Don't listen to anyone who tells you not to learn things. Ever. They know nothing about life.
The more I learn about coding the better I get at understanding even more complex AI projects. I've studied more coding this year than in the past 20 years combined. I'm building better software, faster, because I understand what the AI is doing and can steer it better.
There is not a single thing in life I've ever learned that did not benefit me in some way, often in unexpected ways, in parallel domains.
I have never once thought "I wish I learned less." Always more.
Anyone who tells you a skill is "dead" is telling you learning is useless. They don't know shit about what matters in life.
The profession that's supposedly dying is growing faster than almost everything else. Developers are building more software than ever because AI made it possible to tackle projects that were previously too expensive, too complex, or too time-consuming.
That's not a job apocalypse. That's the Infinite Stack doing what it always does: when you automate one layer, the layer above it grows and new jobs proliferate.
He's not analyzing. He's catastrophizing.
But the worst part isn't that he's wrong. The worst part is what his message does to people.
When a high-profile figure tells a 20-year-old "don't bother learning to code because AI will do it all soon," he's not protecting that kid.
He's crippling that kid. He's teaching them helplessness.
He's telling them the most dangerous lie in the world: that adapting is pointless, that learning has no value, that the future belongs to machines and you should just sit there and wait for your check.
That's not realism. That's a garbage message for every young person alive today.
Learn to code. Learn to write. Learn to design. Learn to think. Learn to sing and dance. Learn to cook. Learn history.
Learn every goddamn thing that you can.
The more you know, the broader you get, the more you can verify when AI screws up. You can direct it better, understand where it falls short, instead of feeling around in the dark wondering about a domain you know dick about.
AI amplifies human capability. It rewards learning and curiosity. AI doesn't replace knowledge. It multiplies it.
The more you bring to the table, the more the AI gives you back.
The kid who listens to Yang learns nothing and waits.
The kid who ignores him learns everything and builds.
I know which one I'm betting on.
@karpathy and I are back! At @sequoia AI Ascent 2026. And a lot has changed. Last year, he coined “vibe coding”. This year, he’s never felt more behind as a programmer.
The big shift: vibe coding raised the floor. Agentic engineering raises the ceiling.
We talk about what it means to build seriously in the agent era. Not just moving faster. Building new things, with new tools, while preserving the parts that still require human taste, judgment, and understanding.
My biggest takeaways from Claude Code's Head of Product @_catwu:
1. Anthropic’s product development timelines have gone from six months to one month, sometimes one week, sometimes one day. Part of this acceleration is access to the latest models (i.e. Mythos). Another is shipping new products into “research preview,” making clear it's early, experimental, and might not be supported forever. Another is an evergreen "launch room "where engineers post ready features and marketing turns around announcements the next day.
2. The PM role is shifting from coordinating multi-month roadmaps to enabling teams to ship daily. As Cat puts it, “There should be less emphasis on making sure you are aligning your multi-quarter roadmaps with your partner teams and more emphasis on, OK, how can we figure out the fastest way to get something out the door?”
3. The most efficient shipping unit is an engineer with great product taste. On Cat’s team, many engineers go end-to-end—from seeing user feedback on Twitter to shipping a product by the end of the week—without a PM involved. Also, almost all the PMs on the Claude Code team have either been engineers or ship code themselves, and the designers have been front-end engineers. The roles are merging, and the most valuable skill is product taste, not job title.
4. Build products that are on the edge of working. Claude Code’s code review product failed multiple times because earlier models weren’t accurate enough. But because the prototype was already built, they could swap in Opus 4.5 and 4.6 and immediately test whether the gap was closed. Teams that wait for the model to be ready will always be a cycle behind.
5. The most underrated skill for building AI products is asking the model to introspect on its own mistakes. Cat regularly asks the model why it made an unexpected decision. The model will explain that something in the system prompt was confusing, or that it delegated verification to a subagent that didn’t check its work. This reveals what misled the model so the team can fix the harness.
6. Every model release forces their team to revisit existing products and audit their system prompt to remove features the model no longer needs. Claude Code’s to-do list was a crutch for earlier models that couldn’t track their own work. With Opus 4, the model handles it natively. Features built as scaffolding for weaker models become debt when the model catches up—so the team actively strips them.
7. Anthropic employees build custom internal tools instead of buying SaaS products. A sales team member built a web app that pulls from Salesforce, Gong, and call notes to auto-customize pitch decks—work that used to take 20 to 30 minutes now takes seconds. Their core stack is Claude Code, Cowork, and Slack. No Notion, no Linear, no Figma.
8. People underestimate how much Claude’s personality contributes to its success. As Cat describes it, “When you reflect on everyone you’ve worked with, there’s just some people where you’re like, I really like their energy, their vibe.” Claude is designed to be low-ego, positive, competent, and earnest—qualities that make it feel like a great coworker, not just a tool. This isn’t cosmetic; it’s what makes people want to use Claude for hours every day. The team has a dedicated person, Amanda, who “molds Claude’s character,” and it’s one of the hardest roles at the company because success is so subjective.
9. The future of work is managing fleets of AI agents, not doing the work yourself. Cat sees a clear progression: first, individual tasks become successful. Then people start running multiple tasks at the same time (multi-Clauding). Next, people will run 50 or 100 tasks simultaneously, which will require new infrastructure—remote execution, better interfaces for managing tasks, agents that fully verify their work, and self-improving systems that incorporate feedback. The human role shifts from doing the work to knowing which tasks to look into, verifying outputs, and giving feedback that makes the system better over time.
10. Hire people who lean into chaos and face every challenge with a smile. At Anthropic, there are weeks when a P0 on Sunday becomes a P00 by Monday and a P000 by Monday afternoon. If you get too stressed about any one thing, you’ll burn out. Their team looks for people who can look at a hard challenge and say, “Wow, that’s gonna be hard. But I’m excited to tackle it and I’m gonna do the best that I possibly can.” This mindset—optimism, resilience, and comfort with constant change—is increasingly essential as the pace of AI development accelerates.
Don't miss the full conversation: https://t.co/1wOUHcdYQN
This 16-minute talk by two Anthropic engineers who built Claude Skills will teach
you more about building them right than most developers figure out on their own in months.
Bookmark this & watch, no matter what.
Then read the guide below by @eng_khairallah1
A CEO from one of our portfolio companies shared this with their team. I’m re-sharing it with their permission, because it resonated and reflects what all founders and CEOs should be communicating.
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We are living through a period of compounding change. And in moments like this, the biggest risk is no longer making the wrong decision. It is moving too slowly while the world moves around you.
There are two paths. We can play defense:
- Protect what we have
- Optimize what works
- Wait for clarity
It feels safe. It isn’t.
Or we can play offense:
- Learn faster than the environment changes
- Use new tools to solve old problems in better ways
- And create entirely new strategies and businesses
That’s where the opportunity is.
Challenge yourself to do things faster and better than you have ever attempted. Stay uncomfortable. Stay on the front foot.
@cava What should have been a simple fix turned into an unacceptable interaction. This was not customer service,it felt like harassment.
Keeping employees with this behavior will hurt CAVA’s business. Management should take this seriously and take appropriate action.
@cava
Continued..
When I pointed this out calmly, the staff member (a lady) was rude, told me to “keep my voice low,” and then escalated the situation by asking me to leave and threatening to call the police. The behavior felt hostile, intimidating, and discriminatory.
2/3
@cava
I had a very disappointing experience at CAVA (128 S Brook Dr, Leander, TX) on 3/27/2026 at 8:15 PM.
My order was missing an item even after we confirmed twice at pickup. We had to go inside to get it—basic order accuracy was clearly lacking.
To be Continued…