Mastering the Craft of Software

I help you stop fighting with technology, and rediscover the joy of creating real value as its true master.

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AI Will Replace 99% of Developers. Here’s How to Be the 1%.

The panic over AI is real, but it’s for the wrong people. This isn’t another article about the “threat” of AI. It’s a brutally honest guide that explains why the job of a “coder” is already over, and how the “architect” will become more valuable than ever. Discover the 3-step plan to ensure you’re on the right side of the divide.

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Don’t Fight the Fire. Find the Spark.

A system crash triggers chaos. Most developers stare at the code. This is the story of looking somewhere else entirely. Follow a real-world crisis as a Tech Lead methodically ignores the symptoms to find the true source of failure, revealing a powerful lesson on problem-solving, pressure, and leadership.

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Monolith vs. MSA? Stop Asking ‘Which,’ Start Asking ‘Why.

Stop the endless debates. This post provides a clear, actionable framework for choosing the right architecture for your specific context. Instead of a simple pro/con list, you’ll get the critical questions to ask about your team, business stage, and operational maturity to make a confident, strategy-driven decision.

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The Magic Behind @Transactional: A Deep Dive into Proxies and AOP

Ever wondered what really happens when you add @Transactional to a method? This isn’t magic; it’s a sophisticated process of proxy creation deep inside the Spring framework. This deep dive dissects the exact step-by-step mechanism Spring uses to intercept your calls, revealing the AOP secrets that separate a good developer from a great one.

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Latest Posts

Monolith Decomposition: Business-First Boundaries, Microservices Second

ByKai L.

Monolith Decomposition isn’t a refactor—it’s an organizational reset. Carve along the business seams—code follows. Principled Microservices Playbook This article is a standalone deep dive on how to properly decompose a monolith and is a chapter in our comprehensive series. You don’t need any prior context to get the full value from this post. To explore…

Spring @Transactional: Class vs Method — A Critical Design Choice

ByKai L.

Most developers see @Transactional as a magic spell for data integrity. But a deeper understanding reveals it’s a powerful policy enforced by a proxy. This perspective immediately leads to a critical design question that is often overlooked: where should this policy be declared? This is not a simple coding convention. This decision directly impacts your…

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@Transactional is Not Enough: A Deep Dive into Spring’s PlatformTransactionManager

ByKai L.

We’ve all seen it. A critical operation fails halfway through, leaving data in a corrupted, inconsistent state. The @Transactional annotation was supposed to be the safety net, but it failed. The problem isn’t the tool. It’s the blind faith we place in it. To build truly resilient systems, we can’t just trust the magic. We…

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Kai L. Character face

Technology changes. Principles don’t.

My mission here is to cut through the noise of fleeting tools and share the timeless mindset of a true software architect.

It’s not just about coding better—it’s about thinking better.

Learn More About My Philosophy →