I have a small AI box in the closet that runs open-weight models. I used it less than I could, because for real work you still go to a real model. A new model just dropped, and it reviewed my code better than everything I pay for. leushchenko.com/writing/the-...

The reviewer I don't pay for — Oleksandr Leushchenko

A local model found five real bugs in my code, with repro steps. My subscriptions called the same code an A-minus.

leushchenko.com

Seneca wrote about a rich man who wanted to sound educated, so he bought a slave for each poet he wanted to quote, counted their knowledge as his (and still broke down in the middle of a line). I have the same household for $20 a month. leushchenko.com/writing/sabi...

Sabinus with a $20 subscription — Oleksandr Leushchenko

A rich Roman bought slaves to memorize Homer for him. The same setup now costs twenty dollars a month.

leushchenko.com

You ask for one component for one screen, and get a whole design system. You ask for a table, and mid-session the model adds search, filters and column reordering. Nobody asked 🙄 Sonnet 5 got bold. My colleague Jack has a theory about why. leushchenko.com/writing/we-a...

We are not the audience anymore — Oleksandr Leushchenko

Ask for one UI component, get a whole design system. Fine for people without a spec, ridiculous for engineers with one.

leushchenko.com

I opened someone else's demo and recognized the website. I was showing Claude Design to a friend, and we vibecoded a stub site for their company. Not "it looks familiar". Same color scheme, same font, same layout, same vibe. One to one. leushchenko.com/writing/i-ha...

I had already seen that website — Oleksandr Leushchenko

A hackathon demo looked exactly like the stub I'd vibecoded a month earlier. Same colors, same font, same vibe.

leushchenko.com

Big models don't fit into 128GB. DeepSeek V4-Flash is one more proof: great model, needs two DGX Sparks. So I moved on. Then someone shipped a 2-bit port that fits on a single box. Two bits. I expected broken tool calls and confident nonsense. I was wrong. leushchenko.com/writing/two-...

Two bits shouldn't be enough — Oleksandr Leushchenko

A 2-bit port of DeepSeek-V4-Flash runs on a single DGX Spark clone, and I was wrong about almost everything except the speed.

leushchenko.com

A US client I worked with had a mobile app that was a mess. One engineer rebuilt it from scratch in two months, on the side. A whole team had spent a year on the version he replaced. That rebuild is the reason he never got promoted again. leushchenko.com/writing/comp...

Competence turns into a cage — Oleksandr Leushchenko

Park your best people on maintenance long enough and they stop being your best people. The "not ready" label has a way of making itself true.

leushchenko.com

Ten years ago I named our Mac Mini CI build machines after Disney princesses. Cinderella, Ariel, and... one I had to sit and think about. Our IT folks didn't get it. Then the machines started having characters. This year my AI agents named themselves. leushchenko.com/writing/nobo...

Nobody remembers ci-runner-2 — Oleksandr Leushchenko

Why I've been naming build machines for ten years, and why my AI agents named themselves.

leushchenko.com

Successful companies go blind like cave fish. Stop fighting to survive, and you stop needing sharp eyes. Ian Reppel nails it. I ran mobile at a big Ukrainian outsourcer and watched it hit client after client. Staying small is the way out. leushchenko.com/writing/how-...

How good companies go blind — Oleksandr Leushchenko

Politics moves in the moment a company stops fighting for its life. Small teams stay sharp because they can still feel the market — and AI just made it possible to stay that small for a lot longer.

leushchenko.com

I wrote my own "Windows" at 13. My teachers made me optimize matrix multiplication instead. Guess how many times I've multiplied a matrix by hand at work since. Zero. My reply to Doug Turnbull's case for writing code by hand. leushchenko.com/writing/the-...

The details moved up a level — Oleksandr Leushchenko

Your clients aren't paying for the pleasure of watching you hand-craft a for-loop.

leushchenko.com

Someone argued AI made writing software cheap, so domain knowledge is the only moat left. It keeps showing up in my feed, so here's my take: the pencil got cheap, not the skill. leushchenko.com/writing/vibe...

Vibecoders don't skip the auth layer on purpose — Oleksandr Leushchenko

They skip it because they don't know it belongs there. The pencil got cheap. The skill didn't.

leushchenko.com

A new open model dropped this week. Benches right next to Opus 4.7, runs on my own AI box. I already had it swapped into my agents and called it permanent. Then I gave it a tiny coding task. 15 minutes later, I pulled the plug. ☹️ The full story is here: leushchenko.com/writing/tiny...

Tiny tasks tell more than benchmarks — Oleksandr Leushchenko

The story of a benchmark star that couldn't rename two variables.

leushchenko.com

I bought an Asus GX10. Everyone says it's too slow for real work, but after 1.5 months, I'm loving it still! Recently performance seemed to have dropped, so I dug in. The reason and the fix are funny 😁 (also, I have a website now! 🙌) leushchenko.com/writing/Fixi...

I’ve seen many strong teams slowed down by code they wrote themselves. Not because it was bad, but because it was “good enough” at the time. I wrote about why this happens in settled teams, and how I try to reason about it: olexale.medium.com/when-good-en...

When “Good Enough” Is Neither Good nor Enough

Why shortcuts compound unpredictably in long-lived codebases

olexale.medium.com

Today I learned a neat #Dart trick for running multiple async operations in parallel. I used to rely on 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲.𝘄𝗮𝗶𝘁(), but that meant: • Casting results manually (𝘢𝘴 𝘛𝘺𝘱𝘦𝘈, 𝘢𝘴 𝘛𝘺𝘱𝘦𝘉 … 😩) • The logic depended on the order of operations (easy to break, especially with LLMs 😅).

Just updated bdd_widget_test! ⚠️ Heads up: This release includes a breaking change. I had to remove some functionality. If you miss it, please reach out! 📊 Mind-blowing: 61K+ downloads last week! Happy to see that so many of you find it useful. Check it out: pub.dev/packages/bdd...

bdd_widget_test | Dart package

A BDD-style widget testing library. Generates Flutter widget tests from *.feature files.

pub.dev

🧵 Just published an article on why solving NEW problems is easier than KNOWN ones (especially for experts): olexale.medium.com/0a95cef1dd63 TL;DR 👇 1/ We fall into the pattern-matching trap. Solved it before? Must use the same solution again. 1/6

Why Experts Struggle With Known Problems in Software Architecture

How past experience holds you back

olexale.medium.com

🚀 Just published my "Integrating On-Device #AI Models into #Flutter Apps" talk from FGS! In a world obsessed with LLMs and chatbots, it’s easy to forget the power of running AI locally - no servers, no latency, and better privacy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRNr...

"Integrating On-Device AI Models into Flutter Apps" talk by Oleksandr Leushchenko on FGS'25

YouTube video by Oleksandr Leushchenko

youtube.com

Podcast: iOS Keychain vs Android Keystore. Whether you’re building for Android, iOS, or both, you’ll get practical tips and clear explanations to help you choose the right approach for your next project. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB4h...

iOS Keychain vs Android Keystore

YouTube video by Talsec

youtube.com

🚀The MiniClient series is complete! Want more? I might stream about CI/CD, testing, or on-device AI. Drop your ideas in the replies or YouTube comments! 🎤 Next stop: #FlutterGlobalSummit. Don’t miss it! 📺 Catch all 3 streams here: youtube.com/playlist?lis...

MiniClient Flutter tutorial - YouTube

Ever wondered how experienced developers structure their Flutter projects? In this hands-on tutorial series, we build a Flutter app from scratch, breaking do...

youtube.com

After my first two streams, I’ve been asked a few times: ❓“Do you always structure your projects this way?” ❓“Do you always use the same dependencies?” The short answer is no. Every project is a chance to learn, refine, and grow. (1/4) youtube.com/live/bHxqnyB...

Live Coding: MiniClient Flutter Tutorial #3

🔴 Live Coding: MiniClient Tutorial #3 In this second part, I walk through the "navigation" and "testing" parts of the MiniClient tutorial — a hands-on introduction to how we build and scale large real...

youtube.com

How to Block Screenshots, Screen Recording, and Remote Access Tools in Android and iOS Apps - watch our newest podcast featuring @olexale.bsky.social & @mhadaily.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHhs...

How to Block Screenshots, Screen Recording, and Remote Access Tools in Android and iOS Apps

YouTube video by Talsec

youtube.com

🚨 Final MiniClient stream – 📅 May 20 🕓 4 PM UTC We covered utility, feature & application layers. Now it's time for: 🧭 Navigation 🧪 Testing Wrapping up this comprehensive guide to building complex Flutter apps www.youtube.com/live/bHxqnyB...

Live Coding: MiniClient Flutter Tutorial #3

🔴 Live Coding: MiniClient Tutorial #3 In this second part, I walk through the "navigation" and "testing" parts of the MiniClient tutorial — a hands-on introduction to how we build and scale large real...

youtube.com

🚨MiniClient Stream #2 is TODAY at 4 PM UTC! We’re covering the Feature & Application layers — creating the foundation for everything to come. Don’t miss it! youtube.com/live/D8cxYqm...

Live Coding: MiniClient Flutter Tutorial #2

YouTube video by Oleksandr Leushchenko

youtube.com

In 2014, Russia started an unprovoked war on Ukraine, aiming to seize all of Ukraine. It launched an all-out invasion in 2022. I do not understand how anyone can possibly be taking the side of Russia and Putin. This war is not “self defense:” it is brutality and war crimes.

The first MiniClient stream went great — loved seeing so many of you live & answering your questions! 🙌 Next up: we start building the actual app. 📅 May 13 — Part 2 live stream ➡️ Feature & Application layers 🕓 4 PM UTC youtube.com/live/D8cxYqm...

Live Coding: MiniClient Flutter Tutorial #2

YouTube video by Oleksandr Leushchenko

youtube.com

🚨 Reminder: the MiniClient tutorial live stream is happening tomorrow at 4 PM UTC! It's my first time streaming, so I hope it'll be as fun for you as it will be for me 🙂 www.youtube.com/live/dfmulX3...

Live Coding: MiniClient Flutter Tutorial

🔴 Live Coding: MiniClient Tutorial In this live session, I walk through the first part of the MiniClient tutorial — a hands-on introduction to how we build and scale large real-world mobile applicatio...

youtube.com

Thrilled by all the positive feedback, let’s do it! 🔴 Live this Tuesday at 4pm UTC I’ll work through the MiniClient tutorial, go beyond the basics with extra tasks, and answer your questions live. First-time streamer 🙈 Subscribe so you don’t miss it 👉 youtube.com/@olexale

Oleksandr Leushchenko

youtube.com

🎙️👨‍💻Thinking about doing a live coding session based on my MiniClient tutorial series! I'd walk through it live, answer your questions, and share insights from working with 70+ Flutter engineers on a 3M+ LOC app. 🙋‍♂️Like/share this post if you'd join so I can gauge interest!

💬 “The tech stack adopted in my team is wrong” almost never means what it says. What does it really mean and how to challenge technical decisions without ruining the team spirit? 💡Read my latest article: medium.com/tide-enginee...

Beyond ‘This Sucks’: A Smarter Approach to Challenging Tech Decisions

Turning Frustration Into Action Without Alienating Your Colleagues

medium.com

Testing is often misunderstood as primarily finding bugs, but validating requirements is far more important for developing quality products 🧪 Explore different testing approaches and how they impact your #Flutter app development in my latest article 👇 medium.com/tide-enginee...

Project Miniclient — Testing

Testing is often misunderstood as a process of finding bugs. However, in reality…

medium.com