DEV Community: deep mishra

Cold DMs don't work anymore. Here's what actually got me my first users.

deep mishra — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 09:10:08 +0000

Business owners get hundreds of cold messages daily. Yours gets ignored.
The approach that actually works: find people already talking about the pain your product solves.
Not cold outreach. Not ads. Just being in the right place when someone is already frustrated.
Search Reddit, HN, Twitter for people complaining about the exact problem you solve. Slide into that conversation naturally. That's a warm lead who already wants a solution.
The best distribution hack isn't marketing. It's being in the right place when someone is already in pain.
What's the most effective way you've found your first users?

The Best Way to Use AI for Coding

deep mishra — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 07:19:07 +0000

A mistake I see many beginner developers make with AI coding tools is this:

They ask the AI to build the entire project.

Something like:

“Build me a full SaaS app that does this”

The result?

A messy codebase.

AI tries to generate everything at once, and the architecture usually falls apart.

After experimenting with AI coding tools, I’ve found a workflow that works much better.

Think Like an Architect, Not a Prompt Engineer

The key idea is simple:

You design the system.
AI helps implement pieces of it.

Instead of asking AI to generate the whole project, break it down.

You decide:

architecture

folder structure

data models

API design

Then AI helps implement one piece at a time.

A Better Workflow

Here’s the process that works well for me.

Design the architecture first

Before asking AI for code, define:

project structure

database schema

API routes

major components

Example:

/api
auth.ts
users.ts

/services
userService.ts

/components
Dashboard.tsx

This prevents AI from inventing random structures.

Ask AI to build one file at a time

Instead of:

“Build the backend”

Ask:

“Create an Express API route for user registration with email and password validation.”

Or:

“Create a React component for a dashboard that displays a list of projects.”

Small tasks = much better results.

Review and refine

Never paste AI code blindly.

Check for:

unnecessary complexity

security issues

inconsistent patterns

AI is great at generating code, but developers are still better at judging it.

Use AI for boring work

Where AI really shines:

boilerplate

tests

simple CRUD endpoints

documentation

refactoring suggestions

Let AI do the repetitive work.

Focus your time on system design and product decisions.

The Real Shift

AI doesn’t replace developers.

It changes the role of developers.

Instead of spending most of our time writing code, we spend more time:

designing systems

reviewing generated code

thinking about architecture

Which, honestly, is where the interesting problems are anyway.

Why every demo account is named John Doe (a 700-year-old reason)

deep mishra — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 08:00:07 +0000

Ever wondered why every form, tutorial, or demo account in tech is named John Doe?

The story goes back to medieval England.

In the 1300s, English courts had a strange legal trick. When lawyers needed to test a case or file a claim involving someone whose identity was unknown, they used fictional names. The most common ones were John Doe and Richard Roe.

They were never real people just placeholders for "someone."

Centuries later the legal system kept using them, especially when the identity of a person was unknown. Hospitals used it for unidentified patients, police reports used it for unknown suspects.

Then tech borrowed the idea.

When developers needed a safe, neutral name for examples in forms, documentation, and test accounts, they adopted the same placeholder the legal world had used for hundreds of years.

That's why in almost every signup form you'll see:
Name: John Doe

A 700-year-old legal tradition quietly living inside modern software.

Funny how the oldest traditions end up inside the newest software.