Brent Rager
@rager.tech
Husband. Father. Purdue. Colts. Pacers.
CEO, smoo.ai
ME, rager.tech
Work with me: https://smoo.ai
Open source: https://smoo.ai/open-source
Dev working with:
👨🏻💻 typescript/python
☁️ aws/gcp
🚀 sst.dev
🔧 pulumi.com
⚛️ react.dev
🧭 nextjs.org
CEO, smoo.ai
ME, rager.tech
Work with me: https://smoo.ai
Open source: https://smoo.ai/open-source
Dev working with:
👨🏻💻 typescript/python
☁️ aws/gcp
🚀 sst.dev
🔧 pulumi.com
⚛️ react.dev
🧭 nextjs.org
I read this as "worgial" and was curious what it meant 😂
November 28, 2025 at 1:27 PM
I read this as "worgial" and was curious what it meant 😂
Fascinating and terrifying.
November 28, 2025 at 2:41 AM
Fascinating and terrifying.
I just listened to a podcast about how drone warfare has been gamified in Ukraine. Drone kills get certain points for tanks vs other units etc and the more points you get the more funding and equipment you get for your drone warfare ideas, creating hero units.
Safe to say, innovation in action.
Safe to say, innovation in action.
Drone Warfare in Ukraine with Simon Shuster
Podcast Episode · Software Engineering Daily · 11/20/2025 · 55m
podcasts.apple.com
November 28, 2025 at 2:41 AM
I just listened to a podcast about how drone warfare has been gamified in Ukraine. Drone kills get certain points for tanks vs other units etc and the more points you get the more funding and equipment you get for your drone warfare ideas, creating hero units.
Safe to say, innovation in action.
Safe to say, innovation in action.
Money is such a pain in the ass sometimes. Always something working against you.
November 28, 2025 at 2:37 AM
Money is such a pain in the ass sometimes. Always something working against you.
I bet. I know you’ve been battling for a while! I’m broke for a few more weeks but happy to help when I can!
November 28, 2025 at 2:35 AM
I bet. I know you’ve been battling for a while! I’m broke for a few more weeks but happy to help when I can!
Sending good vibes on that!
November 28, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Sending good vibes on that!
Luckily I did snag a great job. Just waiting on all the background check stuff to complete. Working with .net core actually (and React).
November 28, 2025 at 2:29 AM
Luckily I did snag a great job. Just waiting on all the background check stuff to complete. Working with .net core actually (and React).
Love the drive and ambition! Always happy to give advice having been in the start up grind last 4 years.
November 28, 2025 at 2:27 AM
Love the drive and ambition! Always happy to give advice having been in the start up grind last 4 years.
Like I said I think there’s tons of learning in C++ and it’s not lost. The concepts especially in modern C++ (and I hear good things about c++23 but have not used it) will transfer well to Rust and Go.
Go is the only one I haven’t played with and that seems to have hampered my job search. Popular.
Go is the only one I haven’t played with and that seems to have hampered my job search. Popular.
November 28, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Like I said I think there’s tons of learning in C++ and it’s not lost. The concepts especially in modern C++ (and I hear good things about c++23 but have not used it) will transfer well to Rust and Go.
Go is the only one I haven’t played with and that seems to have hampered my job search. Popular.
Go is the only one I haven’t played with and that seems to have hampered my job search. Popular.
I think data engineering is absolutely one of the places where LLM assisted coding absolutely flies.
November 28, 2025 at 2:23 AM
I think data engineering is absolutely one of the places where LLM assisted coding absolutely flies.
Get some sponsorships and something like Launch Fishers or Hub and Spoke!
November 28, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Get some sponsorships and something like Launch Fishers or Hub and Spoke!
Rust or Go are the right tools to jump to in the lower level backend space.
Personally I’d suggest anyone start in Typescript because you can do just about anything (frontend and backend) with that. Or Python (backend).
Personally I’d suggest anyone start in Typescript because you can do just about anything (frontend and backend) with that. Or Python (backend).
November 28, 2025 at 2:19 AM
Rust or Go are the right tools to jump to in the lower level backend space.
Personally I’d suggest anyone start in Typescript because you can do just about anything (frontend and backend) with that. Or Python (backend).
Personally I’d suggest anyone start in Typescript because you can do just about anything (frontend and backend) with that. Or Python (backend).
Being able to build is a superpower when it comes to any business venture. Even just integrations (which I find LLM assist to be incredible at) of biz tools can help you progress your goals.
C++ is great learning but you’d be right not to build with it (as someone who did professionally for years).
C++ is great learning but you’d be right not to build with it (as someone who did professionally for years).
November 28, 2025 at 2:19 AM
Being able to build is a superpower when it comes to any business venture. Even just integrations (which I find LLM assist to be incredible at) of biz tools can help you progress your goals.
C++ is great learning but you’d be right not to build with it (as someone who did professionally for years).
C++ is great learning but you’d be right not to build with it (as someone who did professionally for years).
Oh yeah baby Chakra is the title sponsor. AI coding networking group.
November 28, 2025 at 2:12 AM
Oh yeah baby Chakra is the title sponsor. AI coding networking group.
Not about like using Sora or nano banana, but about building with or building AI based apps / tools.
November 28, 2025 at 2:11 AM
Not about like using Sora or nano banana, but about building with or building AI based apps / tools.
Yeah it would be about building actual tools with AI, or demonstrating using AI tools, or building AI tools (feel like I repeated myself there but all different things).
Doesn’t have to be just about AI, but I feel like that’s new enough and prevalent enough of a tool that there would be interest.
Doesn’t have to be just about AI, but I feel like that’s new enough and prevalent enough of a tool that there would be interest.
November 28, 2025 at 2:11 AM
Yeah it would be about building actual tools with AI, or demonstrating using AI tools, or building AI tools (feel like I repeated myself there but all different things).
Doesn’t have to be just about AI, but I feel like that’s new enough and prevalent enough of a tool that there would be interest.
Doesn’t have to be just about AI, but I feel like that’s new enough and prevalent enough of a tool that there would be interest.
Damn you Daniel Jones fibula.
November 28, 2025 at 1:25 AM
Damn you Daniel Jones fibula.
I built a badass customer service AI agent app solo and it took me 4 months (admittedly I underestimated by about 2 months) with Claude.
Learned so much about where it worked and where it didn’t.
From the chat widget to a home grown code generated Zod to pydantic socketio RPC.
Easily 10x.
Learned so much about where it worked and where it didn’t.
From the chat widget to a home grown code generated Zod to pydantic socketio RPC.
Easily 10x.
November 28, 2025 at 12:59 AM
I built a badass customer service AI agent app solo and it took me 4 months (admittedly I underestimated by about 2 months) with Claude.
Learned so much about where it worked and where it didn’t.
From the chat widget to a home grown code generated Zod to pydantic socketio RPC.
Easily 10x.
Learned so much about where it worked and where it didn’t.
From the chat widget to a home grown code generated Zod to pydantic socketio RPC.
Easily 10x.
My feeling on that study was “who can reliably estimate a task anyway”. Hard way to measure productivity.
Also I feel like open source is to some extent “more novel” and I don’t find LLM coding to be hugely beneficial to my own open source libraries.
But building another web app? Hoo boy.
Also I feel like open source is to some extent “more novel” and I don’t find LLM coding to be hugely beneficial to my own open source libraries.
But building another web app? Hoo boy.
November 28, 2025 at 12:47 AM
My feeling on that study was “who can reliably estimate a task anyway”. Hard way to measure productivity.
Also I feel like open source is to some extent “more novel” and I don’t find LLM coding to be hugely beneficial to my own open source libraries.
But building another web app? Hoo boy.
Also I feel like open source is to some extent “more novel” and I don’t find LLM coding to be hugely beneficial to my own open source libraries.
But building another web app? Hoo boy.
Maybe it wasn’t us, the royal we, but someone has to start the fire Billy Joel.
November 28, 2025 at 12:26 AM
Maybe it wasn’t us, the royal we, but someone has to start the fire Billy Joel.
It’s this and Good Morning Ms Bliss.
Buy local 🤷🏻♂️
Buy local 🤷🏻♂️
November 28, 2025 at 12:20 AM
It’s this and Good Morning Ms Bliss.
Buy local 🤷🏻♂️
Buy local 🤷🏻♂️