I was finally able to take a damned vacation a month ago, and I needed it as I was burning out in a big way. I'm so glad I did because I was able to explore things I had wanted to explore forever, specifically digging through the hype and hyperbole about AI coding and coming up with a better story than "let's vibe code a game".
From this two week vacation came an idea that I am now wrapping up into something more - but I'm not ready to talk about it just yet as there are few more things I need to work on. I could use your help, however, and I'll detail that in a minute.
There's context to all of this that I think is important to understand.
Vacation? No Problem! Just Be Sure to Log In.
For over a year I had been working at least one weekend a month and well over 50 hours a week. I loved it, I hated it.
I want to make this clear: I am not complaining about the opportunity I had at Microsoft (I got laid off on May 13th). I was working on the VS Code team, making YouTube videos, writing blog posts, and speaking at conferences. This was a very high profile assignment and I was stoked.
I was also completely burned out. I would finish one thing and then have to start two more. "It's the nature of the beast" is what I kept hearing - and it's true. VS Code and Copilot are at the center of what Microsoft is focused on in the developer community. Things change, we have to move fast. That comes at a price, though.
I needed to recharge for the longest time, and I kept trying to take time off but the answer I got, consistently, went something like this (in summary form):
Of course! Take whatever time you need man! You're no good if you're burning out. Just make sure you dial in to our [series of meetings] and get the content out on time. No one else can do what you're doing.
So that's not a vacation. I wanted one where I could turn off Outlook and not respond to anyone. I finally planned two months ahead and simply announced I would be gone and not reachable. Happily, everyone understood and wished me well.
Oh, the irony. The Monday I returned I spent most of the day going over email and messages. Most of these were requests for Copilot workshops for an internal team. I had been giving more and more of them, and our teams were loving them.
The next day after my return, Tuesday, I was laid off. Nothing to do with my vacation, just very poor timing. Evidently nothing to do with my performance either, I was kicking ass.
That's the way these things go, I suppose.
The Most Fun I Had at Microsoft
This is the bizarre thing: I was giving workshops to thousands of internal folks (mostly engineers) on how best to increase efficiency with AI which, in my case, meant Copilot. I had workshops lined up for months, and was receiving multiple inquiries every day! It was absolute madness, but worth it as I was helping thousands of folks and also getting some great feedback.
The key was this: focus on them and their work. Just a dash of Copilot, here and there, goes a very, very long way and it really can bring joy to your day.
I was talking to teams of all kinds - .NET, front and back end, database - they all wanted to know if (and how) Copilot could help them and their team. It didn't matter what IDE they were using - they wanted to see what's possible in VS Code with Copilot.
This, friends, is my wheelhouse: "Hey Rob, go explore X and tell us if it can do Y and Z". You won't hear from me for a few days, but I typically come back and show you Y, Z and then A through M. I can't help myself! I love to explore.
"I Didn't Know That Was Possible..."
Believe me: I am well aware of "AI fatigue". The engineers I was talking to were dealing with it as well - imagine working insideMicrosoft and hearing about Copilot (in its various incarnations) every single day. The point is: I had to make this interesting to people who are over it.
I think I succeeded.
I was showing a group of .NET engineers how you can use Copilot's Agent mode to fix compile errors. Turns out it's pretty fun with a prompt like this:
Run dotnet build and fix the build errors
Copilot will run the command in the terminal, read the output, and then systematically go through and fix the errors it finds. When I showed this, I read the inevitable comment (it was a friendly one despite the terseness here):
Neat trick. Have fun fixing the mess š¤
I was ready for that, however, so I stopped the Agent from running and changed my prompt:
Run dotnet build and create a report in a markdown file (errors.md) of the errors encountered with your suggestions for a fix. Don't change the code.
This is what I love about these workshops: you can be as chapped on AI as you want, but when you see what it can do and how much time it will save you, even the worst critics are impressed.
Another person asked a question that I thought was interesting:
Is there a setting that will create a log or something so we can review the conversation and what Copilot did?
I thought that was a great question. Being able to audit what Copilot did in Agent mode as well as the prompt you used could be extremely valuable for sharing and learning. Unfortunately, there was no logging capability that I could find at the time of the workshop.
But then again, why not ask Copilot to do that?
Summarize this session in a markdown document called "copilot_log.md" that I can use as a learning review with my team
Once again, people's minds were blown. The output log was well formatted with the code created and my prompts, and a cascade of clap emojis flew across the screen (we were on Teams).
Let's Turn This All The Way Up and See What Happens...
This is where my vacation comes in to the story. Getting over burnout sometimes means shutting the lid of your laptop and staring at grass. Other times it means doing what's fun and reminding yourself why you do what you do.
I opted for the latter. I was staying at my buddy's place on Kauai and was having coffee one morning wondering how hard it would be to convert an old Rails app to Astro using Copilot and Agent mode. I do this kind of thing from time (or every year really) and I can't help myself. It's a comfort thing.
So I sat down and created a new Astro application, copied my Rails app to a directory called "rails", and told Copilot's agent to look at the layout and copy it to my Astro app as exactly as possible.
It was perfect. Thank god my buddy wasn't home as I let out a WHOOP! that was kind of embarrassing. I might have actually shrieked.
The next 3 hours were a blur as I pointed Copilot's Agent to copy the home page, extract components, and layer in Firebase authentication. It was thrilling to say the least.
I had taken so many great notes on how I got past certain problems, and how working in small increments really was the key, as well as moving "outside in" and always having something to look at after each Agent session.
After a few days I decided I didn't want to replace my Rails app because it just seemed like too much work. I have a CMS system in there and a bunch of other stuff that I figured would take far too long to replace and, besides, I didn't know Astro all that well so I couldn't be sure the code produced wasn't complete crap.
But what if I used a platform I know well... something like Nuxt (a Vue.js framework)? I've deployed several Nuxt sites over the years and... what if I just... tried this one thing...
Uh oh. Let me just summarize what happened next by saying that I devoted a total of 18 hours to completely replace and upgrade my Rails site; last weekend I pushed it live.
That. Was. Fun.
I Have a Favor To Ask
That's the thing that so many people miss! Working with Copilot in just the right measure is really really fun. Having it write an entire application for you is dumb - but having it generate your data access or refactor things based on a pattern is thrilling because that means you get to do the fun, non-boilerplate-y stuff.
Anyway: a few friends have suggested I create some videos on what I've learned over the last year working with Copilot every day on the VS Code team and exploring what's possible. I want to, and I think I will, but I also would really appreciate it if I could ask you a question first as it would help me frame things better. Just reply to this email if you have the time - it would be very helpful.
Here goes: what are your top two or three concerns when it comes to working with AI and Code?
Your answer doesn't have to be specific to Copilot either.
Thank you! Oh - as for me and what I'm doing next - I have a few ideas. I might follow up on some leads or I might go back out on my own. Right now, I'm letting it wash over and through me. I don't want to make light of it: it was shocking and kind of traumatic. Like so many, I was working on high-impact stuff and ... well then I wasn't. Such is life.
Cheers!
āRob
