Andrin Foster

@@andrinkf

Founding Engineer @Cline

Posts by Andrin Foster

Why Patterns Matter: Lessons From Hyper-Growth Startups

Why Patterns Matter: Lessons From Hyper-Growth Startups

May 6, 2025

I've heard it said that "patterns are what companies talk about when they're dying". This may be true, but it is also what companies talk about once they've hit PMF. Don't fool yourself, do you really need scale? If you haven't experienced a hyper growth startup before, it can be easy to dismiss things like composability, scalability, security, testability, redundancy, CI/CD, and the like as a needless waste of time. It's true that most startups think about these things way too early. Until y

The Fighter Pilot's Guide to Software Strategy

The Fighter Pilot's Guide to Software Strategy

April 18, 2025

AI companies are operating in arguably the most hotly contested market in human history. Earth shattering venture rounds incenting and empowering the brightest minds in the world in a winner take most (if not all!) race to the singularity. Amidst this battlefield, I find my thoughts returning to a little known fighter pilot from Pennsylvania who's contributions to strategy have come to rival those of Napoleon and Sun Tzu. Colonel John Boyd. If you've never heard of him, you're not alone. Today

SICP Revisited: Writing Code for People and AI Agents

SICP Revisited: Writing Code for People and AI Agents

April 15, 2025

Since SICP, it's been a maxim of software engineering that "Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute." However, in the age of generative AI, code is increasingly often read by agents as well. As generative AI tools become popular, it's important that we as engineering leaders better understand how agents interpret the code we maintain. Understanding AI's Current Limitations Agents currently do not maintain a long-term understanding of our code