IDEAS, DECISIONS & LESSONS

Journal

Notes on AI, architecture and building useful products.

24 articles

04 Aug 2026 · 8 min read

ai-governance

EU AI Act Enforcement Started August 2: The Engineering Checklist Your Team Needs Now

On August 2, 2026, the European AI Office gained formal investigative and enforcement powers. Article 50 transparency obligations are live today — chatbots must disclose they're AI, deepfakes need machine-readable marks. High-risk AI obligations follow in 2027-2028. Here's the layered engineering checklist for what your team must do now versus what you have time to plan.

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27 Jul 2026 · 8 min read

ai-agents

Why Software Factories Fail (and What Actually Works): A Tech Lead's Guide to the HumanLayer Series

Dex Horthy's two-part HumanLayer series lands on the same conclusion from opposite directions: 'lights-off' agentic factories that skip code review don't work, because RL training has no way to reward good architecture — only passing tests. The fix isn't less AI, it's front-loaded structure: research/plan/implement, frequent intentional compaction, and four review checkpoints before code gets written. Here's the synthesis and a rollout plan.

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