Why DevXP Exists
...and how we need to level-up for this new tech wave.
We're living through the most powerful technology shift in decades, and we're screwing it up.
How many AI buttons is Google gonna clog their UI with? How many AI-powered startups are a half-assed system prompt and a RAG pipeline that doesn’t work?
And how many developers are throwing their craft out the window—or never bothering to improve it—because they’re convinced the future is a swarm of AI agents?
Laziness, fear, and thoughtlessness are leading a lot of people to make a lot of really bad decisions—and to give out a lot of really bad advice.
I’m on a quest
I’m on a quest to bring engineering excellence to AI development. To remind us that powerful tools require more discipline, not less. To prove that the fundamentals—understanding users, solving real problems, shipping quality—matter even more when you're wielding technology this transformative.
The companies that will win the AI era aren't the ones with the fanciest models or the most AI features. They're the ones that remember how to build great products. Period.
I've seen both sides. I've watched smart teams waste millions on AI nonsense. And I've seen small teams build AI products that users genuinely love—not because of the AI, but because they solved real problems elegantly.
The difference? Principles. Craft. Giving a damn about the user experience. The boring stuff that's always mattered.
I don’t have all the answers. Any engineer who says he does is a fool. But I’ve put a lot of time into thinking about these problems already, and I want to continue to do so alongside other engineers who care about doing great work.
And why me?
I joined MongoDB to found and lead the company’s Developer Experience team, and a few months later, ChatGPT landed. I knew immediately it was going to be huge, and I pushed leadership to bootstrap a new program. So they made me the technical lead of the entire company’s GenAI initiative. I guided over a dozen teams, and build the infrastructure to support them.
At the same time, I founded BrowserCat, a browser automation platform, because I knew for sure that we were going to give LLMs access to the internet and that the only way to access data at scale as it grew in value would be with a real automated browser.
All of these bets proved correct. I did a hell of a lot of good work at MongoDB and I sold BrowserCat to a strategic buyer whose business needed a headless fleet of their own.
Now I'm at Meta, shipping AI to billions, watching the same patterns repeat at massive scale.
What DevXP Is
Every week, I'll share:
One timeless engineering principle
How it applies to AI product development
Real examples from Meta/MongoDB scale
What to build (and what to skip)
No hype. Just hard-won engineering wisdom for building AI products that matter.
What DevXP Isn't
Not another AI news roundup
Not prompt engineering tricks
Not "here's what GPT-5 might do"
Not academic theory
This is for engineers who ship. Who've felt the pain of failed launches. Who know that great products require more than great technology.
The Promise
If you stick around, you'll build better AI products by doing less AI nonsense. You'll spot the patterns that separate products that thrive from those that die. You'll develop the judgment to know when AI makes products better—and when it makes them worse.
Most importantly, you'll be on the path toward excellence while everyone else is chasing rainbows left and right.
Join Me
The AI era doesn't need more features. It needs better engineers.
Ready to build AI products that matter? Hit subscribe.
The first article drops Tuesday.