Alex Hart 🇨🇦
@ahart.dev
🇨🇦 Proud Canadian
🤖 Android Dev @ Signal
👨👩👦👦 Papa and Husband
🤜 Tekken enjoyer (Nina main)
🎮 RPG gamer (now playing Pirate Yakuza)
📚 Book enjoyer (now reading "Wind and Truth" and "Nexus")
This is where my thoughts go.
🤖 Android Dev @ Signal
👨👩👦👦 Papa and Husband
🤜 Tekken enjoyer (Nina main)
🎮 RPG gamer (now playing Pirate Yakuza)
📚 Book enjoyer (now reading "Wind and Truth" and "Nexus")
This is where my thoughts go.
Weekend morning maple latte 🙂
November 8, 2025 at 12:34 PM
Weekend morning maple latte 🙂
A golden rule for working with LLMs doing code gen.
Don't trust. Verify.
Use that extra time you've saved to write some unit tests 😂
Don't trust. Verify.
Use that extra time you've saved to write some unit tests 😂
November 7, 2025 at 11:31 PM
A golden rule for working with LLMs doing code gen.
Don't trust. Verify.
Use that extra time you've saved to write some unit tests 😂
Don't trust. Verify.
Use that extra time you've saved to write some unit tests 😂
Claude Code has been an absolute force multiplier when working on my side project. I no longer feel burn out, and I get more done. Just need to remember that force multiplication applies to negative values too 😅
November 4, 2025 at 12:40 PM
Claude Code has been an absolute force multiplier when working on my side project. I no longer feel burn out, and I get more done. Just need to remember that force multiplication applies to negative values too 😅
Unfortunate that these are the only two I've seemed to be able to find, but there's always graphicsLayer {} if you have multiple properties changing at the same time!
October 25, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Unfortunate that these are the only two I've seemed to be able to find, but there's always graphicsLayer {} if you have multiple properties changing at the same time!
Kotlin can allow both, couldn't it? Just utilize a parameter with a default value. Kotlin defaults kind of give us the best of both worlds here.
October 25, 2025 at 11:50 AM
Kotlin can allow both, couldn't it? Just utilize a parameter with a default value. Kotlin defaults kind of give us the best of both worlds here.
Is this pictured as a transformation of the entire SW career? How do we get, keep, and mentor juniors and the next generation of engineers in this new world?
The human will need to be there for at the very least quite a long time I think, as machines thus far completely lack empathy.
The human will need to be there for at the very least quite a long time I think, as machines thus far completely lack empathy.
October 12, 2025 at 11:32 PM
Is this pictured as a transformation of the entire SW career? How do we get, keep, and mentor juniors and the next generation of engineers in this new world?
The human will need to be there for at the very least quite a long time I think, as machines thus far completely lack empathy.
The human will need to be there for at the very least quite a long time I think, as machines thus far completely lack empathy.
I tried to swipe "holy" on my keyboard and it autofilled "guilty" and that is just so on the nose for someone raised Catholic.
October 11, 2025 at 5:24 PM
I tried to swipe "holy" on my keyboard and it autofilled "guilty" and that is just so on the nose for someone raised Catholic.
Latercase emailing me about purchasing an iPhone case a month after I bought the exact one they're trying to hawk is... Ballsy.
October 7, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Latercase emailing me about purchasing an iPhone case a month after I bought the exact one they're trying to hawk is... Ballsy.
Oh yeah material is making me crash out today what in the absolute hell
September 25, 2025 at 1:20 PM
Oh yeah material is making me crash out today what in the absolute hell
If I crash out today it's gonna be because of Material Design's AnimatedPane
September 25, 2025 at 11:46 AM
If I crash out today it's gonna be because of Material Design's AnimatedPane
Ultimately makes that worth it to me are two things. For one, there are 30 to 50 classes that have this DSL embedded into them and need to be rewritten.
Secondly, I don't need to sit and watch it work. I can use a work tree and separate AS insurance to keep an eye on it but otherwise work elsewhere
Secondly, I don't need to sit and watch it work. I can use a work tree and separate AS insurance to keep an eye on it but otherwise work elsewhere
September 11, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Ultimately makes that worth it to me are two things. For one, there are 30 to 50 classes that have this DSL embedded into them and need to be rewritten.
Secondly, I don't need to sit and watch it work. I can use a work tree and separate AS insurance to keep an eye on it but otherwise work elsewhere
Secondly, I don't need to sit and watch it work. I can use a work tree and separate AS insurance to keep an eye on it but otherwise work elsewhere
Using an AI agent to help write and modify code reminds me of the "time to write vs time saved" xkcd.
I'm working through a fairly large prompt to refactor out an old DSL I wrote to swap it with compose, and I'm fairly confident I can get it working within a few hours or so. What
xkcd.com/1205/
I'm working through a fairly large prompt to refactor out an old DSL I wrote to swap it with compose, and I'm fairly confident I can get it working within a few hours or so. What
xkcd.com/1205/
Is It Worth the Time?
xkcd.com
September 11, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Using an AI agent to help write and modify code reminds me of the "time to write vs time saved" xkcd.
I'm working through a fairly large prompt to refactor out an old DSL I wrote to swap it with compose, and I'm fairly confident I can get it working within a few hours or so. What
xkcd.com/1205/
I'm working through a fairly large prompt to refactor out an old DSL I wrote to swap it with compose, and I'm fairly confident I can get it working within a few hours or so. What
xkcd.com/1205/
A sad state of affairs as both reading and writing are very healthy for your brain.
September 11, 2025 at 11:17 AM
A sad state of affairs as both reading and writing are very healthy for your brain.
It's been a long time coming but I'm super proud of us for getting this out the door!
Until now, if you lost or broke your phone, your Signal message history was *gone,* a real challenge for everyone whose most important conversations happen in Signal. So, with careful design and development, we’re rolling out opt-in secure backups.
signal.org/blog/introducing-secure-backups
signal.org/blog/introducing-secure-backups
Introducing Signal Secure Backups
In the past, if you broke or lost your phone, your Signal message history was gone. This has been a challenge for people whose most important conversations happen on Signal. Think family photos, sweet...
signal.org
September 9, 2025 at 12:09 PM
It's been a long time coming but I'm super proud of us for getting this out the door!
If you're a senior+ developer and your GitHub looks like this.... I assume you have some mixture of positive work life balance, a spouse and children, and hobbies outside of coding.
What I don't assume is anything about your ability to write great software.
What I don't assume is anything about your ability to write great software.
Your GitHub history can look like this, and it’s ok.
If you know you can do a job, apply. I've met so many great devs that weren't active on GitHub publicly.
We need to understand that not everybody prioritizes side projects, for many reasons. And that does not invalidate them for the job, at
If you know you can do a job, apply. I've met so many great devs that weren't active on GitHub publicly.
We need to understand that not everybody prioritizes side projects, for many reasons. And that does not invalidate them for the job, at
September 9, 2025 at 12:08 PM
If you're a senior+ developer and your GitHub looks like this.... I assume you have some mixture of positive work life balance, a spouse and children, and hobbies outside of coding.
What I don't assume is anything about your ability to write great software.
What I don't assume is anything about your ability to write great software.
Coffee this morning :-) Maple Oat Latte
September 4, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Coffee this morning :-) Maple Oat Latte
"To be clear, developers will have the same freedom to distribute their apps directly to users through sideloading or to use any app store they prefer."
August 25, 2025 at 11:17 PM
"To be clear, developers will have the same freedom to distribute their apps directly to users through sideloading or to use any app store they prefer."
I remember checking if the view passed into my ListView method was null or not.
August 23, 2025 at 10:16 AM
I remember checking if the view passed into my ListView method was null or not.
Reposted by Alex Hart 🇨🇦
The senior developer you admire was once a beginner who Googled how to add a click listener and then copied the answer from StackOverflow.
They’re not smarter than you, just further ahead.
They’re not smarter than you, just further ahead.
August 17, 2025 at 7:04 AM
The senior developer you admire was once a beginner who Googled how to add a click listener and then copied the answer from StackOverflow.
They’re not smarter than you, just further ahead.
They’re not smarter than you, just further ahead.
Reposted by Alex Hart 🇨🇦
I remember we saw a home we liked and it ended up having a *wooden* foundation 😵💫
August 11, 2025 at 11:33 AM
I remember we saw a home we liked and it ended up having a *wooden* foundation 😵💫
"looked at a house... Foundation---" don't walk run
August 10, 2025 at 6:47 PM
"looked at a house... Foundation---" don't walk run
And the need for high quality SWEs especially for projects dealing with sensitive areas like finance or cryptography, need that oversight. Furthermore, there is a human element to SWEs in understanding intent and empathizing with users that I don't think we would ever truly get in AI.
August 10, 2025 at 12:15 PM
And the need for high quality SWEs especially for projects dealing with sensitive areas like finance or cryptography, need that oversight. Furthermore, there is a human element to SWEs in understanding intent and empathizing with users that I don't think we would ever truly get in AI.
Suggests and that's very easy to do with the command line tools they provide. Nothing goes into my work that I've not personally looked at, verified, and understand. And someone vibe coding does not have the skill set to do that, software engineers do. Tools like Claude are just prediction engines
August 10, 2025 at 12:15 PM
Suggests and that's very easy to do with the command line tools they provide. Nothing goes into my work that I've not personally looked at, verified, and understand. And someone vibe coding does not have the skill set to do that, software engineers do. Tools like Claude are just prediction engines