The Pragmatic Engineer DHH’s new way of writing code
1494 snips
Apr 8, 2026 
David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of Ruby on Rails and CTO of 37signals, talks about why he shifted from typing every line himself to an agent-first coding style. He gets into AI tools, parallel model workflows, and why senior engineers may gain the most. They also explore product taste, tiny teams, designers who code, and why beauty and software quality go together.
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AI Rewards Senior Engineers More Than Juniors
- AI currently amplifies senior engineers more than juniors because senior people can judge, redirect, and safely merge agent output.
- David Heinemeier Hansson says that same review role once applied to junior humans, but now seniors can do it with much faster agents.
Managing Agents Feels Like Wearing A Mech Suit
- Running agents feels less like project management and more like wearing a mech suit that gives one programmer many extra arms.
- David Heinemeier Hansson says the bigger gain is cognitive leverage, like reviewing 100 Omarchy PRs in 90 minutes with Claude's help.
AI Expands The Set Of Worthwhile Projects
- The biggest change is not just speed on existing work but a huge expansion of what teams now consider worth attempting.
- David Heinemeier Hansson cites optimizing Basecamp's P1 latency and exploring Omarchy dual boot, both projects previously too marginal or risky to justify.
