Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#1

Post by derwiki » Mon, Jun 01, 2026, 11:49 AM UTC

Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer
derwiki.medium.com

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#2

Post by cevn » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 4:27 PM UTC

> I didn’t build Twilio. I didn’t build the Realtime API. I didn’t build Claude Code or MCP.

I didn't write a blog post.

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#3

Post by zahlman » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 4:32 PM UTC

The best time to solve personal problems with those techniques, perhaps. That is not the same as (and might be opposed to) the best time to seek employment or go into business using those techniques; there isn't going to be much of a market for things that your (employer's) potential customers could trivially do themselves.

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#4

Post by RealityVoid » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 4:32 PM UTC

cevn wrote: post #2

> I didn’t build Twilio. I didn’t build the Realtime API. I didn’t build Claude Code or MCP. I didn't write a blog post.

Thank you, this quip really cracked me up. :))

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#5

Post by Otek » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 4:33 PM UTC

> What I wanted was to say “hey Siri, call Claw Phone” and have the audio system in my Toyota become an IDE. So I build it.

Or just focus on driving? Why we are doing it to ourselves? It seems so toxic to fill every possible little moment with… productivity? Is it even productive?

This comment is too emotional but i just felt so sad while reading this

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#6

Post by Schiendelman » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 4:33 PM UTC

This is just an advertisement, it's not about being a "duct tape engineer", and the various coding agents are already great duct tape engineers, so I can't imagine someone writing a compelling blog post about it anyway.

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#7

Post by knollimar » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 4:34 PM UTC

Otek wrote: post #5

> What I wanted was to say “hey Siri, call Claw Phone” and have the audio system in my Toyota become an IDE. So I build it. Or just focus on driving? Why we are doing it to ourselves? It seems so toxic to fill every possible little moment with… productivity? Is it even productive? This comment is too emotional but i just felt so sad while reading this

Driving is a good time to decompress or hammock based engineer imo

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#8

Post by singpolyma3 » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 4:36 PM UTC

Otek wrote: post #5

> What I wanted was to say “hey Siri, call Claw Phone” and have the audio system in my Toyota become an IDE. So I build it. Or just focus on driving? Why we are doing it to ourselves? It seems so toxic to fill every possible little moment with… productivity? Is it even productive? This comment is too emotional but i just felt so sad while reading this

I assumed they meant the 15 minutes waiting in between kind of slots. Not... Actually while driving I hope

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#9

Post by Hugsbox » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 4:36 PM UTC

And when you get home to check out the results, you won't understand any of the code :)

Re: Now is the best time to be a duct tape engineer

#10

Post by Avicebron » Thu, Jun 04, 2026, 4:37 PM UTC

knollimar wrote: post #7

Otek wrote: post #5

> What I wanted was to say “hey Siri, call Claw Phone” and have the audio system in my Toyota become an IDE. So I build it. Or just focus on driving? Why we are doing it to ourselves? It seems so toxic to fill every possible little moment with… productivity? Is it even productive? This comment is too emotional but i just felt so sad while reading this

Driving is a good time to decompress or hammock based engineer imo

Being a hammock-deployed engineer is really the career goal.