, APIs, and career development. The article lists the selected essays and introduces lessons from them, including the value of choosing proven technology and spending innovation effort selectively. ### Source excerpt Over the years, I've stumbled upon a handful of software essays that fundamentally altered my engineering approach. ## The Trends #9: TypeScript just became the most used programming language on GitHub DevFeed: [The Trends #9: TypeScript just became the most used programming language on GitHub]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Dr Milan Milanović Published: 2025-12-11T16:02:37Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Tech World With Milan Newsletter]() Topics: [TypeScript](), [GitHub](), [Programming](), [Artificial Intelligence](), [Language models](), [Robotics]() Tags: [ai](), [ai-agents](), [api](), [github](), [mcp](), [programming](), [programming-language](), [trends](), [typescript]() ### AI overview A roundup of technology trends covering AI adoption and trust, TypeScript's reported rise as the most-used language on GitHub, AI-ready APIs and MCP usage, AI in robotics, and software development practices to avoid. ### Source excerpt The Trends filter tracks tech trends: what moved, why it matters, and what to watch next.