DEV Community: Cesar Aguirre

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

Boooo!!!

Cesar Aguirre — Tue, 20 Oct 2026 14:09:46 +0000

Cesar Aguirre

Oct 19

The Scariest Lines of Code I've Ever Written. Boooo!!!

#discuss #beginners #sql #sqlserver

2 min read

The Scariest Lines of Code I've Ever Written. Boooo!!!

Cesar Aguirre — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 05:00:00 +0000

I don't remember if it was rainy or sunny outside. It was more than five years ago. I was still becoming a senior coder.

I've written hundreds of thousands of lines of code that I don't remember anymore. But I still remember these ones.

As part of my daily tasks, I wrote this query in a stored procedure,

SELECT * FROM dbo.HugeTableWithoutIndexes
WHERE DATEDIFF(DAY, ADateColumn, @InputDate) = 0

I was working with an email system built with Amazon SES. I needed to show all email activity: delivered, opened, bounced, and so on. I wrapped a column in a function. A deadly sin!

The table had millions of records and no indexes. My query forced a full scan of the table. The next thing I knew the server was on fire. Not literally, of course. LOL!

Those days I refused to learn SQL, convinced ORMs and NoSQL were enough. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Relational databases and SQL still reign.

Eventually I learned about indexing, scans vs seeks, and SQL Server internals. Shout out to Brent Ozar's courses.

A painful lesson I will never forget. Take your vitamins, exercise, and use indexes.

You can't escape from SQL. That's why I made it one of the lessons in Street-Smart Coding. It's the guide I wish I'd had on my journey to becoming a senior coder.

Look, ma! I'm in the Hall of Fame...under the "🏛️ Stories From the Trenches" section

Cesar Aguirre — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 23:36:46 +0000

Over 10 hours of reading behind it

Giorgi Kobaidze

Oct 18

Promise Delivered: Welcome to the DEV Hall of Fame (65 Authors, 65 Masterpieces)

#discuss #community #showdev #writing

202

101

25 min read

#2.—It steals the joy of figuring out problems.

Cesar Aguirre — Tue, 13 Oct 2026 14:10:30 +0000

Cesar Aguirre

Oct 12

Four Pitfalls of Over-Relying on AI When Coding

#discuss #coding #programming #ai

1 min read

Four Pitfalls of Over-Relying on AI When Coding

Cesar Aguirre — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 05:00:00 +0000

I sit somewhere in the middle of the AI hype cycle. Not a hater nor a fanatic.

I’ve been trying to make sense of AI by documenting my experiences and reacting to others.

Here are 4 issues I’ve found with using AI too much:

#1. It makes us lazier than usual. It’s tempting to go straight to a chat for a quick, unreliable answer. That’s the real danger.

#2. It steals the joy of figuring out problems. No more aha moments or happy dances. Just like asking someone to chew our food to be more productive.

#3. It makes you feel you’re cheating. Copy-pasting without understanding has always been cheating, even in the days of forums and StackOverflow.

AI generated code you don't understand is worse than technical debt. It's cognitive debt.

#4. It doesn’t let you build mental models to solve problems. It’s like asking someone else to go to the gym for us, then wondering why our muscles are still weak.

To build future-proof coding skills, check out Street-Smart Coding, the roadmap with 30 lessons I wish I had on my coding journey.

Treat AI like a copilot in the cockpit, an extra layer of safety and productivity

Cesar Aguirre — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 17:08:01 +0000

Cesar Aguirre

Oct 5

Another Rule for Using AI Without Losing My Skills

#coding #beginners #programming #ai

2 min read

Whether what AI generates is clean code or garbage, CEOs aren't accountable for it. We still are.

Cesar Aguirre — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 15:56:50 +0000

Cesar Aguirre

Oct 5

Another Rule for Using AI Without Losing My Skills

#coding #beginners #programming #ai

2 min read

When code breaks, you can't simply say, "AI did that."

Cesar Aguirre — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 14:08:23 +0000

Cesar Aguirre

Oct 5

Another Rule for Using AI Without Losing My Skills

#coding #beginners #programming #ai

2 min read

Another Rule for Using AI Without Losing My Skills

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

When code breaks, you can't simply say, "AI did that."

You're responsible for the code you ship.
That's been true from the days of copy-pasting from forums, blog posts, StackOverflow, and now from AI.

AI is fast, but over-reliance makes you lose your mental models and context—that's just one of the problems with AI.

The new rule

To protect my skills, I've set one rule:

Don't let AI touch your code directly.

It might feel unproductive.
But it keeps my hands on the wheel.

To test this rule, I recently tried finishing a task using as much AI as possible.
While going through the AI-generated code, I came up with another rule:

If I write the code, AI reviews it.
And if AI generates the code, I review it.

That way, I use AI while keeping my code writing and reading sharp.
Either way, AI is just like a copilot in the cockpit, an extra layer of safety and productivity.

AI is changing the act of coding.
Some brag about coding without typing a single line of code, thanks to Claude Code, Copilot, or the fastest LLM in town.

Whether what AI generates is clean code or garbage, CEOs aren't accountable for it. We still are.

If you want to sharpen the skills AI can't replace, check out Street-Smart Coding. It's the guide I wish I'd had on my journey to becoming a senior coder.

Don't forget about AI. But build real skills first. Then leverage AI — in that order.

Cesar Aguirre — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 16:04:09 +0000

Timeless fundamentals beat endless hype-chasing

Cesar Aguirre

Sep 28

Dear Coder: Open This If You're Feeling AI FOMO

#career #ai #programming #beginners

100

1 min read

If you think you can't keep up with every new AI buzzword...

Cesar Aguirre — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 15:52:16 +0000

Timeless fundamentals beat endless hype-chasing

Cesar Aguirre

Sep 28

Dear Coder: Open This If You're Feeling AI FOMO

#career #ai #programming #beginners

100

1 min read