My Notes on Three Years of Coding with AI
A non-hype version of what daily AI-assisted coding actually looks like after three years, written like a conversation over coffee.
Who is Mike Zornek?
Hello! My name is Mike Zornek. I describe myself as both a developer and teacher, and I've been building digital products for over 25 years.
From the suburbs of Philadelphia, I code in Elixir . When I am not coding, I enjoy watching Phillies baseball and playing video games (mostly laid-back simulations and RPGs).
Start Here
New here? Here are some quality posts to get you started.
Personal Elixir Code Aesthetics
A tour of some small personal choices behind clean, readable Elixir code I strive for.
Phoenix LiveView: Presenting DateTime in User's Time Zone
A concrete walk through a real Phoenix problem: showing timestamps in each reader's own time zone.
What is Local-first Software?
Why data ownership and offline-friendly software matter to me, and where local-first is heading. It's a problem space I'm digging into right now.
My Standup Format
The simple async standup format I've leaned on for years to keep a team honest, human, and unblocked.
Recent Blog Posts
Guarding Against AI Drift: My Automated Elixir Quality Checks
As I experiment more with AI code generation, I've hardened LocalCents with more automated Elixir quality checks than I've ever run. Here's the whole guardrail setup, each linked to how it's wired in the real repo.
My Notes on Three Years of Coding with AI
Notes on how my use of AI has changed over three years, and what's working and what isn't inside LocalCents.
What Is Good Code?
We all nod along to "good code" but rarely define it. Here are the four attributes I look for, and the practices that protect each one.
A Place for Everything: How I Track Work
A window into how I track work: issue statuses, types, and pull request conventions, with sample PR templates you can copy. Take a look around and keep what's useful.
Decision Records, Playbooks, and Other Acts of Kindness
You've opened a project you didn't write, hit a wall, and found no one left to ask. The code is there but the why is gone. Here are the small habits that spare the next developer that moment.
Stabilizing Inherited Software: My First-Week Checklist
Inherited a live codebase with no one left who built it? Here's the checklist I run through in week one — before touching a single feature.
Fresh Eyes on a Cucumbered Team
There's a term for what happens when you've been on a team so long you stop noticing its quirks: you've been cucumbered. Here's what fresh eyes can (and can't responsibly) do about it.