Software Engineer | Builder | Founder of usefultechlabs https://nitter.gq/t.co/ijmkJq06DN
Joined August 2026
- Tweets347
- Following227
- Followers76
- Likes3.9K
Noel Covarrubias retweeted
What a privilege it is to be able to run, afford a gym membership, buy healthy food, pay your bills, walk on your own legs, see with your own eyes, think clearly, work every day, and push your body to become stronger.
Never take these blessings for granted.
Noel Covarrubias retweeted
As I study math more, it becomes undeniable how limited human working memory is.
It's so limited, that the problem space you're able to solve (even with chunking) is trivial. It's so small that you could argue that thinking within the bounds of your mind is so impotent that it might as well be considered not thinking.
Said another way, if you aren't writing, you (practically) aren't thinking.
Which is uncomfortable because then it means that most of the world is unthinking most of the time.
I'm not discounting intuition (fast thinking, perception via the unconscious). I just think that real thinking (the slow kind) is not only undervalued, but we're mostly confused as to how to utilize it (in my opinion, by writing things out).
Noel Covarrubias retweeted
I'm sorry, what?!
Your job isn't going way, it's evolving.
Look, software is changing, and there are going to be people who are bitter and there are going to be people who evolve to meet the challenge.
We need great devs because of their experience building apps that scale.
Noel Covarrubias retweeted
Be like @poteto 😎
> Grew up in Singapore with no CS background.
> Taught herself design as a teen.
> Studied finance at Monash.
> First program was an Excel VBA macro.
> Failed a startup.
> Started blogging and tweeting while learning to code.
> EmberConf organizers found her tweets.
> Invited her to speak in 2015.
> She was a nobody in Melbourne.
> Shaking through her first talk.
> That one talk changed everything.
> Landed at DockYard. Moved to the US.
> Another talk got her into Netflix.
> Built studio tools. Became a tech lead.
> Then an engineering manager.
> Missed building. Went back to IC work.
> Open-sourced hiring-without-whiteboards.
> Dan Abramov invited her to React at Meta.
> Imposter syndrome. Said yes anyway.
> Six years on the @reactjs team.
> Sole author of the React Compiler Beta post.
> Co-author of React Compiler 1.0.
> Burned out. Took time off.
> Started building agent tools for herself.
> Joined @cursor_ai in 2026.
> Taught agents to verify their own work.
> That became pstack.
> Cursor got acquired into @SpaceXSI.
> Rebuilt Grok Bot.
> Now ships 2,000–2,500 PRs a month.
> Went from 31K to 200K+ followers.
> @elonmusk keeps reposting her.
She didn’t start with a degree or confidence.
She started by writing in public.
Every major job came from people finding her posts.
Now she’s building Grok Bot and still on the React Compiler core team.
She is truly an inspiration. ✨✨
Noel Covarrubias retweeted
Public square, need your help. I never use this platform to call out companies, but my sense of justice (and $700) is on the line...
A month ago, I was in Japan. I reached out to United to see if I could cancel my return flight and get credits for future travel. They said yes, and I made SURE to confirm (and screenshot!) those credits wouldn't be restricted bc I had a feeling @united might try to pull something like this.
Just days later, I try using the credit. Turns out they're gated to Asia? Exactly what they said would not be the case.
Since then, I've tried:
- multiple customer support conversations
- a refund form (that the support agents suggested; I wasn't even looking for a refund)
- hours on the phone with one rep who said they *could* unrestrict it but refused to
- I even submitted a @USDOT complaint
@United has rejected every request, on the grounds of the original fare rules -- which again, their own agent contradicted.
Just for the hell of it, I even looked at what using the credits in the restricted geography would look like (even the exact same route months in advance), and every option is quoting $8000 more.
So... AITA? Anyone have success resolving something like this? How is this legal?!
Noel Covarrubias retweeted
Most people protect their reputation and neglect their character.
Backwards.
You can’t control what people think of you. You can control who you are.
Fix the input, and the output tends to follow.
Noel Covarrubias retweeted
A good decision-making filter for the people in your life. If somebody makes it harder to be the person you want to be, they are too costly to have in your life.
Noel Covarrubias retweeted
I think many of us working in tech tend to forget that the reason software engineering vs other engineering fields pays (a lot!) more, is a lot more flexible (WFH/remote), and has better perks:
Because this field changes much faster than other engineering fields. The premium is because fewer people are able/willing to pick up new technologies, methodologies so quickly.
But the field had ~10-20 years of stability, and so lots of folks forgot this is why a premium exists. And that AI is just another tech wave: software engineers who pick it up and master it will generally fare better; those not will struggle a lot more.
Noel Covarrubias retweeted
Across all human time periods, saying what you actually think has always been a pure demonstration of courage.
Noel Covarrubias retweeted
There are plenty of developers will laugh that "AI writes slop code"...
But the vulnerabilities we are finding (with AI) were "created" by human devs. Some are seniors with 10+ years of experience.
Those are legacy vulnerabilities no human could catch
Noel Covarrubias retweeted
be very careful if you find yourself simply passing messages to and from your agents
e.g. people ask you a question on slack, and you simply ask an agent and pass its response back - it should be obvious that your job can be automated in that case
instead, you should try and build an agent (or sometimes just skills) that can reliably answer similar questions moving forward and remove yourself from the loop
your value then becomes improving said agents and skills, and your impact can easily scale and manifest even when you sleep
don’t be automated. be the automator
Noel Covarrubias retweeted
I wasted so my time scrolling twitter this morning
Then I found a tweet that I think would be legitimately helpful for a situation that im facing at the moment
I don’t think would have found it without scrolling
This place is a casino
Noel Covarrubias retweeted
Thanks to the OG @TasonJorres for dropping in to roast some resumes today! And shout out to everyone that attended - we even got some great tips from the audience! Some third degree burns, too. 😜
