MC.50: AI Just Changed My Coding Life

Hello everyone,

For the past week, I've been playing around with Cursor, a code editor built to be the best at coding with AI.

Until know, AI tools around coding weren’t at a state to fundamentally change the way I work. Autocompletion got better and better, code generation also but my day was still about implementing most of the code.

But this... this is different.

I've been coding for almost two decades, and I never thought I'd say this, but I'm seriously considering switching from Emacs to Cursor. I know, I know, it sounds crazy. But Cursor's Composer mode and tab feature are just that good.

For the first time ever, most of my work is just giving directions to an AI. The Composer handles the edits, and I just review, apply, or tweak as needed. It's like having a coding buddy who actually gets what you're trying to do.

And it's not just Cursor. Zed just dropped a beta AI feature, using an unknown feature from Anthropic called Fast Editing Mode. Then there's Codegen, which launched two days ago and is all about analyzing your whole codebase to help with multi-file edits. .

We are moving in a new phase, a good one: unlike those AI Agent companies (looking at you, Devin), these tools are actually making us faster. They are a pragmatic take at AI. They're shortening our iteration cycles, which is what we've always want as developers. It's why we obsess over our editors, swap workflow tips, and geek out over vim tricks.

I've got a feeling we're about to see a boom in solopreneurs building products at lightning speed. We might even start seeing more companies worth millions run by tiny teams of less than 10 people. As the tools get better and AI keeps improving, this could become the new normal.

If you want to get in on this, here's what I'd suggest:

1. Cursor: The Composer is still in beta, but it's solid. I haven't hit any major bugs.

2. Zed.ai: It's free while in beta. Their assistant panel and workflow features are cool, but they might struggle a bit with applying changes to your codebase. Keep an eye out for updates.

3. Codegen: This one's built for big, existing codebases. It's not open access though - you'll need to request a demo.

This week feels like a real turning point. My day went from 80% me doing the implementation to 80% AI. People could say my projects are trivial, hence this success. It might be, but the previous state of AI in my workflow wasn’t even near. My last “wow” example was avoiding a compiler bug in Swift 6 around continuations by patching dozens of files with different solutions.

Now, let’s see if I can convince my customers to allow AI assisted development for their projects and switch my development agency to a next-level of productivity.

Sam

Hire Ava, the AI SDR & Get Meetings on Autopilot

Ava automates your entire outbound demand generation process, including:

• Intent-Driven Lead Discovery

• High Quality Emails with Waterfall Personalization

• Follow-Up Management

Free up your sales team to focus on high-value interactions and closing deals, while Ava handles the time-consuming tasks.

Book a demo to see how Ava can 10x your outbound.

Enjoyed this newsletter? Forward it to a friend and have them sign up here.

Until next Thursday 🎉