DEV Community: Cesar Aguirre

The edge isn't what symbols to type anymore

Cesar Aguirre — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 14:33:15 +0000

Cesar Aguirre

Sep 7

With AI, The Real Edge Is Knowing What to Build

#coding #beginners #ai #programming

2 min read

With AI, The Real Edge Is Knowing What to Build

Cesar Aguirre — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 05:00:00 +0000

"But... how did you know what to write?"

That's what Greg Baugues' daughter asked him after her first encounter with vibe-coding.
She was curious if there was a time when we had to type symbols, one by one.

It isn't about what symbols to type

Coding used to be about the craft:
Mastering symbols and perfecting the lines of code.
If you knew what to type and could make it work, you could find your way as a coder.

But AI has changed our job description by making code cheap.
Anyone is just a few sentences away from working code.

Knowing what symbols to type isn't the edge anymore.

It's about what to build

As I write this, I'm working on a legacy migration for a hardware shop.

Its main page is an entangled mess of over 40K lines of Visual Basic code.
Migrating it to anything newer is time-consuming.

To ease the pain of migrating it, management suggested starting some refactoring work.
The migration has dragged on for years, still far from completion.
The refactoring work won't show any visible progress on a late project.

Prompt an LLM to migrate it to Blazor isn't hard.
But its output will only create more problems.
The challenge is deciding the right approach: refactoring, migration, or rewrite.

The real edge is knowing coding is solving problems and choosing what problems to solve.

To help you grow beyond syntax, check Street-Smart Coding Manifesto. When coding is cheap, your edge comes from outside your IDE.

The job description already changed. We're not coders anymore, but couriers.

Cesar Aguirre — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 14:07:17 +0000

Cesar Aguirre

Aug 31

re: Couriers, Not Coders (Syntax Isn't The Edge Anymore)

#coding #ai #beginners #programming

2 min read

re: Couriers, Not Coders (Syntax Isn't The Edge Anymore)

Cesar Aguirre — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 05:00:00 +0000

"How many tables did you use?"

"One or two...I don't know."

A coder said that while demoing a feature to a client.
C'mon! You wouldn't forget that detail unless you had memory issues.

While screensharing, I noticed he had Codex open—another coding agent.
It wasn't a memory issue after all.
Someone has been prompting, right?

I remembered that quick exchange when reading Yegor Bugayenko's Couriers, Not Coders.

He wrote,

Working code is now the minimum. We expect discipline, speed of delivery, clear and detailed communication, and readiness to re-work. Above all, we expect you to understand our rules and obey them.

I loves his take.

When code is almost free, the edge isn't in lines of code.
The genie in the bottle can grant coding wishes to anyone, with enough tokens, credits, or whatever.

AI isn't taking our jobs yet.
And even if it does, there's still work to do.
But our job descriptions are already different.

The real edge has never been writing syntax.
It's thinking like a product owner.
It's knowing what to build.
Now it's doing what AI can't.

We can't just be coders, but couriers—or street-smart coders, as I prefer to call it.

If you're curious about going beyond syntax, check out Street-Smart Coding Manifesto. Because real impact comes from skills outside your IDE.

Crafting clean code alone won't save you or make you stand out. That's not the real edge anymore. Become a street-smart coder instead.

Cesar Aguirre — Thu, 27 Aug 2026 15:53:15 +0000

Cesar Aguirre

Aug 3

I'm Launching Street-Smart Coding Manifesto: A Case Against Syntax Obsession (Book 2 of My Trilogy)

#showdev #coding #beginners #programming

1 min read

Coding (by hand) is the only activity that makes you question your life choices...and the next moment, it makes you feel the smartest...

Cesar Aguirre — Tue, 25 Aug 2026 15:09:51 +0000

Cesar Aguirre

Aug 24

The Joy of Old-School Coding After a Stupid Mistake

#watercooler #coding #beginners #discuss

1 min read

The Joy of Old-School Coding After a Stupid Mistake

Cesar Aguirre — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 05:00:00 +0000

The other day, it happened again.

I had an error message that made me scratch my head.
For a moment, I thought, "God, why am I doing this? I should start a garden or something."

I copy-pasted the error message into Google.
StackOverflow didn't help that much.
I was tempted to go to Copilot.
But I held my horses.

A few moments later, "Oooohh, here it is!"
A one-line code change fixed it.
Stupid Entity Framework Core!

I was in a rush a few days before and I missed a small detail:
I used a collection to map a one-to-one relationship.
Simple! I know. Only integration tests caught it.

For a moment, an error message made me want to quit.
A second later, I was back in the game.
Yet again. For the nth time.

I guess AI doesn't give you that feeling—or does it?

Whether you code the old way or with AI, check out Street-Smart Coding—It covers debugging, testing, and many 28 more lessons to help you code like a pro.

When was the last time you Google or open StackOverflow when stuck?

Cesar Aguirre — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 13:58:26 +0000

Cesar Aguirre

Aug 17

re: Has the Audience for Technical Articles Dropped?

#discuss #writing #beginners

2 min read

re: Has the Audience for Technical Articles Dropped?

Cesar Aguirre — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 05:00:00 +0000

In past weeks, Dumebi Okolo asked in this post:

AI tools reshaping technical reading habits

Dumebi Okolo

Jul 8

Has the audience for technical articles dropped?

#discuss

1 min read

"Is it just me, or has anyone noticed that articles on dev.to don't get as many reads/views as they used to before?"

Yes! On dev.to, Medium, and on the Internet overall.

There's no point in writing how-to tutorials anymore, unless you're starting your coding or writing journey with TIL posts.

For step-by-step guidance on coding tasks, there's a magical text-area that seems to understands you and spits out answers fast.

Less people are landing on blogs and tutorials after Google pushed instant answers. For a couple of years, my series on unit testing and LINQ drove the most traffic to my blog and to my dev.to posts. Even, I went "viral" here on dev.to with a a post on unit testing private methods. These days, they barely have any traffic.

And when was the last time you Google or open StackOverflow when stuck? Your behavior as reader tells a lot about what to do as a writer.

Is there still market for tech content? Yes.

But we have to give what AI can't. Thoughts, rants, stories...Authenticity. That's how to stand out in a sea of AI slop.

It's not a surprise that my most popular recent "technical" posts are hard truths nobody told me about coding and the most painful lesson from my best job.

If AI can do it in minutes, it isn't special.

If you're starting out your coding journey, I still recommend you to write online. That's one of the lessons I cover in Street-Smart Coding—The roadmap I wish I had when I started.

Here's what being a street-smart coder means

Cesar Aguirre — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 16:43:04 +0000

Cesar Aguirre

Aug 10

Don't Just Be a Coder. Be a Street-Smart Coder Instead

#coding #beginners #ai #programming

1 min read

Don't Just Be a Coder. Be a Street-Smart Coder Instead

Cesar Aguirre — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 05:00:00 +0000

For Street-Smart Coding Manifesto, the prequel of my coding trilogy, I wrote what being a street-smart coder is: a coder with a "very particular set of skills" that creates impact beyond lines of code. Here what being a street-smart coder means.

While a coder obsesses over syntax:

Adding endless abstractions
Micro-optimizing code nobody touches
Building 100% reusable components no one will reuse

A street-smart coder:

#1. Writes the right code at the right time.
Starting massive refactorings just because "people recommend it online" isn't always wise.

#2. Understands there's no perfect code, only tradeoffs.
Not every piece of code needs to scale or be perfectly clean.
Not every project needs Domain Driven Design, microservices, or the latest buzzwords.
Everything is a tradeoff.

#3. Stays detached from their code.
Coding isn't a solo sport.
Prefer simple, consistent code others can inherit.
It's a team sport: code for other humans.

#4. Speaks the right lingo with the right people.
Not everyone involved in a project cares about the same details.
Be an interpreter between technical and business people.

When code is cheap, your edge lies outside the IDE.

Want to go deeper? Street-Smart Coding Manifesto shows how to stand out with more than syntax. Because real impact comes from skills outside your IDE.

I'm Launching Street-Smart Coding Manifesto: A Case Against Syntax Obsession (Book 2 of My Trilogy)

Cesar Aguirre — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Crafting clean code alone won't save you or make you stand out. That's not the real edge.

Why this book?

When I started, I thought my only job was writing code.

I obsessed over syntax and lines of code.
I ignored meetings, calls, and emails.
I only wanted to code, code, and code.

And of course, I was wrong.

After trial and error, and even getting fired, I realized:
Code alone won't save you.
It won't make you stand out either.
It's always something beyond symbols.
The skills outside the IDE.

That realization inspired my next book: Street-Smart Coding Manifesto.

It's for junior and intermediate coders—and my younger self—who want to create impact beyond code.

Preview of the first ~12 pages.

What's inside?

It's a short guide, you can finish over coffee, to the mindset shifts and skills that create real impact.

It includes 17 lessons to help you become a street-smart coder:

A coder invited to meetings for their opinion.
A coder managers trust first for new projects.
A coder who creates real impact beyond syntax.

Get your copy of Street-Smart Coding Manifesto here and master the skills that will set you apart, giving you confidence and impact beyond code.