The One Rule I Follow to Code with AI (Without Losing My Skills)

I haven’t blindly jumped on the AI hype train. But I’m no hater either.

AI is here to stay. That’s why I’ve tried AI to offload tasks while coding. But after a few weeks, I was so AI dependent I couldn’t write a simple LINQ query. So I decided to stop relying too much on AI and adopted this one rule:

Use AI outside my IDE or editor.

When I’m coding, I like to think I’m a surgeon in an operating room, and AI is my assistant doctor. They hand me tools and monitor my patient, but I’m always in charge.

To stay in control, I never let AI into my editor. I use it in a browser tab.

It might seem slower or old-school. But it forces me to decompose my problem and extract relevant code for AI. And once I have an answer, it forces me to make it work on my side. At least, I know if the output actually works.

Just like code you find on StackOverflow or anywhere else online, don’t use what AI gives you if you don’t understand what it’s doing.

Don’t let AI touch your code directly either.

AI is faster at generating code than us. No doubt! But being a good coder isn’t about typing fast. It’s about estimating, communicating with non-tech people, and many more skills I’ve included in my book, Street-Smart Coding: 30 Ways to Get Better at Coding. That’s the roadmap I wish I had when I was starting out.

Grab your copy of Street-Smart Coding here and start building future-proof coding skills today.

The Best Bad Example I'm Using to Teach Clean Code Principles in My Book

Finding good bad examples is hard.

I’ve worked with ugly codebases that I don’t want to revisit. But copying and pasting from them isn’t a good idea. Apart from privacy issues, complex business rules and convoluted code blocks make them unusable for tutorials or lessons.

A good bad example needs to be messy enough to teach from, but not so broken it confuses readers.

Movies and TV are great teaching domains

Since we have all seen a good movie or gone to the cinema, I’ve shifted to movies and TV shows. They’re familiar enough to use as examples.

In fact, for my book, Street-Smart Coding, I chose a ticket pricing example that was clear but messy enough to teach a lesson.

Here it is:

// Simple ticket price logic
float CalculatePrice(MovieTicketRequest request)
{
    var ticketBasePrice = 40f;

    if (request.Date.DayOfWeek == DayOfWeek.Saturday
        || request.Date.DayOfWeek == DayOfWeek.Sunday)
    {
        ticketBasePrice = 50f;
    }

    int reduction = 0;
    if (request.Date.DayOfWeek == DayOfWeek.Tuesday
        || request.Date.DayOfWeek == DayOfWeek.Wednesday)
    {
        reduction = 25;
    }

    if (request.Age < 10)
    {
        if (request.Date.DayOfWeek == DayOfWeek.Saturday
            || request.Date.DayOfWeek == DayOfWeek.Sunday)
        {
            ticketBasePrice /= 2;
        }

        var finalPriceChildren = ticketBasePrice * (1 - reduction / 100.0);
        return (float)Math.Ceiling(ticketBasePrice);
    }

    var finalPrice = ticketBasePrice * (1 - reduction / 100.0);
    return (float)Math.Ceiling(finalPrice);
}

A method that prices movie tickets by day and age. Simple enough to highlight common issues, like duplication and branching logic, but not so complex that I need to explain its business rules.

That code block makes you say “Whaaaat?!!?” in more than one place, but what would you refactor first? Can you spot the bug?

Street-Smart Coding: 30 Ways to Get Better at Coding isn’t exactly about clean code. It’s a roadmap with 30 strategies to level up your coding skills. Writing code for humans is just one of them.

Because coding isn’t simply typing symbols fast and mastering syntax. Real coding is also about clear communication, thoughtful problem-solving, and knowing when to say no—and 27 skills more that I cover in the book.

Get your copy of Street-Smart Coding here

A Simple but Effective Test for Your Online Content Business

Yesterday, I shared the Article Funnel method, a simple strategy to write content that sells.

And to test your content-based business (and that method) works, you need to pass the $1-dollar test. That’s another lesson from Mark Thompson, apart from the Article Funnel.

If what you write generates at least $1 in sales, you have a system that works. You already have posts with a compelling CTA that lead to a landing page for a product readers find valuable. It means you have the right copy and the right setup.

With all that in place, from then on, you need to volume and consistency.

The Simple Method to Turn Every Post Into a Sales Machine

If you’re afraid of selling, you won’t get a dime.

But to sell with your content, you don’t have to resort to banners, invasive popups, and countdown timers to trick people into buying.

From Mark Thompson, a veteran marketer I followed on Medium, I learned the Article Funnel method to turn every post into a sales funnel.

Here are my takeaways from his method and from following him:

#1. Promote something in every post. That’s what Mark does in every post. At the end of his posts, there’s a CTA to a related offer.

I stopped being afraid of promoting anything in every post when I learned that’s the method famous creators use to make millions online.

#2. Give away something valuable in the post. It’s so annoying when you open a post titled “10 ways/tips/lessons to…” and when you open it, you only find one or two items and you have to buy something to access the rest. That’s how you lose readers.

Don’t be afraid of giving something. That makes you the source of answers. And we always go back to the one who helps us.

#3. Use a natural transition to introduce your offer. I used to put a divider at the end of my post before adding my CTAs. They felt like an appendix, most people ignored.

Instead, the Article Funnel suggests to naturally introduce your offer with a transition paragraph, without sounding salesy or desperate. Something as simple as “if this resonates with you, you’re going to like…where I …”

No tactics or tricks, just helpful content that points to a related offer. That makes your content into a sales representative working 24/7. And that’s the method I’m using from now on to promote my own products.

Friday Links: FP twisting the Web, LLMs, and nostalgia

Hey!

Here are 4 links I thought were worth sharing this week:

#1. A couple of years ago, I challenged myself to learn React. And being a backend developer, I missed the simplicity of the old days: Just some logic inside the script tag to bind forms. It turns out adopting functional principles shaped and twisted the frontend ecosystem (20min). It has made us reinvent the wheel. Again.

#2. LLMs replacing human devs? Well, here are two tasks LLMs are still bad at (2min). Maybe they’re more like “weird, overconfident interns.”

#3. It’s never 5 minutes… when you snooze your alarm, when your manager asks you a quick favor, or when you think you can stretch hours of work right before clocking out. Here’s a productivity tip (4min) to avoid that “5 minutes” turning into working extra hours.

#4. For nostalgia or history, here’s how the Internet looked in 2000 (8min).

And in case you missed it, I wrote on my blog about how to keep creating when it feels pointless (1min).

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I’m currently putting the final polish on my book, Street-Smart Coding: 30 Ways to Get Better at Coding.” While I finish up, you can preorder your digital copy and read a preview featuring 5 of the 30 tips, just to get you started.

See you next time,

Cesar

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