Derek Honerlaw

Derek Honerlaw

Evolving through experiences.

AboutPostsProjects

Writing

Thoughts on engineering, leadership, and building things that last.

What makes a good software engineer in the age of AI

Most of what makes a good engineer has not changed. AI just makes the gap between good and not-so-good engineers a lot wider.

October 2, 2026

Building a memory for my AI agent

AI sessions are stateless. The work is not. I built a plugin to close that gap.

June 13, 2026

My journey with AI tooling

How I went from using AI to write the occasional unit test to building entire products with it and reshaping how I run performance reviews.

June 4, 2026

Migrating a platform without a mandate

Building the framework was the easy part. Getting dozens of teams to adopt it took a playbook, and AI is starting to rewrite that playbook.

June 1, 2026

How I Got My Platform Team to Actually Adopt AI Tooling

Four principles and a lightweight system that got a platform team from AI-curious to AI-native in a few months.

May 13, 2026

How I operate

What to expect if you work with me or for me.

January 15, 2026