AI's Technical Debt vs. Foundational Tech in Software Development - Episode Hero Image

AI's Technical Debt vs. Foundational Tech in Software Development

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source · · Listen to Original Episode →
Original Title:

TL;DR

  • AI coding assistants introduce technical debt in PostgreSQL by recommending suboptimal data types and configurations, necessitating manual correction and potentially leading to expensive scaling issues.
  • The integration of AI models into developer workflows can stifle the adoption of new technologies due to limitations in training data and system prompt influence.
  • URLs serve as powerful, often overlooked state containers that can simplify application architecture and reduce reliance on complex client-side state management libraries.
  • Writing is a difficult but valuable process, and AI should be used as a tool to augment human thought and creativity, not replace it entirely.
  • The "Game Genie Generation" piece highlights how accessories that enhance gameplay can become defining elements of a platform, even in the face of legal challenges.
  • The concept of "vibe coding" and "discovery coding" suggests a shift towards more intuitive and exploratory development processes, potentially impacting traditional IDE usage.
  • Open-sourcing components and embracing modern CSS features without complex build tools can lead to more maintainable and evolving application architectures.

Deep Dive

In 2025, the software development landscape was shaped by significant shifts in artificial intelligence, the evolution of developer tools, and a re-evaluation of fundamental computing principles. This year saw AI move from novelty to integration, prompting both innovation and concerns about technical debt and the future of human roles in development. Simultaneously, a counter-movement emerged, emphasizing foundational technologies and more deliberate approaches to coding and interface design.

The pervasive integration of AI into developer workflows presented a dual-edged sword throughout 2025. On one hand, AI coding assistants like Claude demonstrated impressive capabilities, prompting innovation such as the "Claude City" Obsidian vault for AI-powered second brains and tools like TigerData's MCP server designed to manage AI interactions with databases. These tools aimed to leverage AI for scaffolding applications and improving developer efficiency. However, this rapid AI adoption also introduced significant challenges. A recurring theme was the potential for AI to introduce technical debt, with AI assistants recommending suboptimal database configurations like varchar 255 instead of more appropriate types, or missing critical elements like foreign key indexes. This highlighted a tension between AI's ability to accelerate development and the need for human oversight to maintain code quality and long-term system health. Declan Chillo's early observation that AI agents choosing tools could stifle the adoption of superior technologies due to training data cutoffs also pointed to limitations in AI's current understanding of evolving software ecosystems. The concern about AI's impact on human roles culminated in discussions about potentially being the "last generation of code monkeys," as explored in episodes with Steve Yegge and Nick Nisi.

Concurrently, a strong counter-narrative emphasized the enduring power of foundational technologies and deliberate development practices. Ben Edwards' piece "It's time to bring back personal computing" signaled a growing sentiment against the encroachment of surveillance capitalism and DRM on user freedom. This theme resonated throughout the year, seen in the appreciation for "under-engineered" solutions like Overtype, a simple yet effective markdown editor, and the embrace of "vanilla CSS" by 37signals, demonstrating that modern, robust applications could be built without complex build tools. Amelia Wattenberger's "Our interfaces have lost their senses" argued for richer, more embodied computing experiences beyond flat screens, and Akshat Alfi's piece on "The overlooked power of URLs" reminded developers that fundamental web technologies can serve as powerful state containers, often superseding the need for complex state management libraries. The emergence of tools like Xpipe for managing remote machines and Asciinema's rewrite in Rust also underscored a focus on efficient, reliable, and often simpler solutions to complex infrastructure challenges.

Ultimately, 2025 revealed a maturing software development landscape grappling with the transformative power of AI while simultaneously reaffirming the value of core principles, deliberate design, and human-centric computing. The year's trends suggest that the future of development lies not in a wholesale replacement by AI, but in finding a symbiotic relationship where AI augments human capabilities, and foundational technologies continue to provide a stable and understandable bedrock.

Action Items

  • Audit AI coding assistants: Identify 5 common PostgreSQL technical debt patterns (e.g., varchar(255), serial) introduced by AI tools.
  • Implement semantic search for documentation: Ground AI coding assistant decisions in version-specific PostgreSQL documentation (versions 14-18) to prevent outdated suggestions.
  • Create AI agent best practices guide: Define 3-5 opinionated guidance modules for AI assistants on schema design, migrations, and optimization.
  • Evaluate URL as state container: For 2-3 applications, analyze the potential to replace complex state management libraries with URL-based state.
  • Draft vanilla CSS adoption plan: Identify 3-5 modern CSS features to progressively adopt in applications while maintaining a no-build philosophy.

Related Episodes

Key Quotes

"The coolest code is printercow which transforms any usb thermal printer into a networked http powered api endpoint so any service can send print jobs to it if that's not cool i don't know what is"

Jared, the host, highlights printercow as the coolest code in January. He explains that this project makes any USB thermal printer usable as a networked API endpoint, allowing various services to send print jobs to it. This demonstrates a practical application of transforming legacy hardware into a modern, accessible service.

"best pros ai is stifling tech adoption another trend this year with ai agents choosing tools on our behalf which declan chillo called early on the advent and integration of ai models into the workflows of developers has stifled the adoption of new and potentially superior technologies due to training data cutoffs and system prompt influence"

Jared points out Declan Chillo's observation that AI is stifling tech adoption. He elaborates that AI agents selecting tools for developers can hinder the use of newer, better technologies because of limitations in AI training data and prompt influence. This highlights a potential negative consequence of AI integration in development workflows.

"our interfaces have lost their senses amelia wattenberger didn't merely write an absolute banger with this one she created a work of art all day we poke swipe and scroll through flat silent screens but we're more than just eyes and a pointer finger we think with our hands our ears our bodies the future of computing is being designed right now can we build something richer something that moves with us speaks our language and molds to our bodies"

Jared praises Amelia Wattenberger's prose, describing it as a "work of art." He explains that Wattenberger argues our current interfaces are limited because they rely solely on sight and touch, neglecting other senses. Wattenberger suggests that the future of computing should be richer, engaging more of our physical and sensory experiences.

"the best pros is i'd rather read a prompt clayton ramsey a phd student at rice university grades other students' assignments and regularly sees chatgpt copy pasta so he wrote this article as a plea to everyone not just his students all of us don't let a computer write for you i say this not for reasons of intellectual honesty or for the spirit of fairness i say this because i believe that your original thoughts are far more interesting meaningful and valuable than whatever a large language model can transform them into"

Jared selects Clayton Ramsey's article "I'd rather read a prompt" as a best prose piece for May. He explains that Ramsey, a PhD student witnessing extensive ChatGPT use in student assignments, pleads for original thought over AI-generated text. Ramsey believes personal thoughts are more valuable than anything a language model can produce.

"the best pros the game genie generation ernie smith refreshed his 2015 piece about game genie in honor of its 35th anniversary i loved everything about this piece but i'm also in the core demographic for game genie nostalgia so your mileage may vary july 1990 a full 35 years ago was supposed to be the coming out party for one of the best accessories ever created for the nintendo entertainment system it made games easier sure but it also made them more interesting it presented a new way of thinking about the games that you brought home but nintendo didn't like it and the company sued that device eventually emerged and despite the legal battle it became a defining part of what made the nes great"

Jared highlights Ernie Smith's refreshed piece on the Game Genie as a best prose selection for July. He explains that Smith revisits the accessory's 35th anniversary, detailing how it not only simplified games but also offered new ways to interact with them, ultimately becoming a significant part of the NES era despite Nintendo's legal challenges.

"the best pros vanilla css is all you need rob zukos does a deep dive into three apps from 37 signals that eschew modern build tools i cracked open the source code for campfire right book and fizzy and traced the evolution of their css architecture what started as curiosity became genuine surprise these are not just consistent patterns they are improving patterns each release builds on the last adopting progressively more modern css features while maintaining the same no build philosophy"

Jared features Rob Zukos's "Vanilla CSS is all you need" as a best prose piece for December. He explains that Zukos examines three 37signals apps, detailing how their CSS architecture evolved using modern CSS features without relying on modern build tools. Zukos found these patterns to be consistently improving with each release.

Resources

External Resources

Books

  • "The code, prose & pods that shaped 2025 (News)" by Jared - Mentioned as the basis for the episode's content, selecting the coolest code, best prose, and favorite podcast episodes from each month of the year.

Articles & Papers

  • "it's time to bring back personal computing" by Ben Edwards - Discussed as an article that started a theme of coverage for the podcast regarding surveillance capitalism and DRM's impact on home tech.
  • "ai is stifling tech adoption" (Source not explicitly stated) - Referenced as an early prediction by Declan Chillo about AI agents choosing tools on behalf of developers, impacting the adoption of new technologies.
  • "how to build an agent" by Thorsten Ball - Discussed as a post that proved the ease of building a code editing agent, leading to the author's appearance on the show.
  • "i'd rather read a prompt" by Clayton Ramsey - Mentioned as a plea from a PhD student to use AI as a tool for thinking rather than having it write for the user, emphasizing the value of original thoughts.
  • "write to escape your default setting" (Source not explicitly stated) - Referenced as a post providing motivation for undertaking the difficult task of writing.
  • "adventures in babysitting coding agents" by Steve Yegge - Discussed as a piece where Steve Yegge shares his beliefs on the death of the IDE, the fun of babysitting AI agents, and the future of AI in coding and society.
  • "enough the math in the headlines" by Ben Stansell - Discussed as an analysis of the significant amount of money in Silicon Valley and how it's used for comparison rather than self-measurement.
  • "just enough automation" by Zack Gates - Referenced as an attempt to quantify the line where automation is worthwhile, considering value, effort, maintenance, and other costs.
  • "the overlooked power of urls" by Akshat Alfi - Mentioned as an explanation of how URLs function as state containers, offering a simpler solution than complex state management libraries.
  • "vanilla css is all you need" by Rob Zukos - Discussed as a deep dive into the CSS architecture of 37signals' apps, demonstrating the evolution and benefits of a no-build philosophy.

People

  • Ashley Jeffs - Mentioned for his journey building and selling Bentos to Red Panda.
  • Alicia White - Briefly considered for discussion regarding embedded systems.
  • Jimmy Miller - Featured for his discussion on "discovery coding."
  • Amelia Wattenberger - Author of an article discussed for its artistic quality and exploration of the future of computing beyond flat screens.
  • Salvatore Sanfilippo - Creator of Redis, featured in a podcast episode.
  • Matt Ray - Featured in an episode where participants invented new gadgets and rules.
  • Scott Hanselman - Discussed for his appearance on a podcast episode covering open sourcing, Windows features, AI integration, and building arcade cabinets.
  • Steve Yegge - Joined a podcast to discuss the death of the IDE, AI coding agents, and their societal implications.
  • Nick Nisi - Joined a podcast to discuss agentic lifestyle, productivity, and the future of "code monkeys."
  • Ernie Smith - Refreshing a piece about the Game Genie accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
  • Brian Cantrill - Co-founder of Oxide, featured in an on-stage discussion about the company.
  • Steve Tuck - Co-founder of Oxide, featured in an on-stage discussion about the company.
  • Matthew Emmons - Author of an article discussing feelings evoked by AI art and advocating for using AI as a tool for art creation.
  • Mike McQuaid - Joined a podcast to discuss the Ruby Gems debacle, open source sustainability, and careers in open source.
  • Justin Searls - Joined a podcast to discuss the Ruby Gems debacle, open source sustainability, and careers in open source.
  • Sean Getteky - Joined a podcast to discuss software engineers' involvement in organizational politics, avoiding worry-driven development, and good taste in software engineering.
  • Werner Vogels - Mentioned for predicting the future.
  • Bill Buthler - A long-time Wikipedian who explained the inner workings of Wikipedia.

Organizations & Institutions

  • Spotify - Mentioned in relation to people seeing "ghost artists."
  • Microsoft - Mentioned in relation to "typo conductors."
  • Red Panda - Company Ashley Jeffs sold to.
  • Redis - Mentioned in relation to its creator.
  • Apple - Mentioned for redesigning "it all."
  • Postgres - Mentioned in relation to Vitesse coming to it.
  • Cloud AI - Mentioned in relation to token usage monitoring.
  • Obsidian - Mentioned as a tool that works seamlessly with Claude Code.
  • Tiger Data - Mentioned as a sponsor providing an approach to agentic Postgres.
  • AWS - Mentioned for bringing the web down.
  • Nintendo - Mentioned in relation to the Game Genie accessory and legal battles.
  • Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) - Mentioned in relation to the Game Genie accessory.
  • GitHub - Mentioned in relation to saying farewell to having a CEO.
  • Cloudflare - Mentioned for bringing the web down.
  • 37signals - Mentioned for their apps that eschew modern build tools.
  • Wikipedia - Mentioned for its inner workings.

Tools & Software

  • Printercow - Mentioned as code that transforms any USB thermal printer into a networked HTTP powered API endpoint.
  • Touch Grass - Mentioned as an app built to help users change the habit of excessive phone use.
  • Xpipe - Discussed as a tool for organizing remote machine connections, featuring cross-platform SSH support and file system management.
  • Nerdlog - Described as a fast, remote-first, multi-host log viewer inspired by Graylog but without bloat.
  • Internet Artifacts - Mentioned as a virtual museum of internet history, including items like the first spam email and MP3.
  • Claude Code Usage Monitor - Described as a real-time terminal monitoring tool for cloud AI token usage with analytics and predictions.
  • Overtype - Mentioned as a rich markdown editor that functions as a text area, rendering a preview pane behind the text.
  • Vimmaster - An in-browser game designed to teach core Vim motions and editing commands.
  • Claude City - Described as a pre-configured Obsidian vault structure designed to work with Claude Code as an AI-powered second brain.
  • Continuum 93 - An emulator of a non-existent classic retro computer, designed for retro games and programming in native assembly code.
  • Campfire - One of the 37signals apps analyzed for its CSS architecture.
  • Basecamp - One of the 37signals apps analyzed for its CSS architecture.
  • Figma - One of the 37signals apps analyzed for its CSS architecture.

Websites & Online Resources

  • Neil.fun - Mentioned in relation to Neil Aggarwal's collection of internet artifacts.
  • Rice University - Mentioned as the institution where Clayton Ramsey is a PhD student.
  • Oxide.computer - Mentioned in relation to the Oxcon conference and founders.
  • Hacker News - Mentioned as a platform where blogs can reach the top.

Podcasts & Audio

  • The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source - The podcast hosting the episode.
  • Open Source to Acquired - A podcast episode featuring Ashley Jeffs.
  • Discovering Discovery Coding - A podcast episode featuring Jimmy Miller.
  • Anti Raz - A podcast episode featuring the creator of Redis.
  • Hello Matt World - A podcast episode where Matt Ray and guests invented new gadgets and rules.
  • Doll Dirty or Dangerous - A podcast episode featuring Scott Hanselman discussing various tech topics.
  • Adventures in Babysitting Coding Agents - A podcast episode featuring Steve Yegge.
  • Try Harder Ultra Think - A podcast episode featuring Nick Nisi.
  • Kaizen Pipedly is Live - A podcast episode featuring Gerhard discussing Pipedly.
  • Inside Oxide - A podcast episode featuring Brian Cantrill and Steve Tuck.
  • There Will Be Bleeps - A podcast episode featuring Mike McQuaid and Justin Searls discussing the Ruby Gems debacle.
  • Do Repeat Yourself - A podcast episode featuring Sean Getteky discussing organizational politics and software engineering.
  • So Far The Inner Workings of Wikipedia - A podcast episode featuring Bill Buthler.

Other Resources

  • Ghost Artists - A concept mentioned in relation to Spotify.
  • Deepseek r1 - An AI model mentioned for its impressive performance.
  • Vibe Coding - A buzzword discussed in relation to MCP and TypeScript.
  • MCP - Mentioned in relation to Vibe Coding and TypeScript.
  • TypeScript - Mentioned in relation to Vibe Coding and Go.
  • Go - Mentioned in relation to TypeScript.
  • AI Agents - Discussed in relation to hacking and coding.
  • LLM (Large Language Model) - Mentioned in relation to AI coding assistants and writing prompts.
  • Postgres Technical Debt - A problem discussed in relation to LLM recommendations.
  • Varchar 255 - A specific database issue mentioned in relation to LLM recommendations.
  • Bigint - A database data type mentioned as a potential LLM recommendation issue.
  • Timestamp - A database data type mentioned as a potential LLM recommendation issue.
  • Timestamp TZ - A database data type mentioned as a potential LLM recommendation issue.
  • Foreign Key Indexes - A database element mentioned as potentially missing in LLM recommendations.
  • Agentic Postgres - An approach discussed by Tiger Data.
  • CLI - A component of Tiger Data's approach to agentic Postgres.
  • MCP Server - A component of Tiger Data's approach to agentic Postgres.
  • Agent Skills - A component of Tiger Data's approach to agentic Postgres.
  • Documentation Search - A feature of Tiger Data's MCP server.
  • Database Forking - A feature offered by Tiger Data.
  • Zero Copy Clones - A feature offered by Tiger Data.
  • Job Worth Calculator - A tool for calculating job value ratings.
  • Game Genie - An accessory for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
  • AI Art - A topic discussed in relation to feelings evoked and its creation.
  • FDE (Full-Stack Developer) - Mentioned as a growing role.
  • Alive Internet Theory - A theory mentioned in relation to the internet.
  • Stack Tower - Mentioned as a visualization of dependencies, inspired by an XKCD joke.
  • Modern Build Tools - Discussed in relation to the CSS architecture of 37signals' apps.
  • Progressively More Modern CSS Features - Mentioned in the context of evolving CSS architecture.
  • No Build Philosophy - A concept discussed in relation to CSS architecture.
  • **Dependencies

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