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Conrad Owen’s Blog

Welcome to my blog

Code is Cheap Now

The big theme of software engineering in 2026 is very clearly about AI coding agents. We’ve solidly passed the point asking if they can code well. They can. Now we’re all figuring out “okay, they can code well, now what?” This is one of the things I keep coming back to when I think through that question. (Between the time I first had this thought to when I’m actually writing this post, code is cheap feels like a pretty common position now. But hey, it’s my blog and I’ll publish if I want to.) ...

Software Development Beliefs v2021

About Me Until recently, I was a senior backend developer and tech lead at ecobee. Currently I am on a nice sabbatical, which I’d highly recommend to everyone. I worked on the device backend team, supporting the server platform for smart home devices in over a million homes. I’ve been working in software development for about eight years now. Most of my experience is with on-premise Java applications, and shifting an ever-growing production footprint into Go and Google Cloud. I also mentor senior engineers with BestPracticer. ...