You know that moment when your computer freezes and nothing responds? When every click makes things worse and the spinning wheel of death mocks your productivity?
That's where I think the software industry is right now. Frozen. Clicking frantically on the same old solutions. Watching the wheel spin.
Time for a hard reset.
Why this newsletter exists
I've spent over 20 years building software. From using Pine to check my email whilst coding in COBOL at university and building websites in (Macromedia) Flash to now working in the typical React/Mongo/Node tech stack of startups. I've seen technology evolve from desktop applications to web services to cloud platforms to whatever we're calling this AI moment.
Something feels different this time. We're not just evolving. We're approaching a fundamental reset of how software gets created, who creates it, and why it needs to exist at all.
This newsletter is my attempt to make sense of that reset. To question assumptions I've held for decades. To explore futures that might make my entire career obsolete. And honestly? To figure out what comes next.
A bit about my journey
My tech career started in the most mundane way possible. Four people drowning in customer emails in a government job, manually copying and pasting responses from a Word document. I wrote a simple Outlook plugin that automated the process, reducing our workload from 4 people to 1.
That experience taught me something crucial: the best technology often eliminates work rather than optimizing it.
Since then, I've bounced between startups and enterprises, consultancies and product companies. Built multi-tenant platforms for retailers. Led technical teams creating tools for The BBC and Guardian journalists. Spent the last five years at Webflow helping democratize web development.
Through it all, I've watched us make the same mistake over and over. We optimize what exists instead of questioning whether it should exist.
What you can expect
This newsletter won't be about the latest JavaScript framework or the newest AI model. There are plenty of places for that. Instead, I want to explore the bigger questions. What happens when software doesn't need developers? When businesses run on understanding rather than code? When AI makes entire categories of SaaS obsolete?
Sometimes I'll share concrete predictions about where technology is heading. Other times I'll admit when I've been completely wrong (spoiler: it happens a lot). I'll dive deep into methodologies like Domain Driven Design that suddenly matter in ways their creators never imagined; and I'll try to also balance provocation with practicality. Vision with vulnerability. Because if I've learned anything, it's that the future rarely arrives the way we expect.
The reset is already happening
While we debate whether AI will help us code better, businesses are starting to question why they need code at all.
While we build better developer tools, "accidental developers" are building solutions without knowing what an API is.
While we optimize our SaaS bundles, AI is learning to orchestrate capabilities directly.
The old paradigms are breaking down. The question isn't whether to adapt, but how quickly we can let go of what we think we know.
Join me for the journey
I don't have all the answers. Hell, I'm not even sure I have the right questions yet. But I'm convinced we're at an inflection point that demands new thinking.
If you're feeling that same sense that everything's about to change...
If you're wondering whether your skills will matter in five years...
If you're excited about possibilities but unsure what to build...
Then this newsletter is for you.
Every edition, we'll hit Ctrl + Alt + Delete on conventional wisdom and explore what rises from the reset.
Welcome aboard. Let's see where this goes.