One of the untold stories of the AI revolution (for me anyway) is just how fun it is to build stuff again.
I moved into management about 10 years ago and figured my coding days were mostly behind me. Turns out they weren’t. AI has pulled me back in, and I’ve been exploring modern infra and tools I never would’ve had time for otherwise.
The last couple months my homelab went from a half-baked Home Assistant box to something I’m actually proud of: a Minecraft server for the family, a “home CFO” that tracks our finances, and a real Home Assistant setup, all managed with Ansible.
At work I’ve got agents doing research, watching issues that get stuck, nagging me about releases that shipped without comms, and telling me when my calendar’s about to fall over. Some of it’s off-the-shelf. Some of it I built. All of it feels like magic.
I feel more technical than I have in years. And honestly? I just want to keep building.
What a time to be alive.