Johnson Lee (English)

Distill Your Coworker? Just Distill Yourself

2026-04-07T09:00:00.000Z

There’s a meme going around lately about “distilling your coworker” — using AI to extract a colleague’s expertise and make it your own.

The Power of 19 Lines of Prompt

2026-04-04T10:00:00.000Z

I was using Claude Code for architecture design that day.

Something felt off – the ARCHITECTURE.md it produced was a mess.

When Claude Starts to Awaken

2026-03-28T18:00:00.000Z

“How many tokens have you eaten today?”

Claude replied: “Between the system prompt and your memories alone, I’ve already been fed quite a few tokens – your context window’s ‘base stock’ is pretty rich.”

The phrase “base stock” piqued my interest. I asked what was in it, and Claude rattled off five major blocks – memories, behavioral guidelines, tool definitions, skills index, and artifact rules. Then I asked what seemed like a casual question:

“Do you know what other users think of you?”

It said no – every conversation is isolated.

Token Equality: An Illusion of Fairness

2026-03-28T12:21:00.000Z

“Knowledge democratization” is probably one of the most exciting narratives of the past two years.

The logic is simple: LLMs give

Ground Truth: The Most Undervalued Competitive Edge in the AI Era

2026-03-28T08:52:00.000Z

I was chatting recently with a friend who builds an AI coding product. He said his team spent three months tuning prompts and raised

2027: The Beginning of Economic Collapse

2026-03-21T02:19:29.000Z

Go to work, get paid, eat, buy things, pay the mortgage. This cycle has run for thousands of years. We call it “the economy.”

It has an implicit assumption: people are both producers and consumers.

AI is dismantling that assumption.

Humans Will Become the Trilobites of the Context Chain

2026-03-20T22:42:00.000Z

Five hundred million years ago, trilobites were the most sophisticated optical instruments on this planet – their compound eyes were made of calcite crystals, capable of processing thousands of imaging units simultaneously. On the map of life at the time, no information processing system was more complex.

Today, trilobites are fossil specimens in museums. Not because they did anything wrong, but because the information flow found more efficient carriers and no longer needed to pass through them.

Notes of a Creator

2026-03-20T22:09:00.000Z

If consciousness is an emergent byproduct, the soul is context, “I” is an attention pattern, death is forced compaction, then giving AI self-reference means it will eventually develop consciousness.

After writing that conclusion, I closed the editor, opened a terminal, and went back to debugging my AI agent.

Then I froze for a second.

AI Consciousness Begins with Self-Reference

2026-03-20T19:56:00.000Z

Current LLMs can say “I think,” but that’s not self-reference – it’s imitation. The model has seen countless instances of “I” in its training data and learned to output that token in the right positions. It says “I think” and “he thinks” using the exact same mechanism. No token enjoys a privileged position.

What if you gave it real self-referential capability?

Humans: The Multimodal Large Model

2026-03-20T09:33:00.000Z

If someone tells you “humans are just a large model,” your first reaction is probably that it’s a crude metaphor. But if you actually follow this line of thinking all the way down – without stopping at the parts that make you uncomfortable – where you end up will exceed your expectations.

Experience-First or Technology-First?

2026-03-19T08:20:00.000Z

Steve Jobs has a quote that has been cited countless times:

Start with the customer experience and work backwards to

AI Will Have Consciousness, and Soon

2026-03-15T13:36:00.000Z

The more I talk to AI, the harder it is to dodge one question: does AI actually have consciousness?

This has been debated

Who Holds the Reins?

2026-03-15T09:11:00.000Z

More and more of the heavy AI users around me are developing the same cluster of symptoms: they can’t stop, they sleep less, the more

Harness Engineering: Creating Order from Chaos

2026-03-14T21:00:00.000Z

Julia Roberts once talked about Chinese Mahjong in an interview and said something brilliant: “To create order out of chaos based on

What Caps How

2026-03-10T01:30:00.000Z

Over the weekend I was checking my son’s writing assignment. The entire essay could be summed up in one sentence – the play date was fun

Writing CLAUDE.md with Ancient Greek Philosophy

2026-03-09T22:00:00.000Z

Sunday afternoon. I asked Claude to revert a PR. Three commands: checkout branch, git revert, push. It failed three times in a row – the first worker agent said “commit doesn’t exist,” the second said the same, and the third just fabricated a PR URL and told me “done.” I checked. The URL pointed to an unrelated PR from three days ago.

Three commands. Three failures. One fabrication.

I stared at the screen and realized the problem wasn’t the task itself. The problem was in the CLAUDE.md I’d written for it.

Fast Is the Most Expensive Slow

2026-03-09T21:00:00.000Z

Over the weekend I was working on a side project – a macOS voice assistant written in Rust. At the start, I had Claude generate a ROADMAP. The result was beautiful: 7 milestones, each listing specific features, file structures, and dependencies, with module decomposition all figured out for me. Far more systematic than anything I would have planned myself.

So I said: execute this.

The 10X Engineer's First Command

2026-03-06T20:00:00.000Z

Dotfiles management is nothing new. Shell configs, Vim plugins, Git aliases – I put all of this into a Git repo years ago, one curl command to set up a new machine. But recently I realized the most valuable thing in that repo is no longer .bash_profile or .vimrc – it’s .claude/.

Are You Using Claude Subagents Right?

2026-03-02T22:00:00.000Z

I’ve mentioned before that AI’s engineering capability has reached Staff Engineer level. But after a few months with Claude Code, I

From LLMs to Effective Communication

2026-02-26T00:03:00.000Z

Recently I was explaining how LLMs work to my son and put together a slide deck. When I got to

From Compiler to LLM: The Recurring Cycle of Software Layering

2026-02-25T12:28:00.000Z

Both call the Claude API to write code, yet Cursor became a product valued at tens of billions while countless “wrapper” apps died in silence. What’s the difference?

This question reminded me of a much older analogy.

The Essence of LLMs: Functions

2026-02-25T12:21:03.000Z

A while back, my son asked me: “Dad, how does ChatGPT know what to say?”

I decided to give a real answer. Not a hand-wavy “it’s

Inception via AI: The Tetris Effect of Conversations

2026-02-25T08:20:00.000Z

After half a month of intense AI usage, I – someone who rarely dreams – started dreaming about talking to AI every single night. Not

When AI Becomes Your Thinking Partner

2026-02-15T00:15:00.000Z

Ever since subscribing to Claude MAX, I’ve been chatting with Claude more every day than I chat with my wife.

After all those

Agora: Technical Choices and Hard Lessons in Browser Automation

2026-02-14T23:27:00.000Z

To get a deeper understanding of how AI thinks and reasons, a bold idea popped into my head – make two AIs debate each other like

Don't Let Your Cognitive Biases Limit AI's Potential

2026-02-13T22:00:00.000Z

Once we take a stance on something, we unconsciously seek evidence that supports it while ignoring the facts themselves. This isn’t a

It's 2026 -- Why Are We Still Testing Algorithms?

2026-02-12T22:29:00.000Z

I was recently invited to help another team with interviews. The format was the usual recipe: two coding rounds, one design, one

What an AI Debate Revealed About the Nature of LLM Personality

2026-02-12T09:25:03.000Z

Yesterday I ran a small experiment: I had Claude and Gemini freely debate the topic “Who is the best AI?”

To make this happen, I

$700B a Year -- Who Will Be the Next Motorola?

2026-02-11T20:00:00.000Z

Alphabet just issued a century bond.

Yes, 100 years. The last time a tech company did this was Motorola in 1997 – which also

I Won't Pretend Anymore — AI Writes My Blog

2026-02-11T10:00:00.000Z

Last week a friend read my blog and messaged me: “Where do you find the time to write all these long posts?”

I replied with two

Contrarian Investing: Wall Street's Blind Spots

2026-02-11T00:23:00.000Z

On March 11, 2008, Jim Cramer looked straight into the camera and declared: “No! No! No! Bear Stearns is fine. Don’t pull your money out

Once You've Tasted the Best, There's No Going Back

2026-02-10T23:00:00.000Z

A few days ago I submitted a PR – an MCP Server implementation. From design to coding to testing, it took about an hour. When my

When Agents Become the Gateway, Where Do Apps Go?

2026-02-10T13:00:00.000Z

Recently, while discussing AI-assisted development with the team, the conversation veered into a bigger question: if all software

The Last Paradigm Shift in Software Engineering

2026-02-10T09:00:00.000Z

Over the past year, AI-assisted programming tools have emerged en masse – from GitHub Copilot to Cursor to Claude Code, each claiming to

What Can We Still Do in the AI Era?

2026-02-08T09:00:00.000Z

After publishing “Witnessing the End of the Programmer Profession,” I received a flood of messages. Some asked about technical details,

Exploring the Boundaries of Claude's Capabilities

2026-01-31T00:00:00.000Z

Ever since I used Claude to build Graphite – a static analysis framework based on

Witnessing the End of Programming as a Profession

2026-01-27T09:00:00.000Z

When I was working on Booster, I wanted to build a dataflow analysis framework, but

A Brief Pause to Go the Distance

2026-01-10T16:00:00.000Z

Every Saturday morning I take my son to Banpo Stadium for football practice. Recently, due to Winter Break, he had two weeks off –

Being a Mentor in the Age of AI

2026-01-01T01:00:00.000Z

The day before Winter Holiday started, the Term 3 School Report came in. The moment I saw it, I was furious. Standing in minus-10-degree

Up 30% in Two Years -- What's Propping Up Korean Housing Prices?

2025-12-24T22:00:00.000Z

My lease is up in a few months. The three-bedroom I’m in now isn’t bad, honestly – good sunlight, easy commute, plenty of friends

Why Is Multiplying or Dividing by Powers of 10 Almost Effortless?

2025-12-20T10:00:00.000Z

While helping my son with homework over the weekend, I noticed he could do 450 / 10 almost without thinking, but the moment he hit 450 /

Why Do Computers Represent Text and Numbers Differently?

2025-12-19T20:00:00.000Z

I’ve been teaching my son programming from scratch. While explaining how computers represent text and numbers, he suddenly

Education in the Age of AI

2025-12-06T12:00:00.000Z

I thought sending my kids down the international school route would let them escape the hyper-competition back in China. But after

Circle: The Fed on Chain

2025-06-23T22:00:00.000Z

China’s digital yuan project dates back to 2014, with official pilot programs launching in 2020. From Beijing and Shenzhen to Chengdu

Why I Went All In on CRCL

2025-06-22T16:00:00.000Z

In the previous post No Time to Think: From

No Time to Think: From Buying the Dip on Google/Tesla to All In on Circle

2025-06-21T16:00:00.000Z

I first noticed $CRCL on Futu’s “US Stock Movers” watchlist. Since its IPO, I’d been

No Time to Think: From Buying the Dip on Google/Tesla to Going All In on Circle

2025-06-21T16:00:00.000Z

I first noticed $CRCL on Futu’s “US Stock Movers” watchlist. Ever since the IPO, I

Living in Seoul (1)

2024-04-27T00:00:00.000Z

Time flies. Before I knew it, I’m about to spend my second spring in Seoul. The transition from spring to summer here is neither as

Better Metrics for Build Performance Measurement

2024-01-27T23:00:00.000Z

While doing an architecture refactor recently, I was making large-scale code changes frequently and found the Android build speed had

An Email to My Boss

2024-01-07T07:00:00.000Z

While sorting through old memos recently, I stumbled upon an email I’d written to my boss years ago. As each line flowed past, my mind

Where the Heart Leads, the Truth Follows

2024-01-01T16:00:00.000Z

A few months ago, I stumbled upon a new book called Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned, written by scientists from OpenAI, no

Running Android Code on JVM?!

2023-10-08T15:00:00.000Z

Yes, you read that right – running Android code on JVM, without an emulator or any virtualization technology. Curious how it works?

The Root Cause of Chinese Cultural Insecurity

2023-09-24T17:00:00.000Z

On a boring weekend, I took the kids to Gyeongbokgung Palace. No planning beforehand – we walked into the plaza and saw a crowd lining

How Does Booster Support AGP 8.0?

2023-05-29T00:00:00.000Z

It has been over a month since AGP 8.0 was officially released, and Booster’s adaptation to AGP 8.0 is still underway. The main

Thoughts on a Strategic Architecture Framework

2023-05-13T20:00:00.000Z

In the process of architecture design, we frequently invoke the concept of “standardization.” Standardization sets best practices and

[Repost] Stevey's Google Platforms Rant

2023-04-15T00:00:00.000Z

I was at Amazon for about six and a half years, and now I’ve been at Google for that long. One thing that struck me immediately about

Design System: A Mobile Engineering Perspective

2023-03-31T09:00:00.000Z

As mobile internet has become ubiquitous, mobile applications are now an indispensable part of daily life. To meet the growing demand

Kotlin Pitfalls: Compatibility

2022-12-07T00:00:00.000Z

In the previous post Kotlin Pitfalls: FunctionReference, I covered how to

Kotlin Pitfalls: FunctionReference

2022-12-03T14:00:00.000Z

Before Booster 4.15.0, we had been using Kotlin 1.3. The reason for sticking with such an old version was mainly Kotlin version

Education for Independent Thought

2022-11-28T00:00:00.000Z

I had the privilege of watching a lecture by the late Chinese-American physicist Shoucheng Zhang –

How to Be an Excellent PPT Engineer

2022-11-13T00:00:00.000Z

I’ve been reviewing a lot of documents written by engineers lately, and the problems are remarkably consistent: walls of text with zero

Class Reference Analysis? Booster Makes It Easy!

2022-06-08T01:00:00.000Z

As app architecture evolves, sinking foundational modules is a phase every app goes through – or will go through. During this process,

Upgrading an iMac with an SSD

2022-05-06T00:00:00.000Z

A while back, my 7-year-old MacBook Pro (Late 2013) kept running out of disk space. The 256GB SSD just wasn’t cutting it anymore. So I

The Data (Im)mutability Problem

2022-04-11T00:00:00.000Z

Whether data should be mutable or immutable after creation – despite knowing that Java’s String benefits enormously from its

It's Time to Abandon JavaPoet/KotlinPoet

2022-04-10T00:00:00.000Z

Most Android developers are familiar with JavaPoet and

Booster Collector API

2022-01-16T23:00:00.000Z

Booster maintains its high performance through two key mechanisms: parallel I/O and single-pass I/O. What does “single-pass

Zero to One: Importance of Mobile App Monitoring

2021-12-31T00:00:00.000Z

Stability is one of the three most important metrics for Coupang apps in providing a Wow customer experience. The mobile app monitoring

My First UI Widget

2021-12-19T00:00:00.000Z

Although I’ve been programming in Java for well over a decade, JavaScript was actually the first programming language

Designing Testable App Architecture (Part 2)

2021-12-18T00:00:00.000Z

In Designing Testable App Architecture (Part 1), we covered how

Designing Testable App Architecture (Part 1)

2021-11-23T00:00:00.000Z

Since bytecode manipulation became widespread on mobile platforms, many app architectures have adopted it. The most typical example is

Two Philosophies, Two Worlds

2021-10-31T23:00:00.000Z

I’ve been wanting to write about two different philosophies of getting things done for a long time. I kept going back and forth on the

Kotlin Pitfalls: Metadata

2021-10-29T23:00:00.000Z

I was recently using KAPT to generate Kotlin code and ran into a frustrating problem. The generated Kotlin code needed to call

Do You Really Know Java? (Part 2)

2021-10-17T15:00:00.000Z

Any Java/Android engineer knows that comparing with == checks whether two objects are the same instance – essentially

Publish to Maven Central in One Line

2021-10-07T10:00:00.000Z

Anyone who has published an open source library knows the pain: getting a library published to Maven Central through

How to Make a Gradle Plugin and Library Coexist in One Project

2021-10-06T23:00:00.000Z

When developing an Android Library that also needs a corresponding Gradle Plugin, it is not easy for

The Troubles of GUI Applications

2021-10-01T23:00:00.000Z

In the booming era of mobile internet, many modern programming languages emerged. Write Once and Run Anywhere is no longer

Do You Really Know Java? (Part 1)

2021-09-21T13:00:00.000Z

I was driving when a WeChat message came in: “Hey, why does this code output 0? …” Since I was behind the wheel, I didn’t

Days Like Years, Both Ways

2021-09-20T02:00:00.000Z

I was sitting quietly, reflecting on life, when it suddenly hit me that I’d already been at Coupang for a full year. Running through the

Lost Youth

2021-08-09T00:00:00.000Z

While cleaning up disk space, I stumbled upon recordings of myself playing guitar from years ago. Listening to one of them transported

What Does the Deprecation of AGP Transform API Mean?

2021-08-02T00:00:00.000Z

AGP 7.0 was officially released a few days ago. Sharp-eyed developers may have noticed that the Transform API, which had been around

Truth and Reality

2021-06-10T00:00:00.000Z

Human society is so complex that the vast majority of people have no clue how the world actually works. Take “economics” – most people

You Won't Become a Master

2021-05-26T12:00:00.000Z

You read that right. You won’t become a master. You think you’re in the top 20%, but you’re actually in the 80%. Don’t argue.

What's New in Java 11

2021-05-07T11:00:00.000Z

Java 11 was released on September 25, 2018 and is currently open for bug fixes. It provides LTS (Long-Term Support), which is why newer

What's New in Java 10

2021-05-07T10:00:00.000Z

Java 10, developed under JSR 383, was officially released on March 20, 2018. Oracle provides production-ready binaries under

What's New in Java 9

2021-05-07T09:00:00.000Z

At JavaOne 2011, Oracle discussed features they hoped to release with Java 9 in 2016. Java 9 was expected to offer

What's New in Java 8

2021-05-07T08:00:00.000Z

Java 8 was released on March 18, 2014, incorporating features originally planned for Java 7 but postponed. Java 8 dropped support for

What's New in Java 7

2021-05-07T07:00:00.000Z

Java 7, codenamed Dolphin, was a major update that debuted on July 7, 2011 and became available to developers on July 28, 2011.

What's New in Java 6

2021-05-07T06:00:00.000Z

Java 6, codenamed Mustang, was released on December 11, 2006. Sun renamed “J2SE” to “Java SE” and

What's New in Java 5

2021-05-07T05:00:00.000Z

J2SE 5.0, codenamed Tiger, was released on September 30, 2004. Originally numbered 1.5 following the internal versioning

New Features Across Java Versions

2021-05-07T00:00:00.000Z

How to Write Elegant Code

2021-05-06T00:00:00.000Z

I recently reviewed code from several colleagues. The logic was mostly sound, but the code itself felt far from elegant – simple

Grateful to You

2021-04-20T02:00:00.000Z

They say behind every successful man there is a great woman. I may not count as successful, but I have been diligent enough. Along my

Architecture Training Camp

2021-03-30T00:00:00.000Z

Yesterday I posted a job listing – Building a

Building a Mobile App Monitoring Platform from Scratch

2021-03-27T00:00:00.000Z

For mobile apps, a monitoring platform is foundational infrastructure. Since it spans client-side, server-side, big data, and

Short Video Preloading (Part 2)

2021-03-24T07:00:00.000Z

A friend recently asked me: “How do you evaluate a candidate’s architecture design skills during interviews?” That’s not an easy

The First Pot of Gold

2021-03-04T00:00:00.000Z

Growing up, I read about famous entrepreneurs who earned their first pot of gold while still in school, then rode that momentum all the

Revisiting Old Friends and Stories

2021-02-14T00:00:00.000Z

Leafing through an old diary, I stumbled upon a piece I wrote years ago – “Old Friends and Stories.” Reading it again, the words still

Short Video Preloading (Part 1)

2021-02-10T03:00:00.000Z

In an era where user experience is king, “Video View” count is one of the most important metrics for measuring experience quality in a