Things have gotten quite weird in software engineering. This really started becoming apparent in January 2026, when Claude Code really started gaining traction, and things have only accelerated since then. It feels a bit trite to write about this in September 2026, but with engineering changing so quickly, it's hard not to obsess over it a little.
On my team we've hired many new engineers this year, and I've had the same "things are really weird right now" conversation more times than I can count, usually while debating how much we should be leaning on agent-first development, planning, and verification, and what we even mean when we say "AI-native." Anyone who reads tech, AI, or finance newsletters regularly (Haley must be subscribed to a few dozen) knows how much AI has been, or could or should be, changing most knowledge-work industries.