Aaron Brethorst

Elsewhere on the web

Oct 28, 2025
software-engineering ios android

Swift for Android Won't Amount to Anything

The Swift team just announced nightly builds of the Swift SDK for Android, complete with Java interoperability and a getting started guide. They’re pitching it as “opening new avenues for cross-platform development.” It won’t work. Not because the...

Oct 21, 2025
software-engineering management ios

Engineering Managers Should (Sometimes) Write Code

I spent the last few evenings polishing the trip planner feature that an intern built for the OneBusAway iOS app. Not reviewing the code, not providing architectural guidance, but actually writing Swift to handle edge cases in the UI and fixing la...

Oct 20, 2025
software-engineering ai productivity

Claude Code is unreasonably good at building MVPs

The most valuable code I’ve written in the past six months is code I fully intend to throw away. This isn’t some zen programming philosophy or agile methodology talking point. It’s the practical reality of using Claude Code to build prototypes and...

Oct 11, 2025
economics ai infrastructure

The Data Center Bubble

In the late 1990s, companies like Global Crossing spent tens of billions building fiber-optic networks that would supposedly revolutionize telecommunications. The infrastructure was real, the technology transformative, but the economics never work...

Aug 15, 2025
software-engineering mac-os-x irooster

A retrospective on iRooster, my first Mac OS X app

Looking back on iRooster, my first commercial Mac OS X application from 2003, fills me with nostalgia and gratitude. What started as a desperate solution to oversleeping through morning classes became a formative experience that shaped my entire...