Start here: Using AI to level-up as a software engineer

Are you a software engineer that wants to use AI to make more money? You're in the right place

Here’s the deal. AI is changing what it means to be a software engineer. I say this as someone who writes software for a living.

I don’t love this. I’m not hyping it up. But it is happening.

AI is automating a lot of what makes a software engineer fun! It’s a shame tools like Cursor or Windsurf can automate gluing together CRUD endpoints, I actually really like doing that!

So what’s the endgame? Anyone who claims they know for sure is lying. Personally, I don’t think AI is going to replace software engineers. I do think that talented software engineers using AI well are already outshipping those who are writing code unassisted and I expect that trend to continue.

That’s why I spend an unhealthy amount of time experimenting with AI tools and writing all about it here on this newsletter. The Augmented Engineer is your guide to using AI well without having to waste time learning the ins and outs of every new tool. If you want practical insights for a developer who is actively working in the industry and using AI every day, you’re in the right spot.

If you want to read some of these guides and trend reports, I’ve organized some of my most popular work here.

Practical guides

My favorite type of this newsletter is doing a deep dive into how you can use a particular tool to a specific part of your job better.

You can see all of the detailed guides here, but these are the most popular editions in this category:

• How I vibe coded an iPhone app that I now use every day

• Get promoted faster with an AI-written brag doc

• Deep Research: A guide to speedrun learning anything

• Ten rules to make vibe coding more productive

• System design with ChatGPT

• How to get the most out of ChatGPT "projects"

• Ten rules for effective prompt engineering

Claude Code

• How to use Claude Code to build a web app

• Building a feature with Claude Code

• Codex CLI vs Claude Code

Cursor

Cursor is my favorite AI-powered code editor. It’s a fork of VS code so it’s super familiar, and it has tons of tightly integrated features that make writing code a joy. Since it’s my favorite, I write a lot about it.

You can see all my Cursor posts here, but these are the most popular editions in this category:

• Everything that changed in Cursor's biggest release ever

• How to use Cursor custom modes to 10x your workflow

• Use custom Cursor rules to get even better code

Trends and my thoughts on AI in software

Sometimes I write about mega-trends in AI that will affect software engineers and sometimes I just write about something I’ve formed a strong opinion on.

You can see my trends posts here, but these are the most popular editions in this category:

• AI won't replace (most) software engineers

• Why would OpenAI buy an IDE?

• AI is a baseline expectation (at Shopify)

What about paid membership?

There’s plenty of high-impact content on this newsletter to read as a free subscriber, but some of the articles are exclusive to paid members. Paid members get access to every article, including reports, case studies, and detailed guides.

If you want to get the highest signal information that helps you level-up your career, consider becoming a paid member.

Here a few well-loved member-only articles you’d unlock right away.

• Building a feature with Claude Code

• The ultimate overview of AI tools for work

• Ten rules for effective prompt engineering

• Building a feature with Claude Code

• Making sense of LLM context

Some subscribers expense this newsletter to their learning and development budget. If you have such a budget, here’s an email you could send to your manager.

Hi [name of manager],

I’d like to expense a subscription to The AI-Augmented Engineer. It’s a regular newsletter for software engineers and engineering managers on using AI to be more effective at their job.

The newsletter publishes plenty of content on tools like ChatGPT, Cursor, Claude Code, and Codex. I’ve been following along for some time and joining as a paid member will unlock full access to deep dives on these tools.

It costs $80/year, and I’m sure I’d get more than that out of it.

Let me know if you’re fine with this.

Thanks,

[Your name]