The underlying technology is still improving at a rapid pace. Many of last year's tricks are a waste of tokens now. Some ideas seem less fragile: knowing two things allows you to imagine the confluence of the two so you know to ask. Other things are less so: I'm a big fan of the test-based iteration loop; it is so effective that I suspect almost all users have arrived at it independently[0]. But the emergent properties of models are so hard to actually imagine. A future sufficiently-smart intelligence may take a different approach that is less search and more proof. I wouldn't bet on it, but I've been surprised too many times over the last few years.

0: https://wiki.roshangeorge.dev/w/Blog/2025-12-01/Grounding_Yo...

It definitely feels like everyone is trying to sell you something that is supposed to help you build rather than actually building useful stuff.

Which is oddly close to how investment advice is given. If these techniques work so well, why give them up for free?

everybody's trying to become the next Uncle Bob