A photo of Maximilian Schwarzmuller Maximilian Schwarzmüller
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Articles & thoughts

Notes and essays about software development, AI, devops, tooling, and everything else I find worth writing down.

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  • May 5, 2026

    Pi: A Coding Agent That Gets Out Of The Way

    Pi is a minimal terminal coding agent that can read, edit and run code - but its real strength is how easily you can adapt it to your own workflow.

  • December 22, 2025

    2025: A Look Back

    A look back at 2025 from the perspective of a web developer - who's both excited about AI and not always thrilled about it

  • October 23, 2025

    Meta AI Layoffs: The End Of The AI Hype?

    After gong on a hiring spree for 100s of millions this summer, Meta's 600 people layoff seems surprising. But it's part of a bigger plan and power struggle as it seems.

  • September 23, 2025

    I Built An AI Business Headshots Service

    Naturally, as a developer in need of a professinal business headshot, I built an entire AI business headshots service. You can try it, too!

  • May 26, 2025

    Gemma 3n May Be Amazing

    Gemma 3n is a new open large language model by Google that combines two models into one, offers multimodal capabilities, and runs locally with reduced memory requirements. Here's why it may be amazing.

  • May 15, 2025

    My Top 5 Ways of Using Generative AI and LLMs

    You can get more done by leveraging LLMs and generative AI. But it's probably not so much about an "AI Agent Army" as it is about using AI for specific tasks. Here are some examples of how I use AI in my daily work.

  • May 9, 2025

    AI Has A Favorite Tech Stack. That's A Problem!

    Large Language Models (LLMs) are great at generating code, but they often default to a narrow set of technologies. This could stifle innovation and lead to outdated practices.

  • May 7, 2025

    Using Open LLMs On-Demand via Bedrock

    Running open LLMs locally or self-hosting them is great, but it can be a hassle (AND may require significant resources). Services like Amazon Bedrock allow you to use (and pay for) open models on-demand, without the hassle of self-hosting.

  • May 7, 2025

    Why LLMs Need GPUs and VRAM

    Many large language models (LLMs) can be run on your own computer. And whilst you don't need a supercomputer, having a decent GPU and enough VRAM will help a lot. Here's why.

  • May 5, 2025

    The Danger of Relying Too Much on AI

    AI coding assistants are powerful tools, and, to some extent, they can replace developers. But they are not a replacement for coding skills. In fact, they make coding skills even more important. The danger just is that we might forget that.

  • May 1, 2025

    Mixture of Experts (MoE) vs Dense LLMs

    Mixture of Experts (MoE) LLMs promise faster inference than traditional Dense models. But the model names can be confusing. And a surprise might await when trying to run them locally.

  • April 30, 2025

    Don't Sleep On Running Open LLMs Locally

    You don't need ChatGPT or Google Gemini for everything. Running open LLMs locally is a great way to save costs and have more control over your data. It's super easy, you don't need a supercomputer, and those models are way better than you may think.

  • April 30, 2025

    Making Sense of Quantization

    Quantization is a technique that essentially "compresses" the weights of a LLM, hence allowing it to run on way less (V)RAM than it would otherwise need. This is a game changer for running open LLMs like Gemma, Qwen or Llama locally.

  • April 10, 2025

    Making Sense of Google's A2A Protocol

    Google's new A2A (Agent-to-Agent) Protocol aims to standardize how different AI agents communicate. But which problems does it solve? How does it relate to MCP (model context protocol)? And is it all just hype?

  • April 10, 2025

    Server-sent Events (SSE): The Champion Nobody Knows

    You might not need WebSockets! Server-Sent Events (SSE) are a simple yet powerful alternative to WebSockets for unidirectional data streaming from server to client. Perfect for real-time updates with automatic reconnection and easy integration.

  • April 3, 2025

    AI-powered Development: The Good Parts

    AI can boost developer productivity - it's not just marketing. But it's also not a magic "vibe coding" wand. Instead, it's all about TAB, TAB, TAB and the occasional chat.

  • March 18, 2025

    Looking Beyond the Hype: What's MCP All About?

    There's a new buzzword in AI-town: MCP - or 'Model Context Protocol'. But what is it? And why should you care despite the annoying hype?

  • March 13, 2025

    What Are "Machine Code" & "Byte Code" Anyways?

    You often hear (and maybe even say) it: Something compiles to "machine code". For example Go. Or Rust. But what does that actually mean? And what's the difference to "byte code"?

  • March 12, 2025

    TypeScript in Go: Why Not Rust?

    The TypeScript team shared that they're porting their compiler and type checker to Go. Not everyone's happy about the free performance gain, though. The question is: Why not Rust?

  • March 6, 2025

    Vibe Coding Is NOT My Future

    Vibe coding, a term coined by Andrej Karpathy, is all about letting LLMs generate code for you. I'm not convinced it's the future of coding, though.

  • March 2, 2025

    Use AI Assistants With Care

    AI is here to stay and it WILL likely replace developers. Developers who don't leverage its advantages. The same will happen to developers who rely too much on AI assistants, though.

  • March 1, 2025

    Modern Node.js Can Do That?

    Chances are high that you're using unnecessary third-party libraries. Stop wasting modern Node.js' potential!

  • February 27, 2025

    Making Sense of tsconfig

    The tsconfig.json file is a file most developers aren't touching. For a good reason! There are many options and settings with non-descriptive names and unclear effect. It doesn't have to be like that, though.

© Maximilian Schwarzmuller

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