From Retail to AI: Pattern Recognition Across 50 Years From Retail to AI: Pattern Recognition Across 50 Years My first job in tech was in a lumber yard. Seriously. Rod Claar / Wednesday, June 3, 2026 0 442 Article rating: No rating Rod Claar traces a through-line from his earliest work in a 1972 lumber yard to his current role as an AI trainer — revealing that the core skill connecting both worlds is pattern recognition. The post reframes AI for skeptics and late adopters: AI isn't magic, it's pattern matching at scale. Professionals with decades of real-world problem-solving experience already possess the foundational thinking that makes AI useful. The message is empowering — your past experience is an asset, not a liability, in the age of AI. Read more
What Changed in Software Development This Week Because of AI Five facts from the past seven days, and what each one means for your Scrum team. Rod Claar / Tuesday, June 2, 2026 0 580 Article rating: No rating Five facts from the past week — a stronger Claude, metered Copilot billing, a cheap new Grok coding model, a more autonomous Cursor, and a permanent DeepSeek price cut — and what each means for your Scrum team. Read more
The Prompt is the Program The Prompt is the Program Clean code starts with clear thinking. Rod Claar / Monday, June 1, 2026 0 553 Article rating: No rating Rod Claar draws a direct parallel between writing clean code and writing effective AI prompts. The core idea: vague instructions produce broken results, whether you're coding or prompting. Developers already have the structured thinking required to write great prompts — they just need to apply it to AI. The post offers four practical rules for better prompts and closes with a concrete example showing the difference between a weak prompt and a precise, program-like one. Read more