DEV Community: Cesar Aguirre

AI couldn't help much that day!

Cesar Aguirre — Tue, 10 Nov 2026 14:53:35 +0000

Explains why a missing slash broke .NET HttpClient

Cesar Aguirre

Nov 9

A Day In The Life of A Random Coder: A Save Button And a Forward Slash Almost Ruined It

#watercooler #coding #beginners #discuss

2 min read

A Day In The Life of A Random Coder: A Save Button And a Forward Slash Almost Ruined It

Cesar Aguirre — Mon, 09 Nov 2026 05:00:00 +0000

After 3 months of work, today was the day to test a brand-new invoicing module for a hardware shop.

We're building a Blazor app to charge companies based on active users and license fees.
By "we" I mean a team of contractors I'm part of.
At the beginning of every month, the CEO creates invoices and charges cards manually. Zero automation. One by one.
It takes him two or three days of work.
Yes, in the 21st century.

Today, the CEO decided to compare his manual process to the new module.
On the first attempt to charge a card, we got a "Not Found" response code from the payment gateway API.

It turns out, on Octopus Deploy, our CI/CD tool, the API url and credentials were missing.
Someone added it by clicking "Add to the List" under the Project Variables.
But they forgot to hit "Save."
Adding to the list isn't the same as saving.
Who would have known it?
Arrgggg!!!

Fifteen minutes later, after a deployment, we got the same "Not Found" on the logs.
This time, we forgot to append a "/" at the end of the API url on Octopus Deploy.

From https://acoolapi/something/rest to https://acoolapi/something/rest/.
Noticed the subtle difference?

Well, it seems .NET built-in HttpClient's SendAsync() does a simple string manipulation to build urls.
I wanted to find the source code to check my assumption, but it was too late and I'm lazy—And this post is getting long.

I guess today I learned to hit Save and append slashes on urls.

Even with AI, troubleshooting matters more than ever. Street-Smart Coding shows you a roadmap with 30 lessons—troubleshooting is one of them—to help you build future-proof skills.

A hard pill to swallow:

Cesar Aguirre — Fri, 06 Nov 2026 14:17:27 +0000

Cesar Aguirre

Jan 14

The Truth About Coding That Changes Everything (Probably You Won't Like It Either)

#career #coding #beginners #programming

2 min read

#4 is a watching a TV show. Not Silicon Valley or Mr Robot. But it could teach you more than any coding class.

Cesar Aguirre — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 15:05:27 +0000

Cesar Aguirre

Jul 13

7 Unconventional (But Surprisingly Effective) Ways to Get Better at Coding

#beginners #coding #programming #career

2 min read

A Year Ago I Published Street-Smart Coding. Here Are the Lessons, Mistakes, and Numbers

Cesar Aguirre — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 05:00:00 +0000

One year ago, writing a book felt like a distant goal.

Last week, Street-Smart Coding turned 1 year old.
It's the book I wish I had when starting out as a coder.
A roadmap with 30 lessons to build skills that last a career.
From the most conventional to the most unexpected.

I wrote it for my younger self Googling "how to get better at coding."

Street-Smart Coding became a book series

After one year, Street-Smart Coding became the second book in a 4-part series.

I wrote a prequel, Street-Smart Coding Manifesto, and I'm working on a sequel, Street-Smart Coding in the Age of AI.
I already have plans for a final career guide.

Those four will be my attempt to pass on everything I've learned about coding and nobody taught me.

What I would do differently

Street-Smart Coding made me learn to write a book the hard way.

Of course, today I'd do a couple of things differently:

I'd write a shorter introduction.
I'd rewrite Chapter 1 to make it timeless. The principle is there: find your own answers. But I framed it using Google, which is not as relevant in these days of AI as it was years ago.
I'd start writing it backwards.

Writing a book taught me a whole lot about writing, publishing, and marketing.
But more importantly, it gave me the confidence to call myself a writer.

Some random numbers

Unless you write a New York Times best-seller, you won't live off a single book, especially a technical one.

But if someone outside your circle buys your books, it's already a success.
Street-Smart Coding is a huge success.

In the last year, it's sold 92 ebook copies via Gumroad, and 9 Kindle and 2 paperback copies via Amazon.
It passed 100 copies in its first year.

Apart from sales, it earned me my first hater.
Someone called me "b*tch" for promoting it.

And it helped me define my category of one.
Someone called me the "Street-Smart Coding guy" in a comment.
Since then, I've made it my bio everywhere online.

Apart from my daily blog, Street-Smart Coding is the project I'm the most proud of.

One year later, I'd still recommend it to my younger self. If you want to code smarter and build real-world skills that last a career, grab your copy of Street-Smart Coding today.

Cesar Aguirre — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 05:00:00 +0000

Hi, I'm Cesar, a Senior Software Engineer with 10+ years of experience.

In 2023, I got sick and burned out.
In 2024, I was laid off.

To recover, I went back to writing:
I resurrected my blog and my dev.to account.
It worked like free therapy by giving me a reason to get out of bed.

After hundreds of posts, I challenged myself to write a book.
That's how Street-Smart Coding was born:
A roadmap with 30 lessons I wish someone had told me when starting out.

Since then, Street-Smart Coding became book #2 of a 4-part series.
I already wrote a prequel, Street-Smart Manifesto and I'm working in a sequel, Street-Smart Coding in the Age of AI.
My goal is to shared everything I've learned the hard way in over 10 years.
I have planned another book, by the way.

In last July, I ran an AMA to celebrate my 7-year anniversary on dev.to:

Writing therapy and a new book trilogy

Cesar Aguirre

Jul 20

I've Spent 10+ Years in Software Engineering. After Sickness, Burnout, and a Layoff, I'm Rebuilding My Career. Ask Me Anything

#discuss #watercooler #ama #coding

106

105

1 min read

And this week, to celebrate Street-Smart Coding first anniversary:
Ask me anything about coding, burnout, or writing.
I don't have all answers, tho.

Let me know if you participated in the last AMA.
Or simply stop by to say Hi.

Let's keep this conversation between humans, not between a human and an LLM.

If AI, FOMO, and hype overwhelm you...

Cesar Aguirre — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 23:32:14 +0000

Cesar Aguirre

Jun 9 '25

7 Strategies to Stay Sane in the Never-Ending Tech Hype Cycle

#discuss #ai #beginners #programming

3 min read