Oliver Spryn's Linkedin Analytics

Your best ideas don't happen at your desk. They happen in nature. When your mind is stuck, step away. Take a walk. Go out in nature. Talk with someone. Bring a pen and paper. Let your mind offer ideas organically. You will be amazed at what it can offer you if you give it the respect of stepping away and refreshing itself. It's one of humanity's hidden superpowers. What is your secret to problem-solving?

Caffeine isn't brain food. Nutrition is brain food. Your best mental performance starts with two things: rest and nutrition. Engineers are known for "turning coffee into code." There's nothing wrong with that. I love my coffee, too. But if you're looking for peak clarity and output, invest in your health. Your health ALWAYS has a payday.

I correctly predicted the dangers of vibe coding 2 years before it was invented, in 2023. It started with an experiment. I unplugged my brain. And started a timer. The goal: build a simple to-do app in Android as fast as possible. I tried two separate experiments: - one with ChatGPT - one with Google Bard (now Gemini) Same goal. Different LLMs. 1️⃣ ChatGPT 4 It worked. Quite flawlessly. It built everything I asked. All in under thirty minutes. But: - It had no clear thought process. - I never checked for lurking bugs. - The project codebase was a mess. - It didn't use any architectural patterns. Its code was worse than a beginner's. But my brain was "off," so I didn't offer feedback. The code remains an enigma to this day. A nightmare waiting to be untangled. Untestable. Lacked structure. Monolithic code for UI components. No separation of presentation vs business logic. etc. etc. 2️⃣ Google Bard (Gemini) It failed. In every possible fashion. I gave up after about forty minutes. Where it failed: - It couldn't get the app to build. - I used more prompts for fewer results. - It forgot to tell me to add the home screen. - It also didn't follow any architectural patterns. This isn't a story of LLM vs LLM. This story is about two very different ways vibe coding gets you into trouble. The results were obvious: I got painted into a corner either way. The effort to crawl back out was steep. And it always required expertise. Don't vibe code, folks. I recorded the result on my YouTube channel TL;DR Android @tldrandroid

You can't afford anything cheap. That is the mindset I use whenever I purchase a developer's laptop. I recently upgraded my laptop to a top-end M4 Max MacBook Pro. Why? Because the productivity boost is obvious. I spend less time waiting. I spend more time working. I spend the additional cost upfront. And I reap the rewards for years afterward. If time is money, then a cheap, slow laptop would have been an extremely expensive misstep. Money, in this case, buys me back lost time each day. Don't settle for less with your daily driver. Decide what is best for you and consider it an investment. The time you save with a good machine is often staggering. Time is money. And money is saved time.

Most people don't know that I have a PhD, and I think everyone should have one. I'm not referring to a doctoral degree. It's my secret formula for every day. You can see it plainly in the picture. My collared shirt is my PhD. The secret formula is an abbreviation I call my "PhD." My Productivity eHancing Device. Now that you're an insider on this knowledge, let's discuss why. Every day, my choice of clothing sets the tone for the day. Sharp dressing. Sharp thinking. Sloppy dressing. Sloppy thinking. If your day starts with a wrinkled t-shirt that should be in the laundry cycle, your brain will feel and reflect that. Put in some effort and watch that turn around. In short, it is a positive, high-reaching habit that kick-starts your brain into high gear. Is it magic? Of course not. It's part of the big picture. Tomorrow, when you stand in your closet. Don't think of your shirt as just clothing. Think of it as choosing a mindset. And see how things go.

I get ahead by falling behind. It's a tried and true rule necessary in any tech job. Tech leads, projects, and codebases should be 6 months to 1 year behind the cutting-edge trends. Why? In such a fast-paced industry, falling behind sounds absurd. Projects that follow cutting-edge tech tend to become frustrated and require rework when they always adopt the latest ideas. Those ideas are often untested. New ideas. New framework. New architecture. Fancy backend services. New ways of doing the same thing. All unproven. Just making a big splash. Companies and ideas hoping to create hype. The problem becomes that you are the beta tester. Projects that adopt these ideas are at risk of seeing them become quickly abandoned. Then, you are left to deal with the mess. So, I leave that job to the community. Let them try it out. Let them prove it out. Let the idea mature and grow. Let the dust settle and see if it is worthwhile. If you want to try it on a personal or sample project, go for it. But keep it from your professional projects until the industry embraces it. There will be more community support. You'll get a more mature project/idea. The bugs will be fewer. Yes, exciting tech is hard to pass by, but good things come to those who wait.

If you are the smartest person in the room, then you are in the wrong room. It amazes me how much I can still learn as a subject matter expert. I learn from junior engineers. I learn from other experts. I learn from mistakes. And each time I learn, I become a better and wiser person. Surround yourself with people who grow you. Don't be surprised if they have less experience. Some of my best lessons came from those who I taught regularly. Swallow your pride. Growth is on the other side.

Your career is over any time you say it has "peaked." Sometimes, I hear people use that phrase. Other times, I watch people live it out. Either way, it's the beginning of their end. No drive. No growth. No movement. No desire for more. People get promoted and are worse than before. People become leaders and ride things out. People become experts and lose ground. People get comfortable and stop. Don't ever "peak." The world has plenty of room. The only "peaks" are the ones we imagine.

You and I were supposed to be extinct decades ago. The end of software engineering has been pronounced since the 1940s. Yet, here we are. - In the late 1940s, assembly language was invented and should have replaced us. - In the 1950s, the use of punch cards took off and should have replaced us. - In 1956, FORTRAN was the first commercial high-level language that should have replaced us. Moving ahead: - In 1991, Visual Basic introduced visual programming that should have replaced us. - In 2012, no code tools started to gain traction and should have replaced us. - In 2025, vibe coding with AI was coined and is threatening to replace us. If history is any indicator of the future... it won't. It will just change how we work. Don't become distracted by the noise. Focus on improving yourself. The industry will be fine, like it was all of the other times.

All engineers know the dangers of vibe coding. It destroys the essence of real engineering. Engineers are not first coders. Engineers are first problem-solvers. The result is usually code. But not always. The essence of engineering is problem-solving. The essence of vibe coding is to code first with minimal problem-solving. Vibing is a very poor teacher of code since it shifts one's focus from problem-solving to prompt engineering. It turns engineering upside down. It is a wholesale outsourcing of the brain. It ignores what it means to be an engineer. If you're an engineer, don't succumb to the temptation to shut off your thinking. If you're learning to code, use AI to help fill in the gaps in your understanding, but always be in charge. AI should always be your underlord, not the one calling the shots.

I never cry, but I did in 2008 when I was on the verge of a breakdown.   In 2008, I wanted to learn how to program.  Having never tried it before, I started with a project. A simple project?  Not in the least. As a 15-year-old,  I had agreed to build a course  management system for a university  professor to help him bring his classes online.    It would be a highly custom website  and a very ambitious project. How on earth would I manage to pull this off?    I had no one to ask.  I was alone in my journey. It was my biggest case of trial by fire.   I sat at my desk with looming deadlines,  trying to figure out how to make something work.    Anything.    Nothing made sense.  I was making zero progress. I wanted out.  I felt trapped. I was desperate. The tears started flowing. In a last-ditch effort, I bought an online course to learn PHP.    And I felt like a robot.  Doing things I didn't understand.  Still feeling just as stuck as before.    Then, I had a breakthrough.    I understood one concept.  I understood how to use variables.    From there, I learned how if statements work.  And I wrote my first section of code without help.    Then, I learned functions.  Then, I learned how classes work.  And on and on...    I had finally grasped the basics of how code works.  And I went on to build a course management system. No joke. This was my journey.  As painful as it was, it launched my career. How would I do it differently?    1. Start simple.  2. Surround myself with a like-minded community.  3. Master the fundamental components.  4. Celebrate my milestones.  5. Build from there.