Chris​‌​ ‬Hayes‌​​​

Can you prompt this design into existence? From Dennis Brotzky's $100 challenge to 🐻 Jhey Tompkins' handcrafted CSS, we’re seeing that sweet spot where AI gets you 80% there but designer touch for that final 20% is necessary. I find myself manually writing code (ew) to dial in my AI-generated software. Just dropped my newsletter dissecting 7 key lessons designers can take from last week’s Build Wars showdown - grab it at UX Tools The tools are good, but designers are making them better.

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Autonomy for All: My Experience with Replit Agent 3 🚀 If you’ve ever wished building software felt less like coding with a computer and more like collaborating with a teammate, you need to try Agent 3. I’ve been using it recently, and honestly it’s a whole new way to build. Try now: https://replit.com/agent3 💡 Here’s what stood out for me: ✅ It’s 10X more autonomous — I’ve had it run for up to 200 minutes straight without me touching a thing. ✅ It tests and fixes its own code in a live browser — and it’s 3X faster and 10X more cost-effective than the usual testing models. ✅ It can build other Agents & Automations — I’ve spun up Slackbots to query data, Telegram bots to track habits, and even time-triggered workflows that email me daily stock news. How it feels to use: → You describe what you want in plain language. → Agent 3 just… gets to work — building, testing, improving, and delivering. → You can even track progress live from your phone while it’s still working. This isn’t just an upgrade, it’s a leap. From idea → app → automation, Agent 3 makes it feel like you’ve got another person on your team, not just another tool. 🔗 Check out Replit Agent 3 here: https://replit.com/agent3 If you build anything cool, I’d love to see it.

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They asked me to design Uber. Here’s the structure that got me the offer. System design questions feel scary. But once you have a framework, they become structured conversations — not guesswork. Here’s exactly how I broke it down 👇 1️⃣ Clarify Requirements & Scope – Is it global or city-level? – Do we need surge pricing in v1? 2️⃣ Define the High-Level Architecture – Users, Drivers, Matching Service, Payments – API Gateway + Microservices + Database 3️⃣ Identify & Solve for Key Bottlenecks – Surge pricing logic – Real-time driver-user matching – Location updates at scale 4️⃣ Discuss Trade-offs – SQL vs NoSQL for rides – Polling vs WebSockets for location tracking That’s it. I didn’t design every microservice. I showed structured thinking, trade-offs, and priorities. And that’s exactly what interviewers look for. 📣 Save this if you’ve got a system design interview coming up. #SystemDesign #TechInterviews #CareerGrowth #SoftwareEngineering

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“How do I start freelancing if I have no experience?” That’s a question I hear a lot. Especially from students learning dev and hoping to earn a little on the side. One of my friends asked me the same recently. He’d been learning web dev, building small projects… but still felt stuck. “No one replies on Fiverr, bro. How do I get real clients?” Here’s what I told him. And maybe it’ll help you too. Forget Fiverr. Forget waiting around for leads. Try this instead: → Open Google Maps → Search for local cafés, gyms, salons, stores → Check if they have a website → If not, build one just a prototype Then message the owner or walk in and say: “Hey, I noticed you don’t have a website. So I made one. It’s a rough version, but here’s how it could help.” That’s it. No pitch deck. No fake agency. Just honest initiative. And here’s the surprising part: No one does this. You’re not competing with 2,000 other people on a job post. You’re showing up alone with proof of work. Even if your site isn’t perfect, Even if it’s just a draft They’ll see the effort. They’ll remember you. Most small business owners? They’ve never had a student just show up and say: “I built this for you.” That’s rare. And rare gets remembered. Will every shop say yes? Of course not. But you only need a few wins to get started. And from just one “yes,” you get: → A real project for your portfolio → Confidence from your first sale → Your first testimonial (and maybe your first ₹5,000–10,000) → Better pitching, better people skills → And most importantly… momentum From there, word spreads. Referrals. Higher rates. More experience. Real work. And the best part? You didn’t wait for “clients.” You became the opportunity. So if you’re in college and want to start freelancing don’t wait for someone to notice you. Walk down the street. Notice them first. That’s how you start. Not someday. Today. Thinking of trying this out? Drop ‘starting’ in the comments and I’ll send you a sample pitch I used myself.

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My problem with vibe coding isn't the AI; it's the vibe. Many AI tools disrespect your team's hard work and talent. What we need is AI for grown-ups. Here's my thoughts on what that means. https://lnkd.in/eeVXiemT

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My teenagers and their friends dislike "googling" things. They want answers not search results. The next generation of professional creative will be the same. We're already seeing AI being adopted for coding with engineering roles at a rate faster than any other adoption of AI. The same will be true for creative roles. The AI will do a lot of the production turning professionals into Creative Directors. The valuable skills will be oriented as two categories. Creativity and Articulation. This is where Language User Interfaces (LUIs) using agents/operators in applications will be key for companies like Adobe, Canva, Microsoft, and others, to continue attracting new users. It's what the AI services like Runway, and others haven't integrated yet. At a recent hackathon I saw this 24 hour build by Shep ⚡️ Bryan and Eddie H. and their teammates. This is what I think the industry leaders really need to lean into. The idea of a simple interface, trained on thousands of hours of how professional users of their tools work to get results, and then use a LUI to create a new type of UX for the professional creative. I recorded a quick demo using their hackathon entry below. AI won't make something "just because." It won't be inspired to create something, or test an idea. It won't look at your marketing materials and say "oooh, I wonder how that would look if we tried this style for our images." The power of "what if" is a human trait. Companies that aren't building tools to amplify that capability are the ones that are going to fall behind. Jonathan Ross once taught us that the speed of iteration is the speed of innovation. And he's right, the speed of iteration is what is going to matter most for end-users. Companies not building an AI Transformation strategy today knowing that this is the end goal for the future user aren't seeing the forest through the trees. Just like my kids, the future user you haven't acquired yet want outputs of their thoughts not more clicking.

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🚨 "I applied for a frontend developer role and got rejected… because I didn’t have a portfolio website."--> my exact words in my previous post 😅 That’s the past. Now I’m Currently-focused on building a highly responsive, professional portfolio worthy of a top 1% dev (just hype 😅). Hi, I’m Tabe Rickson a software engineer with 3+ years of experience. Earlier this week, I applied for a role and got this response: “Please send your portfolio website and updated CV.” I had neither. Result? Instant rejection. This was a wake-up call. Building and being skilled is important… but being organized and showcasing your work is what opens doors. So this week, I’ve paused all other tasks to: ✅ Build a modern, responsive portfolio website ✅ Update my CV to reflect my actual skill set & experience ✅ Make sure I’m ready when opportunities knock My takeaway: If your CV is outdated — update it. If you don’t have a portfolio — start building one today. Don’t let lack of presentation kill your chances. 💡 Follow me for more dev tips as I share the journey of my dev career. #FrontendDeveloper #Portfolio #WebDevelopment #ReactJS #NextJS #JavaScript

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The hardest part of bootstrap SaaS, learning to say no to custom requests. In the early days of AppArmor, we’d get emails from universities asking to: - Add custom buttons - Change colors - Build one-off features My first instinct was to say yes to everything (hey, the customer is always right, right?!). But I learned that saying yes to endless customization was a profitability death trap. Each custom request meant writing specific code (Who am I kidding? My brother Chris was writing the code). But still… nearly every time it was code that: - Only served one customer - Couldn't be scaled - Created maintenance headaches down the road So we made a pivot: We built a content management system for our native mobile apps that let institutions make their own customizations. Then when new requests came in, we could respond with: "Actually, our current system already handles this, let me show you how." This was a game-changer for three reasons: 1. It maintained our 60% profit margins by eliminating one-off development costs 2. It forced us to build features that solved broader market needs 3. It created a naturally scalable business that could grow to 350 institutions The transition wasn't always comfortable. Some customers pushed back hard, wanting their exact specifications. But holding firm on scope discipline was essential to building a business that could be sold for $40M instead of one that would forever be stuck in the custom dev trap. If you're running a SaaS business, remember: Your job isn't to say yes to every client request. But you need to build a solution that solves the underlying problem in a scalable way.

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We aren’t born knowing what HTML is. When I first started out, tutorials often felt like they were written in another language. It wasn’t until I found content that explained things in simple, approachable terms that I really started making progress. In this week’s Web News, Mikhail Karan and I dig into the importance of making tutorials, landing pages, and docs beginner-friendly. We also touch on how writing for everyone (not just the ideal customer or experienced developer) can actually make your product or teaching stronger. Big shoutout to annie’s blog for sparking this conversation with her post: 👉 How I, a non-developer, read the tutorial you, a developer, wrote for me, a beginner 🎧 Listen here: https://lnkd.in/gd_ewQpm #WebDev #HTML #BeginnerFriendly #LearnToCode #WebNews

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Companies across every industry are actively searching for developers who can build real-world applications using Generative AI... not just understand it, but ship with it. At Sheryians, we're not just teaching theory...we're helping our cohort and offline batch students build projects that mirror what companies are actually hiring for. Think: - AI-integrated web apps - Real-time LLM workflows - Gen AI features baked into full-stack solutions We're pushing students beyond tutorials... into the portfolio zone that makes recruiters stop scrolling. If you’re learning development in 2025 and still ignoring AI... you're already behind. Start blending MERN + Gen AI and build stuff that actually gets noticed. Sheryians Coding School

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