Dan Luu: We should be more ambitious with the software we build
rschu · x · 2026-10-27
Dan Luu's new essay argues developers should be more ambitious with AI-era software, using the pgrust project (rewriting parts of Postgres in Rust) as the case study: Michael Malis's rigorous testing has even uncovered real Postgres bugs (SP-GiST numerical bug, JSONPath format cache bug, pgcrypto bug, money overflow, and more).
While AI rewrite projects are routinely dismissed as vibeslop, serious attempts produce durable value even if they fail—via upstream bug fixes and optimization techniques. John Schulman shared the piece agreeing, adding that AI remakes are fine for learning but should respect original creators and their assets.
Related event: Engineers Urge More Ambitious Software Building in the AI Era(2 posts)→
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