@gergely-orosz · 98 positions · 1 change of mind · On ppll ↗
Writes The Pragmatic Engineer, the software-engineering newsletter, and wrote The Software Engineer's Guidebook. Formerly an engineering manager at Uber, and at Microsoft/Skype and Skyscanner before that.
Gergely Orosz did not write this page.
We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording.
Their own site.
Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it.Or tell us what is wrong here.
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic EngineerWhoever doesn’t want to use AI, no problem: but you won’t be hired at 99.9% of startups+Big Tech+ambitious companies, even today↗@GergelyOrosz on Xx.com · 9 Oct 2026
Their wordsWhoever doesn’t want to use AI, no problem: but you won’t be hired at 99.9% of startups+Big Tech+ambitious companies, even today
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic EngineerAnd that AI is just another tech wave: software engineers who pick it up and master it will generally fare better; those not will struggle a lot more.↗@GergelyOrosz on Xx.com · 23 Oct 2026
Their wordsAnd that AI is just another tech wave: software engineers who pick it up and master it will generally fare better; those not will struggle a lot more.
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic EngineerToday, building software sped up 10x, easily: and a similar massive interest in automated testing + verification is following...↗@GergelyOrosz on Xx.com · 30 Sept 2026
Their wordsToday, building software sped up 10x, easily: and a similar massive interest in automated testing + verification is following...
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic EngineerThe cost of introducing and paying off tech debt has changed very, very much and I don't even know most of us have the time and space to think about what it means↗@GergelyOrosz on Xx.com · 4 Oct 2026
Their wordsThe cost of introducing and paying off tech debt has changed very, very much and I don't even know most of us have the time and space to think about what it means
Their wordsWriting is thinking, and we are interested in your own thoughts and observations, not a sharp, one-sentence observation turned into three paragraphs of blob text by an LLM.
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic EngineerThe reason for this hardline stance is that we believe in the value of human thought and experience, as told by people with first-hand knowledge. It’s also about the audience: The “audience” for AI-written code is usually a machine, whereas the writing in Pragmatic Engineer is for humans, by humans. AI produces a statistical average in its output which creates uniform, dull text that’s an inferior reading experience to human writing – at least today it is.↗How software engineering is changing: an essay challengeblog.pragmaticengineer.com · 1 Sept 2026
Their wordsThe reason for this hardline stance is that we believe in the value of human thought and experience, as told by people with first-hand knowledge. It’s also about the audience: The “audience” for AI-written code is usually a machine, whereas the writing in Pragmatic Engineer is for humans, by humans. AI produces a statistical average in its output which creates uniform, dull text that’s an inferior reading experience to human writing – at least today it is.
Their wordsDon't expect a response to an AI-written email, or a templated email. I get it, you think it's a numbers game: send a tweaked email out to 100 podcasts, and hope that at least one replies. In reality, by playing the same game as everyone else does, you are assisting to the noise, and end up drowning yourself in it as well.
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic Engineera) referrals became more important tho. Warm ones; “worked with this person and they’re gold” type of ones. It’s how eg AI labs hire a lot↗@GergelyOrosz on Xx.com · 9 Oct 2026
Their wordsa) referrals became more important tho. Warm ones; “worked with this person and they’re gold” type of ones. It’s how eg AI labs hire a lot
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic EngineerAFAIK they regularly pass on ppl acing the interview but where references (ppl they worked with) are not a slam dunk convincing↗@GergelyOrosz on Xx.com · 10 Oct 2026
Their wordsAFAIK they regularly pass on ppl acing the interview but where references (ppl they worked with) are not a slam dunk convincing
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic EngineerIt was created because it’s easy to scale to thousands of relatively untrained interviewers with hundreds of questions where it doesn’t matter if some leak↗@GergelyOrosz on Xx.com · 11 Oct 2026
Their wordsIt was created because it’s easy to scale to thousands of relatively untrained interviewers with hundreds of questions where it doesn’t matter if some leak
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic EngineerIf anything it adds mobility because every major startup + Big Tech does it do learn once and for all~10 years you benefitted↗@GergelyOrosz on Xx.com · 11 Oct 2026
Their wordsIf anything it adds mobility because every major startup + Big Tech does it do learn once and for all~10 years you benefitted
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic EngineerThe assumption that Google has a quality release process - aka automated tests, world-class monitoring & alerting, and a standout incident management process - is no longer true for Firebase↗@GergelyOrosz on Xx.com · 29 Sept 2026
Their wordsThe assumption that Google has a quality release process - aka automated tests, world-class monitoring & alerting, and a standout incident management process - is no longer true for Firebase
Their wordsFirebase – built by Google – has had a nasty outage this week with shockingly poor incident management at odds with how Google itself usually deals with high-severity incidents.
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic EngineerGoogle integrated Gemini into every single place inside Google Workspace where it doesn't work, and nowhere where it would be useful↗@GergelyOrosz on Xx.com · 25 Sept 2026
Their wordsGoogle integrated Gemini into every single place inside Google Workspace where it doesn't work, and nowhere where it would be useful
Their wordsAI agents might be making lots of work more efficient, but following up on action items seems to move at the same snail pace at Google, as it did pre-AI!
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic Engineerthe largest tech companies (at the top 1%) aren't using fewer tokens, they're just being cost conscious and moving to cheaper, still very capable open models running vs SOTA model usage↗@GergelyOrosz on Xx.com · 9 Sept 2026
Their wordsthe largest tech companies (at the top 1%) aren't using fewer tokens, they're just being cost conscious and moving to cheaper, still very capable open models running vs SOTA model usage
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic EngineerTo answer the question posed in the header of this report, it’s apparent that using open models is indeed the approach offering the biggest savings, followed by smart model routing. Spending controls and context optimization also bear down on costs, but they don’t come close to the first two techniques in results.↗The Pulse: tech companies move to open AI modelsblog.pragmaticengineer.com · 10 Sept 2026
Their wordsTo answer the question posed in the header of this report, it’s apparent that using open models is indeed the approach offering the biggest savings, followed by smart model routing. Spending controls and context optimization also bear down on costs, but they don’t come close to the first two techniques in results.
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic Engineerthe existing ones were more than good enough, and I'm learning how much to trust those existing ones... and already they do more than I can utilize them (for writing code)↗@GergelyOrosz on Xx.com · 8 Sept 2026
Their wordsthe existing ones were more than good enough, and I'm learning how much to trust those existing ones... and already they do more than I can utilize them (for writing code)
François CholletCreator of the Keras deep-learning library and the ARC-AGI benchmarkLikewise a static input-output program that has *none* of the properties we associate with conscious beings (e.g. information integration, interoception, temporal binding, embodiment, etc.) has no more reason to be presumed conscious than a rock has to be presumed alive.↗@fchollet on Xx.com · 4 Oct 2026
Their wordsLikewise a static input-output program that has *none* of the properties we associate with conscious beings (e.g. information integration, interoception, temporal binding, embodiment, etc.) has no more reason to be presumed conscious than a rock has to be presumed alive.
Noah SmithEconomics writer; author of the Noahpinion newsletterHowever, this is the most convincing argument against machine consciousness that I have ever come across.↗@Noahpinion on Xx.com · 3 Oct 2026
Their wordsHowever, this is the most convincing argument against machine consciousness that I have ever come across.
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic Engineereven “artificial intelligence” was a stretch given LLMs are probability distributions and do not meet our common understanding of “intelligence.”↗@GergelyOrosz on Xx.com · 9 Oct 2026
Their wordseven “artificial intelligence” was a stretch given LLMs are probability distributions and do not meet our common understanding of “intelligence.”
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic EngineerEspecially in technology - one of the fastest changing industries - anyone keeping up with developments WILL change their minds when those developments happen!!↗@GergelyOrosz on Xx.com · 7 Sept 2026
Their wordsEspecially in technology - one of the fastest changing industries - anyone keeping up with developments WILL change their minds when those developments happen!!
Gergely OroszWrites The Pragmatic EngineerThis is, by the way, also why the category of “an AI trained on person X” is absolutely BS. People change their minds in light of new information, the “AI trained on X’s writing/videos/tweets” does not↗@GergelyOrosz on Xx.com · 7 Sept 2026
Their wordsThis is, by the way, also why the category of “an AI trained on person X” is absolutely BS. People change their minds in light of new information, the “AI trained on X’s writing/videos/tweets” does not
Pieter LevelsDutch bootstrapper who builds and runs his internet startups aloneThe smartest people I know have strong opinions weakly held and change them when new information arises The dumbest people I know keep their opinions the same just so they can remain consistent Time changes too fast try remain consistent, better to sail the waves to wherever they are taking you!↗The smartest people I know have strong opinions weakly heldlevels.io · 7 Sept 2026
Their wordsThe smartest people I know have strong opinions weakly held and change them when new information arises The dumbest people I know keep their opinions the same just so they can remain consistent Time changes too fast try remain consistent, better to sail the waves to wherever they are taking you!
David Heinemeier HanssonCreator of Ruby on Rails, CTO of 37signalsI'd rather celebrate people updating their priors than dunking on them for being late. Make it cool to change your mind when you realize the facts have changed!↗@dhh on Xx.com · 3 Sept 2026
Their wordsI'd rather celebrate people updating their priors than dunking on them for being late. Make it cool to change your mind when you realize the facts have changed!