From the Trenches

When Announcements Replace Innovation: OpenAI’s Code Red and What It Reveals About the AI Industry

December 1st, 2025.

Dec 15 • Denis Stetskov

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Why Annual Reviews Don't Have to Be Bullshit

This week I ran annual reviews for six engineers.

Dec 1 • Denis Stetskov

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November 2025

The Perfect Grammar That Defeats Us: Why AI Doesn't Need to Be Smart to Win

GPT-4 versus humans at political persuasion.

Nov 17 • Denis Stetskov

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The AI Industrial Transformation: Why This Bubble Has Real Revenue (Unlike the Dot-Com Fantasy)

NVIDIA has just reached a $5 trillion market capitalization.

Nov 4 • Denis Stetskov

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October 2025

From Cancer Cures to Pornography: The Six-Month Descent of AI

In March, Sam Altman promised AI would cure cancer.

Oct 21 • Denis Stetskov

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The Systems That Survive: Four Years of War and the Math of Crisis Leadership

It’s 3:00 PM on October 10, 2025.

Oct 14 • Denis Stetskov

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Supervising an AI Engineer: Lessons from 212 Sessions

What actually works when AI is your only engineer — data, patterns, and the system behind “ultrathink.”

Oct 7 • Denis Stetskov

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September 2025

The Brutal Reality of AI in Engineering: Lessons from Q3 2025

On September 29, 2025, Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 4.5.

Sep 30 • Denis Stetskov

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AI Won't Save Us From the Talent Crisis We Created

I’ve spent the last 18 months watching teams integrate AI into their workflows.

Sep 25 • Denis Stetskov

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The Great Software Quality Collapse: How We Normalized Catastrophe

The Apple Calculator leaked 32GB of RAM.

Sep 19 • Denis Stetskov

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Big Tech's $364 Billion Bet on an Uncertain Future: When Hope Becomes a Business Strategy

The most expensive engineering gamble in history isn't a single project or company mistake.

Sep 12 • Denis Stetskov

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Why One Hiring Exception Nearly Broke Our Process

Why We Never Make Process Exceptions (Even for Recommendations)

Sep 4 • Denis Stetskov

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