Most of My Coding is Now Agentic

Want to get notified about new posts? Join the mailing list and follow on X/Twitter.

Justin Vincent has won me over to purely agentic coding, in the sense of being the polar opposite of vibe coding.

The big unlock for me was phased planning. That was my missing prerequisite.

1. As you get to each phase, zoom in as though it were a legal document, leaving absolutely no room for inference.

2. If your own working memory is strained to fit all the details of the phase, if there’s a chance you’re glossing over anything, split it up and focus on only the first part. Keep splitting as much as you need, until (1) is true.

3. Implement/commit one atomic phase at a time before moving onto the next phase.

It’s incredible how well that approach can get you focusing on the hard stuff where your own expertise is the biggest value-add.

It’s also incredible how mentally taxing the experience is – in a good way – because it’s focusing all your time on the fuzzy things that really matter for you to be thinking about, and stripping away everything else that you’re already thinking perfectly clearly about.

Want to get notified about new posts? Join the mailing list and follow on X/Twitter.