On Developer Tools

The best developer tools make attention more powerful.

They do not remove the need to understand the system. They make it easier to see the system, change it safely, and notice when something important moved.

The Current Trap

A lot of AI tooling optimizes for the moment before the hard part. It can make code appear, which feels like progress, but the expensive work is often verification, integration, and taste.

The question is not "can it write code?" anymore.

The question is "can the system tell when the code is wrong, and can a person correct it without losing the thread?"

What I Like

I like tools that:

• show their work
• preserve context
• make small changes safely
• admit uncertainty
• let the human stay oriented

That is the bar I keep coming back to.