Conference season is here, and AI talks are everywhere. No surprise there.
I use AI tools myself and I see genuine value in them as part of how we work. Not in the "use it or die" sense that the bandwagon market keeps selling. Not as the new shiny object that will solve everything if you just adopt it fast enough. But as a tool that, in the hands of someone with discipline and a clear understanding of the problem, can genuinely help.
>>>
That distinction matters. Because most AI talks I see are about going faster. How to use AI to speed up delivery. How to ship more. How to do more in less time.
Faster to what, exactly? The big ball of mud perhaps?
In my experience, good engineers with AI get faster outcomes. Engineers without discipline get faster output. Those are very different things. And faster output, without the underlying discipline, tends to produce faster rigid architectures too.
>>>
The bandwagon has a lot of passengers right now, and a lot of talks sound like it. If you are putting together an AI talk for a conference: go beyond the hype. Beyond vibe coding. Ask harder questions. Explore what it means to use AI as part of a disciplined craft, not as a shortcut around it.
That is the talk I want to see more of.
Kenny (Baas) Schwegler
Lars Stitz