Hunter Powers — Essays https://www.hunterpowers.com/essays/ Essays on building with AI: agents, engineering leadership, and what is left for the humans. en-us Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT The Constraint Was Never the Code https://www.hunterpowers.com/essays/the-constraint/ https://www.hunterpowers.com/essays/the-constraint/ A former CTO on slot machines, obedient machines, and what is left to blame once the code stops being the problem. Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT hunter@wiretheplanet.com (Hunter Powers) Your AI Isn’t Broken. Nobody’s Managing It. https://www.hunterpowers.com/essays/your-ai-isnt-broken/ https://www.hunterpowers.com/essays/your-ai-isnt-broken/ The machine picked an answer the room itself was defending, and the room called it broken. We built machines capable of judgment, bought them like equipment, and got indignant when judgment appeared. Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT hunter@wiretheplanet.com (Hunter Powers) AI Is Going to Hire More People Than It Fires https://www.hunterpowers.com/essays/ai-hiring-boom/ https://www.hunterpowers.com/essays/ai-hiring-boom/ I made the Monday morning layoff calls, and smuggled the first useful AI into the building for twenty dollars. Both are why I think this ends in a hiring boom. Tue, 01 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT hunter@wiretheplanet.com (Hunter Powers) My Prompt Is More Cyberpunk Now https://www.hunterpowers.com/essays/cyberpunk-prompt/ https://www.hunterpowers.com/essays/cyberpunk-prompt/ I had real work to do, so naturally I rebuilt my shell instead: 390 lines of neglected zshrc, eight plaintext API keys, and an agent with edit access. Sat, 01 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT hunter@wiretheplanet.com (Hunter Powers)