The creator of Clawd: "I ship code I don't read"

By Pragmatic Engineer

Categories: Product, Startup

Summary

Peter Steinberger, creator of PSPDF Kit (used on 1B+ devices), discusses his radical new approach to software development with AI where he ships code without reading it, merges 600 commits daily, and believes code reviews are obsolete in an AI-assisted workflow.

Key Takeaways

1. Shipping code you don't read is viable when using AI assistance properly - Peter merges 600 commits in a single day while maintaining quality through AI validation rather than human review.
2. Traditional code reviews are becoming obsolete - PR should be reframed as 'prompt requests' to reflect how AI-assisted development actually works.
3. The 'closing the loop principle' is critical for effective AI assistant coding - it separates functional AI workflows from ineffective ones.
4. Building products that solve personal pain points works - Peter's dating app earned $10k in the first month after he hacked together an HTML parser solution to a frustrating UX problem.
5. Staying scrappy and using beta/unconventional tech early can be advantageous - Peter built his first iOS app using beta iOS, beta CoreData, and hacked GCC before it was officially supported.

Topics

• AI-Assisted Software Development
• Modern Code Review Practices
• Product-Market Fit Velocity
• Developer Burnout and Career Pivots
• Closing the Loop Principle in AI Coding

Transcript Excerpt

What if you could merge 600 commits on a single day and none of it was slopp? This is what today's guest, Peter Stainberger, the creator of Claudebot, claims he's doing. Peter is a standout developer who built PSP PDF kit, the PDF framework used on more than 1 billion devices. Then he burned out, sold his shares, and disappeared from tech for 3 years. This year, he came back and how he builds and what he's doing now looks nothing like traditional software development. In today's episode, we cove...