I mean...you should always design with speed in mind (In that Jeff Dean sense :) but what 'premature optimization' is referring to, is more like localized speed optimizations/hacks. Don't do those until a) you know you'll need it and b) you know where it will help.

Ok, fellow old hacker here. I have a similar problem and I found that a lot of the hand pain was from mouse/trackpad usage. My hands have been a lot happier since going to a trackball because I don't do nearly as much gripping and pressing.

Also, a vertical mouse works wonders for similar mouse-related tendon issues.

Non-technical founder? Can you line up investors or customers based on your pitch? That's pretty much the acid test.

They didn't go anywhere. Lots of excellent starship/space opera novels out there with more coming out each year. There's just lots there stuff too. :)

Nice! Old me and my old bike are sticking to 200kms this year. :)

Who wants to be on-call for someone else's buggy vibe-coded app? Sign me right up for that...

Very much this.

Yeah...I know some delta pilots and apparently the inflight computers were sometimes spending more time playing chess than flying the plane...

Alas, AI generated code is usually more tech debt.

Is my remote experiences strange or do other remote workers not have some sort of chat where people ask if you've got a minute and drop in a video conference link if they need a quick chat on something?

No idea, but yes, that's exactly how we do it. We've been full remote since COVID and honestly, I don't think any of us would want it any other way but we're a very small team so not representative of larger trends.