Hey there! This is a special edition to announce I am starting a private AI Club for members of the Refactoring community!
These are going to be monthly online gatherings where people can share wins and learnings from using AI, ask questions, and stay up to date about what works.
So today’s post is to explain 1) why I am starting it, and 2) how it works.
🎯 Why I am starting an AI Club
By now AI has taken over most of the online conversation about software engineering.
As I wrote last week, I think this is… largely correct. AI coding is so big and meaningful that figuring it out feels like the #1 priority for us as an industry. I don’t think we are misguided on this.
However, we are also in this very confusing stage where everyone is just trying things for themselves:
Most teams have little-to-no shared practices / artifacts / ceremonies about AI.
Opinions online are all over the place, and it’s hard to know who to trust.
Most of us have very little time to try things out, and zero dedicated time at work to do so.
All of this against a backdrop of anxiety, layoffs, FOMO, and doomsday predictions.
Yay!
AI is also changing how I think about my responsibilities with Refactoring. It is changing the topics I cover, how I spend my time (I am back to coding, a lot), and the type of conversations I have with people.
So, Refactoring should help you run better engineering teams, and a big part of that now is about using AI well — together, as humans.
So I want to host good conversations about it, where people share what they are learning: the exciting wins, the humbling failures, and everything in between.
Sharing things with others not only makes us grow faster together — it’s also great to fight back against anxiety, impostor syndrome, and all the pressure that comes with the push for AI adoption.
So let’s use the Refactoring community as your extended team, where we compare notes and learn things together.
ℹ️ How it works
Here is the gist:
Monthy 1-hour chat, hosted in the Refactoring Community.
As with all-things-community, it’s for paid Refactoring members. We gate this to keep people committed and ensure high quality.
Like our monthly mastermind, it’s facilitated by real engineering coaches, Joel and Melinda.
I always join the call personally and share the things I have learned throughout the month
Everyone who joins can share their own “aha” moments — a win, or just something that genuinely surprised them — ask questions, and get to know other community members
Takeaways from the conversation are shared afterwards in the community in written form, for those who are not able to join.
Finally, for paid Refactoring subscribers, in the newsletter I will also publish monthly AI updates that combine my own experiments with things that surfaced in community calls.
All in all it’s very simple. We’ll host the first one on May 8th, and we’ll always have them on the first Friday of the month, at rotating times to allow everyone to participate.
🔒 About the Refactoring subscription
Allow me a quick paragraph about the Refactoring subscription, which you might be considering joining.
It’s $15/month, or $150/year, to access the Refactoring community, all of our archive (300+ articles) carefully organized by topic, plus our weekly original long-forms about the latest and greatest engineering practices.
The community has bi-weekly events, professionally run, that alone would cost >$100 to join — each!
So if Refactoring helps you make just one better decision, thanks to something you read, or learned from someone in the community, chances are the subscription repaid itself for the full year.
I would love to have you onboard! 1500+ engineers have joined this already 👇
And that’s it for today!
Sincerely 👋
Luca
Hey, thanks for doing this! This is probably user error, but when I click the link for "Join our AI Club", it just takes me to the subscribe page. Is there something else I'm supposed to do?