The Brett Codes Show

I've had enough of being bombarded with AI slop writing, images, and features. It's offensive, dehumanizing, and highlights the mass AI psychosis we're living through.

Reflections on when to code by hand and why, for both hobby projects and professional projects.

Reflections on the announcement of the end of Deno, the Great JavaScript Runtime Battle with Bun and Node.js, and why Cloudflare, the Deno company, and Ryan Dahl should do more than just say "thank you, farewell" to the developers and companies who use Deno.

I started an online forum for talking about software development in the modern era, free of AI boosters. It's called Humancrafted and you can join at https://humancrafted.dev/forum. I also share a bit about my thoughts on Cory Doctorow's book The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI and some of the other books I have been reading.

I shaved and put on my tweed jacket to get the word out to the engineering managers and CTOs of the world about the real risks of using AI in a software development team. Maybe this is useful as a way to communicate to management and leadership about the risks. Maybe it's useful as a way to realize there are harms and concerns beyond the "humanity ending" nonsense and it's not just all AI booster fairytales. These are my reflections on the risks and issues I repeatedly saw when using AI on a software dev team for 18 months (before stopping using AI entirely).

I started using Ruby on Rails in 2011, and for 15 years I've worked with it in nearly every job I've had. I share my thoughts on the earlier years of using it, how it's changed, the challenges (with the framework and DHH), and how I think about it today.

I'm tired of the "AI is just a tool" rhetoric because it's flat out irresponsible and wrong.

Every week we're bombarded with some new AI nightmare horror story, and it's exhausting. Here's how I keep as calm as I can while navigating these strange times.

In fall 2025 I switched to a dumbphone after using modern smartphones for just about 15 years. It was one of most life changing decisions I've made to date. It's relieved me of usage patterns I wasn't happy with and led to more intentional technology usage. It's also led to being a more present parent. I go over how the last year's been, some challenges and solutions, and how I live day to day with a dumbphone. I ramble on about stuff like photos, navigation, music, etc.

I started coding 20 years ago as a hobby and it turned into a career. While a lot has changed over the last two decades, in a lot of ways the fundamentals haven't. Sure, there are new languages like Rust and Zig. And a new JavaScript framework was released during the time in which I sat down and recorded this ramble. And of course there's the AI elephant in the room. But there's still a stable core at the center of all that to focus on. In this episode I go over how I learned to code, what I'd do differently, and what I'd focus on if I was starting over.