The internet is full of AI takes. Most are either breathlessly optimistic or needlessly cynical. This is neither.

Deneb is a blog about building and making in the age of AI — written by an engineer turned DevOps leader, manager, and founder who is actually doing it, not just commenting on it. The goal is honest, structured thinking about AI and the subjects around it. Not hype, not doom, not vapid use cases. Actual insight from the work itself, with a sprinkle of sci-fi what-if for futurism along the way.

Why "Deneb"?

Deneb is one of the most luminous stars in the Milky Way and one of my favourite. It sits at the tail of Cygnus — often overlooked in favour of the more prominent stars nearby, yet significantly more powerful than it appears. I always liked the idea of shooting for the stars so Deneb felt like a good home for my content.

What This Blog Covers

Originally the idea was to focus on the software development lifecycle — design, development, testing, deployment, and everything in between. Specifically, how AI is reshaping each of those stages, and what it means for the engineers doing that work. The opportunity to write about the broader implications of AI in the world of building anything is too good to pass up though. So while the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle) will be a major focus, I also want to explore the human side of working with AI, the economic impacts, the changes for the next generation , the opportunities and the challenges. AI changes so much more than the SDLC but the SDLC is where it is having the most immediate impact.

Posts will cover:

  • AI in the SDLC — how to get good as my kids would say.
  • Engineering craft — the fundamentals that are even more important even as the tooling changes around them
  • Tools and workflows — honest assessments of what actually changes how you work, not just what looks good in a demo
  • The human side — what it feels like to be a software engineer right now, and where the role is heading
  • Outside of the SDLC — exploring the broader implications of AI in the world of building anything, from economic impacts to societal changes.

Insight

The most significant shifts in software engineering rarely announce themselves as revolutions. They arrive as slightly better defaults — until one day the old way feels obviously wrong. AI in the SDLC might buck that trend, but it is not a golden hammer.

Confidence: High

On AI Assistance

This blog is written with AI assistance. That is not a caveat — it is part of the point. Using AI to write about AI in software development is not ironic; it is the honest framing.

Every post will be transparent about where and how AI was involved. The thinking, the opinions, and the editorial judgement are human. The collaboration is where the writing gets refined — structured, tightened, challenged. That process is itself worth writing about, and it will be.

Posts that involve AI assistance are marked clearly. Some will include notes on how the collaboration worked, what the AI contributed, and where it pushed back or surprised.

What to Expect

Posts will be structured, opinionated, and grounded. The aim is not volume — it is quality and honesty. Each post will have a clear argument, evidence or reasoning behind it, and a point of view worth disagreeing with.

If something changes — if I am wrong, if a tool I praised turns out to be a dead end, if the landscape shifts — that will be written about too. The version history is part of the story.

Welcome to Deneb.