Stephan Schwab

I write about dysfunctions in the systems people have to live and work inside. Software developer by trade - systems thinker and tinkerer for a lifetime.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

@VceOfReason Genau das Muster: Jede einzelne Maßnahme hat eine gute Begründung, und zusammen ergeben sie ein System, in dem sich Bauen nicht mehr lohnt. Keiner will das, keiner ist schuld, und genau deshalb ändert es sich nicht.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

Ein System, das sich fast nur über Arbeit finanziert, sucht automatisch die nächste Quelle, sobald Arbeit weniger wird. Die KI-Steuer ist kein böser Plan, sondern das System, das sich selbst erhält. Die eigentliche Frage wäre, wie Sozialstaat ohne diese Abhängigkeit aussehen kann.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

@christianreber @_FriedrichMerz You don’t become a leading AI country by announcement. People who want to build go where energy is cheap and the first move isn’t a tax on something that barely exists here yet. The value creation votes with its feet.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

Agree on the wider point. What gets called “replacing engineers” usually means automating the typing. Most of the job is figuring out what the problem actually is, with people who don’t fully know yet. That part doesn’t show up in a demo, and it doesn’t get cheaper every six months.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

@Corporate_CJP Yes. The demo is the first 80%. Who maintains it, who’s accountable, what happens when it breaks at 3am—that was always the actual job. AI just made the gap impossible to ignore.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

@yashmp2004 A premium plan writes code. It doesn’t sit with people who don’t fully know what they need, keep a system running for years, or own the decision when the warehouse is already picking and a customer cancels. That job doesn’t fit in a prompt.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

@gattaca @1Password If it can read it, it will eventually log it, paste it, or use it. Not malice, just the system working as built. Secrets should never be in the agent’s environment—sandbox for the agent, tested pipeline for production.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

@kimmonismus You know very well that none of this is about facts or any subject. It’s about influence and power for the sake of it and being against something based on envy and other negative feelings

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

@pradyum1916 That’s the old bottleneck made visible. A review queue is inventory, not quality control. Teams that pair, write tests first, and integrate on trunk had no queue before AI—and agents don’t create one for them either.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

Part of the root cause is a system that rewards certain behavior. Doesn't require a masterplanning villain. Career politicians find trends and what furthers their own career. It's like a copycat product offering and also like social media recommendations based on engagement which leads to engagement farming and rage bait.

Unfortunately it does have real consequences and politicians learn to speak for the in-group first. Later people claim about division. No, it's not that. It's just a system working as designed.

Look up my profile and you'll find that I have great interest in those systems that shape our behavior.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

Júlia wanted to kiss him before he finished apologizing. That annoyed her almost as much as the apology.

He stood outside her apartment holding crushed bread. On Thursday she had read his message on a bus, somebody's wet umbrella dripping against her leg. I was frightened on Tuesday. She had wanted to call. She had wanted him to sit with it until she had room to answer.

She had asked him to come at eight. He had. She took the bread and stepped aside.

“You don't have to apologize for being frightened.”

“That isn't what I—” He stopped, then began again. “I made you ask and ask.”

She carried the bread into the kitchen before his softness could do everything for him. She liked hearing his shoes behind her, liked the heat of his hand when she passed him a plate. She set the bread between them and put both plates down, still angry.

He told her Bernardo had signed. Rodrigo had captured the stale value on the head unit. Then he reached Dieter's next review. His shoulders loosened; she knew this road.

“I'm glad,” she said. “Keep talking. Just don't leave yourself out again.”

He tore off a piece. “On Tuesday I thought I'd wasted their last chance. Rodrigo was putting his name on the failure, and I was still trying to find the right person to persuade.”

At Tuesday's lunch he had cut his meat into pieces while she tried not to cry. He had made her feel like a woman demanding entertainment from a busy man. “I would have listened to that.”

“I know.”

“You didn't act as if you knew.”

He put the bread down. She wanted him to reach across and touch her. She kept her hands around the glass until he spoke.

“I wanted you to be the place where I wasn't failing.”

The fan pushed her hair against her mouth. There it was, something she hadn't wanted made so plain. “And when I had a bad day? Was I supposed to wait until you were better?”

“No.” His answer came fast. She watched him hear it. “I don't know what I've been asking you to do.”

“I think you do now.” Her voice shook. “I want you here. I don't want to have to become easy every time you walk in.”

He stayed in his chair. She had not known how much she needed that until he did it. He asked about her day, and the old smooth answer came to her: Fine. Better now. She could still rescue the evening, make him grateful, draw him toward her until neither had to speak.

Instead she told him about the review that had left her wanting to kick the lift doors. When he opened his mouth she stopped, ready for an explanation of what she should do. He closed it again and moved his plate closer. Júlia let go of the glass. She had more to tell him.

“Stay for the Answer” is part of the serialized story “Samba dos Números”. Link to all stories in profile.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

@HelmPeter Es ging ja nie um Lösungen, sondern um politische Einflußnahme und Macht über andere. Verhindern ist das Ziel - getrieben durch Neid und Missgunst.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

@derleomartin Hochmut kommt vor dem Fall. Ist leider auch eine deutsche Eigenart.

Merkt man, wenn man von draußen reinschaut

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

Bernardo approved the invoice before he signed the permission. Adriana watched him do it, one smooth movement across QuantumMind's charge for Tuesday's assessment, while the request that would let Rodrigo touch the head unit waited under his elbow.

“There,” he said, sliding the invoice away. “One less thing hanging over us.”

She pulled the other page into the cleared space. Dieter had confirmed the scope: one navigation feature under controlled development and isolated bench investigation. No production-candidate hardware, no vehicle test. Rodrigo had put his name beside the captures. Only Bernardo's answer was missing.

“This one too.”

Beyond the glass, Rodrigo had laid out his cables. Bernardo turned the page toward himself. “Marcus is coordinating the recovery. We shouldn't create two processes.”

She pointed to the sentence lifting QuantumMind's prior approval requirement for the defined pilot work. His fingertip settled below hers, almost companionably. “This sounds as though we imposed an unreasonable restriction.”

“We imposed a restriction.” She kept her finger on the page. He lowered his voice. “I need you to help me get this through without another fight.”

She wanted to give him the sentence. An agreed refinement. She could feel the relief of being welcomed back onto his side of the table. At home stood Beatriz's crooked cardboard wall, finished without her. She pressed her thumbnail into the paper. “Then let him work.”

Bernardo picked up his pen. In the margin he wrote subject to coordination review.

Heat rose under her blazer. She struck out the added words, leaving them legible. “No. If Marcus can stop each test, you haven't lifted the restriction. Send him the results.”

“You're making this personal.”

She could still hear Beatriz asking whether Rodrigo was her daughter. “It's nine twenty. We booked the bench for nine.”

Bernardo looked at the invoice he had already approved. Then he signed the amended page. “I want the recovery visible in the board update.”

“The results and the limits,” she said. She waited for his initials beside the crossed-out condition before she took it away.

Rodrigo read the page twice, then reached for a cable and dropped it. Adriana wanted to tell him they were through. Instead she retrieved the cable and passed it to him. She had no idea what they would find.

Stefan checked the isolation plan. They preserved Tuesday's build, verified its identifier and checksum, and flashed it to the test head unit. Dandara replayed the inputs through the isolated bench network. Rodrigo watched the captures before and after the shared handler. Adriana forced herself not to take the keyboard when he hesitated.

The speed display held its last value after the input stopped.

Rodrigo swore, then leaned forward. Beyond the handler, the old value was still being supplied as valid. Stefan began a question. Rodrigo held up a finger. “Let me save this first.”

Adriana smiled. He was asking Stefan to wait. When Bernardo's message requested a success line, she attached the failed run and the signed authorization. The investigation had begun at nine thirty-four.

“The Line He Had to Sign” is part of the serialized story “Samba dos Números”. Link to all stories in profile.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

The PR gate was never the thing that proved code works. Tests written first do that, for humans and agents alike. Auto-approving is just admitting the queue added waiting, not safety. What shouldn't disappear is shared understanding: someone on the team still has to know what the system is supposed to do.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

@nym Different names, same structure, and no villain required. Each law has a sensible-sounding reason and a committee that means well. Together they build the identity layer nobody would have voted for if it had been proposed in one piece.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

Genau. Ein System, das sich fast nur über Arbeit finanziert, sucht automatisch die nächste Quelle, sobald Arbeit weniger wird. Die KI-Steuer ist kein böser Plan, sondern das System, das sich selbst erhält. Die eigentliche Frage wäre, wie man Sozialstaat ohne Abhängigkeit von Lohnarbeit denkt.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

@maternus Erst die Steuer, dann die Regulierung, dann der Arbeitskreis. Die Firmen, die das alles bezahlen sollen, gründen sich derweil woanders. Niemand plant das so, aber genau so funktioniert das System.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

@archnarambles No. The agent never holds production credentials, full stop. It works in a sandbox it can't edit, its output is a proposal, and only a tested pipeline touches production. Same rule we should have applied to humans all along.

[Stephan Schwab @snscaimito]

@samc621 @LoveneeshDhir Scanning afterwards is good, but the real fix is upstream: the secrets should never have been in the agent's environment. If it can read it, it will eventually log it, paste it, or use it. Not malice, just the system working as built.