This week at Try Hard Studios - June 19, 2026
This week I've been in London for Laravel Live UK! I gave a conference talk for the first time in a long time. And man, I forgot how much work they are.
My usual method is to kinda noodle on the idea early, and then let the brain work on it for a while. I call that subconscious information processing, which is a term I got from this amazing article almost 15 years ago: Subconscious Information Processing.
The basic idea is that if you get the brain working on something early, it will work on it in the background with almost no effort at all. If you're giving a toast at a friend's wedding, it's really hard to sit down the day before and write a toast from scratch. That's a lot of pressure. If you casually start thinking about it a month before, you'll remember a good anecdote while you're on a walk. You'll be driving to work and remember a funny story. Then the day before the wedding you can sit down and just write down everything you've been noodling on. This is how I write talks. I have the general, vague idea, and then I just let it simmer.
The general, vague idea for this one was trying to answer the question, "What are we supposed to do now?" As developers, if the AI writes all the code, do I still have value? I planted that seed in my head and let it simmer. The answer is of course yes, but how do I get there? That's not enough for a 30-minute talk!
I'm really happy with the structure I landed on. I used the development of Solo as a sort of narrative vehicle. We sort of loosely followed the history of Solo and at every major turn we talked about how my experience as a developer helped me write better code, make better decisions, and build a better product with AI.
A lot of people want to say that the code is irrelevant anymore and kinda frame that as like a burden removed from the developer. But man, I like the code. I get a lot of joy out of shaping the code.
And that was my message in the end: let go of writing the code by hand, but do not let go of caring. You do not have to go into product. You do not have to forget about the code. This thing you've loved for 25 years, you don't have to just leave it behind.
Sure things are changing, that's fine. But you don't have to give in to the pundits that say coding is solved. You don't have to become a farmer. You can still care. In fact, you should!
Things I found this week
Just a heads up that each Twitter/X screenshot has a link to the original post if you want to go follow the account.
"Always go to the funeral" is a new phrase that will stick in my head. Literally, go to the funeral. But in minor ways, show up when it's inconvenient.
It does feel like we're starting to get post-irony a bit. I think we all got burned out on the cynical, ironic detachment. Timothée Chalamet publicly declaring he wants to be one of the greats. Jalen Brunson talking about how he may not be the biggest or the fastest, but he has the most heart. Being sincere and caring is back in style, thank God.
Speaking of heart, the US Men's team has long been derided as being soft and weak. They've turned that narrative around, thanks in no small part to their incredible coach. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for a coach that really, really cares. Watch the hype video, then read the article about the coach. Trying hard is back, baby.
One of the joys of parenthood is watching your children have these "best moments of their lives." It's like getting a second crack at it yourself.
Home automation has always interested me but always felt really annoying in practice. I think with something like this and a generous helping of GPT 5.5, I might actually be able to get a cool setup. I'll likely start with the office... so if I suddenly can't turn anything on or off I don't annoy the bejeesus out of Jennifer.
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That’s it for this week! I enjoy reading all of your replies, so if you see something interesting or just have a thought you want to share, please hit reply and let me know.
Talk soon,
Aaron