Author Archives: Douglas J Farmer

AI – An infinitely patient rubber duck who actually talks back.

Claude’s words (the rubber duck bit), not mine. For a 12-minute podcast format analysis of this post by two AIs click on the audio player below. I’ve been playing the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV) for more years than I’d care to admit. A cool feature about FFXIV is calledContinue reading “AI – An infinitely patient rubber duck who actually talks back.”

Vibe Coding – A Grift, the Next Cash Cow or Both?

For a 16-minute, 46-second deep-dive podcast on this post, created by Google’s NotebookLM AI, click the audio player below. These days, the Internet is awash with articles and videos about the software development ‘game-changing’ methodology called ‘Vibe Coding.’ For someone unfamiliar with software development, it’s forgivable to walk away from these articles and videos thinkingContinue reading “Vibe Coding – A Grift, the Next Cash Cow or Both?”

Pragmatism vs Dogmatism and AI-Assisted Programming

Another in my series of blog posts on “The Joy of Centaur Programming”. Today I’ll dive deep into what I call “shared pragmatism”. As with all my blog posts, you can listen to a discussion of it between Google’s two NotebookLM deep-dive AIs by clicking on the audio player below. Often, development teams, whether theyContinue reading “Pragmatism vs Dogmatism and AI-Assisted Programming”

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Centaur Programmers

This spring, I read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. Published in 2018 and now in its 7th printing, it’s a remarkable and “highly effective” way to learn how to eliminate negative habits and develop positive ones that stick. More than that, throughout the book, Clear reinforces a key pearl of wisdom: we are our habits.Continue reading “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Centaur Programmers”

AI – The End of Puzzle Solving?

For me, writing software has always had one fundamental reward – the endorphin rush that comes from solving a complex puzzle. Yes, being paid to solve puzzles (professional coding) is rewarding, but in all honesty, it is secondary to the rush that comes from the moment when that final piece clicks into place. The puzzleContinue reading “AI – The End of Puzzle Solving?”

Sunshine and Water

Click on the audio player below for a discussion of this post by two AIs, in podcast format, created by Google’s NotebookLM AI. In the sci-fi novel ‘Semiosis’ by Sue Burke (2019), we are introduced to the planet Pax and its dominant life form – Stevland – a multimillion-year-old plant. I highly recommend the novelContinue reading “Sunshine and Water”

Travel Time

Travel Time is a fun app designed for macOS Sonoma version 14.6 and later. Have you ever wondered how long it would take, travelling at the fastest speed a human space probe has ever travelled at (the Parker Solar Probe), to reach Proxima Centauri (the closest star to Earth)? I mean, who hasn’t, right? Now,Continue reading “Travel Time”

The Conversation Persistence Artifact

For an AI-generated podcast of this blog post, created with Google’s NotebookLM (free) service, click on the audio player below. As I’ve evolved and refined my Centaur Programming Model for iOS app development using the Claude Sonnet AI from Anthropic, retaining persistence between chat sessions with the AI has emerged as fundamental to this methodology.Continue reading “The Conversation Persistence Artifact”