How one dev uses AI in 2026 — without losing his mind

A developer who writes about the intersection of tech and writing — Dan Luu — laid out his actual 2026 setup. The short version: he uses Claude and ChatGPT for writing, Claude for coding, and lets the models do the heavy lifting while he stays in the driver's seat. He's not chasing the latest benchmark; he's picking tools that make him faster without making him forget how to think.

The piece is useful because it's grounded in real work, not a LinkedIn flex. He talks about what the models are good at — drafting, structuring, catching gaps — and what they're not. He doesn't claim AI replaces judgment. He claims it replaces the boring parts of the process so he can spend time where judgment actually matters. The tone is practical, not evangelistic.

Why this matters for us: most of la gente using AI is guessing what works. A developer who's been through the hype cycle and writes honestly about it gives us a template we can actually use — not the Silicon Valley version, the one that just gets the job done.