06 Jan 2026 #writing #interview #coding
If you have a coding blog, sooner or later you’ll write a “hiring is broken” post.
Today on r/programming, I saw another one. I’ve written mine too.
Yes, we don’t know how to hire. Behavioral questions, LeetCode, take-homes, IQ tests…Every company has a different answer.
But our “hiring is broken” posts won’t change how big corporations interview. Decision-makers don’t read coders’ blogs.
Instead of venting into the void, why not share “here’s what I learned and what I wish I had done differently…” posts, including:
- The kind of interview
- Subjects you forgot to review
- What you like and dislike about the process
Keep blogging. One day, your blog becomes your portfolio, and interviews turn into discussions about your posts. That has happened to me only once.
Blogging won’t fix hiring overnight. But it can fix how you stand out. That’s why it’s one of the lessons in Street-Smart Coding, the roadmap I wish I had staring out.
05 Jan 2026 #coding
If AI can do it in minutes, it’s not special.
AI has made coding accessible. You don’t need a degree or bootcamp to have something working. A few prompts to an LLM can replace hours or days of work.
That’s good news…and bad news.
A portfolio with the same to-do apps no longer stands out. Anyone can do that with AI in a few minutes. Maybe the alternative is a “build/learn in public” YouTube channel. Or contributing to non-trivial open source projects.
A take-home challenge doesn’t work for hiring. Again. An easy task for AI. Maybe whiteboarding interviews won’t go away.
Only crafting clean code isn’t enough.
Don’t burn your copy of Clean Code. You still need to tell whether what AI spits out is good code.
But you need to do what AI can’t:
- Ownership when code breaks
- Collaboration to build trust
- Communication to present technical problems clearly
That’s what you can’t automate. Those skills worked 10 years ago and will work 10 years from now.
To help you build the skills to stand out, I wrote Street-Smart Coding—The roadmap I wish I had on my journey from junior to senior.
04 Jan 2026 #coding #career
Good code won’t save your career.
For so long, I chased perfectly clean code, thinking better code = better cod-er. That turned me into a clean code cop, looking for infractions around me. It got me fired.
Focusing on syntax alone was my biggest mistake as a new coder.
Why code isn’t enough
Two experiences taught me good code isn’t what mattered most.
At a past job, when the team leader left, the one promoted wasn’t the best coder. It was the one who showed initiative to own the core feature.
Then during layoffs, I talked to a leader from another team. He was told to sort people into buckets: A, B, and C. Bucket C left first, then B, then A. The criteria wasn’t perfect code. It was whether the leader wanted you on the team. Of course, the ones writing horrible code got into the C crowd first.
It was always something else besides coding.
Your code can’t speak.
Addy Osmani, a leader at Google, shares why you need more than code to stand out.
He wrote,
Your code doesn’t advocate for you. People do.
…Code sits silently in a repository. Your manager mentions you in a meeting, or they don’t. A peer recommends you for a project, or someone else.
Get good at coding to stand out. No doubt!
But your code won’t speak for you.
Here’s what will:
- Asking the right questions in meetings.
- Working on something that brings (or saves) money.
- Sharing your achievements after every project.
- Being responsible for a feature from end to end.
- Being the team member everyone wants to work with.
People won’t remember your code. They will remember your attitude.
That’s why I wrote Street-Smart Coding, the roadmap I wish I had starting out to grow and stand out as a coder.
Grab your copy of Street-Smart Coding here
03 Jan 2026 #books
There’s no secret behind the great masters of history.
We often think their success comes from a wealthy family, superintelligence, or invisible forces from other planets.
But in Mastery, Robert Greene shows there’s a process behind the success of those great minds. A process we can replicate to become a master too.
Here are my three main lessons from Mastery:
#1. “Mastery is like swimming”
We all have a natural inclination.
Maybe it’s writing, connecting with others, dancing, numbers, or animals. We’re drawn to something when money and a safe path aren’t involved.
Often, our inclination is clear when we’re kids.
For Einstein, that was seeing a compass for the first time. The forces moving the needle captivated his whole life.
To achieve mastery, follow your natural inclination and your strengths.
Like in swimming, you’ll barely move if you’re going against the current. That’s what happens when you try to master something you’re not suited for.
#2. Discover your Life’s Task
“Your Life’s Task is to bring [the seed planted at birth] to flower, to express your uniqueness through your work.”
Some masters know their Life’s Task since childhood. But others only find it after a phase of discovery and exploration.
Yoky Matsuoka is one of those masters.
She wasn’t interested in the traditional careers like law or medicine. She was into tennis. Her parents sent her from Japan to the US to pursue tennis, but an injury ended that path.
Unsure what to study, she chose engineering. Later, her interest in how hands work (from tennis) led her to robotics, and eventually neuroscience to study the brain-hand connection. By combining her passions, she revolutionized the design of robotic hands, modeling them after human hands.
If you don’t fit in any field or have multiple passions, create yours by exploring and combining other fields.
#3. The process behind great masters
All masters go through a similar 3-phase process:
Apprentice, Creative/Active, and Mastery.
First, they immerse in a field, learning as much as they can. For Leonardo, it was countless hours of sketching the landscape of his walks around the forest. Then, it was working under Verrocchio, one of the master painters of his time.
Then, all that immersion clicks and the master ventures into their own creations. That usually means taking distance from mentors and finding their own way.
Finally, their field becomes second nature, guided by intution. Notes flow on a piano, scenes come alive on canvas. The apprentice becomes a master. And that’s not the result of magic, but immersion, practice, and persistence—A path open to anyone willing to walk it.
02 Jan 2026 #mondaylinks
Hey there.
Here are 4 links I thought were worth sharing this week:
#1. One of my worst career mistakes was going on auto-pilot without a plan. I jumped from job to job until I got bored or fired. But if you don’t plan your career, someone else will (4min).
#2. 2026 is the year to start a side project? Just find a focused time block. Maybe that’s coding on the subway (6min).
#3. A summary of the state of AI at the end of 2025 (4min) by the Redis’ creator.
#4. Holiday season is usually for reflection. If you haven’t yet, try these a 10-question (4min) or a 40-question prompts (3min). I followed that last one.
And in case you missed it, I wrote on my blog about feeling AI FOMO (2min) and a 30-action digital decluttering plan (4min).
(Bzzz…Radio voice) This email was brought to you by… my new book, Street-Smart Coding: 30 lessons to help you code like a pro. From Googling to clear communication, it covers the lessons you don’t learn in tutorials. It’s now out on Kindle and paperback on Amazon.
Happy coding in 2026!
See you next time,
Cesar