Wazzup, party people!? (you know it's Rich-generated if a post starts like this, right?)
Lately, I'm churning through at least one content piece daily from the most forward-thinking AI builders. I'm also witnessing wonders happening on the ClickFunnels engineering and product fronts. I write 0% of code manually, but I still spend hours babysitting AI for heavy features, fiddling with different tools, and building small harnesses to automate parts of my own and the company's workflows.
Looking at all that, I realized I might be able to save you some time and nerves by sharing where things are from my perspective and giving you a pre-screened look at the good practical stuff that is worth mentioning. Otherwise, it's impossible to see through the tons of content being generated. I've left a couple of Easter Eggs at the end of the Watch List. And a note from the real world.
(The comments, opinions and other content sections are mine and 99% handwritten, but I do ask my agent what it thinks I would think of the videos, just for my own amusement.)
AI Engineering Watch List Week#23
Can Cursor's HARDCORE Review Skill Stop The Slop?
[2026-05-27] Matt Pocock
Not published last week, but wanted to shout out at least one of his videos here, because I'm using some of the skills Matt created on a daily basis now (hashtag grill-me).
How I deleted 95% of my agent skills and got better results
[2026-06-01] Nick Nisi / WorkOS (AIE Europe)
Hands-on example for a Task-To-Result harness with isolated agents and gates in between, running on Pi. There is also an article and a GitHub repo for the full experience.
Pi Coding Agent Observability: HTML Specs with Gemini 3.5 Flash and GPT Image 2
[2026-06-01] IndyDevDan
Agent observability via HTML or Image creation outputs (instead of markdown). Another visionary IndieDevDan video, really only useful once you stop babysitting.
State of Agentic Coding #6
[2026-06-05] Armin Ronacher & Ben Vinegar
Good source of honest end-to-end agentic-coding war stories showing that not all is strawberries and butterflies in AI coding (but probably you already noticed anyway).
The agent that files its own bug reports
[2026-06-03] Benjamin Verbeek / Lovable (AI Engineer Conference)
Some cool core ideas about implementing self-improving AI chatbot type of software like a "vent channel" for the AI and a DB of improvements when your user is stuck.
Slapping the Slop
Sam Altman just admitted the AI bubble is real
[2026-06-05] Mo Bitar
Listening to this, you might think Mo is saying there aren't real gains in AI coding, with 2k commenters supporting him. I find this fascinating in 2026, so I somehow enjoy every episode of him bashing AI to help me balance my AI psychosis.
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[2026-06-06] Chris Athanas 🥚 This one is an Easter Egg 🥚 This is what my AI had to say about it:
"Decent gut-check on where vibe coding helps and where it breaks; nothing new."
🥚 Senior Engineer tries Vibe Coding 🥚
Back-signal
Did you enjoy a piece of content last week? I'm curious what other down-to-earth, real-world engineers and builders who don't record YouTube videos and conference talks are up to.
Outside the Loop: Fun book habits and travels
I've been traveling quite a bit lately in the past few months. I was scouting out Mexico as a place to live, specifically Mérida and Cancún. Did a quick check on São Paulo, too, since there was the Tropical Rails conference, and it's around the corner (not).
We haven't decided yet, but next on the list are Brazil (Florianópolis) and a few other candidates. Looks like September will be another travel-packed month; I will definitely visit Austin for Rails World, and it's a dream of mine lately to hang at one of those AI-pilled conferences like "AI Engineer New York" (October).
During all those travels, I've picked up a new hobby of borrowing books from book corners in co-working spaces and hotels. And leaving behind the books I read to randomly change other people's fates.
In April, I left behind The Book on Mental Toughness in a hotel's book corner. This small Mexican hotel didn't have any interesting picks, but it turned out that the guy who worked the night shifts there is a retiree-turned-poet who churns out poetry at work. He promised to send me his second publication once it hits the bookstore shelves.
The Mental Toughness book had some good lessons and stories, but I'm not gonna spill ancient mindset wisdom here like I know what I'm talking about; you gotta read this one for yourself (and be ok with the fact that the book is a shameless ad platform for some of the author's products).
The other book I read and left behind on an airplane seat was some quirky fiction classic. Maybe you have heard of the Post Office or Charles Bukowski?
I hope the fate of the lucky book finder turns out for the best because Charles Bukowski isn't for the faint-hearted.
I've always wanted to read a Bukowski book given his personality and the rep his books have, and here we are. I found this "gem" somewhere buried at the bottom of a shelf in one of the more iconic Playa del Carmen co-working spaces.
One of the takeaways that stuck with me was that no matter how few hours of sleep you got and how tired you feel to do your work on some days, there was Hank Chinaski, who lived his life in continuous hangover mode and still was standing his duty (almost) every day at the Post Office at 5 am.
I'm an advocate for avoiding sleep deprivation and alcohol when you can, but don't worry about the outliers; Hank still shipped his first book after ~15 years at the Post Office (at the end of the book and in reality too. After all, Hank mostly tells Charles' story).
I'm currently halfway through a funny fiction and a somewhat medical non-fiction book, so hopefully more learnings follow next time. 🔮
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