https://maniginam.dev Software craftsmanship, responsible AI, leadership lessons from chemical plants, and the messy reality of building things that work. en-us Wed, 04 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://maniginam.dev/blog/twenty-kills-per-second https://maniginam.dev/blog/twenty-kills-per-second Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT My oldest came skidding around the corner in socks on hardwood — eyes wide, voice cracking with the particular urgency that only an eight-year-old whose Minecraft world is under siege can produce. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/the-board-doesnt-lie https://maniginam.dev/blog/the-board-doesnt-lie Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT Every morning at 6:15, before the coffee kicked in, we stood in front of the board. Five letters. Big. Color-coded. Red or green. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/build-it-once https://maniginam.dev/blog/build-it-once Sun, 04 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT Your MVP has a procurement process to survive. A security review. A compliance checklist. A VP who put their name on the approval. It has to live in that world from day one. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/bland-confidence https://maniginam.dev/blog/bland-confidence Thu, 17 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT One of our AI agents rewrote a function, ran the tests, watched them pass, and shipped it. Except the function was wrong. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/we-build-software-with-responsible-ai https://maniginam.dev/blog/we-build-software-with-responsible-ai Wed, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Teams are building AI features with none of the discipline they'd apply to literally any other part of their system. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/the-hive-is-open https://maniginam.dev/blog/the-hive-is-open Tue, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT I was sitting at my desk with six AI agents running in six terminal panes, and I couldn't tell what any of them were doing. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/i-made-some-mistakes https://maniginam.dev/blog/i-made-some-mistakes Tue, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT Last week I committed a Secure cookie flag to production that only worked on localhost. The AI helped with all of it. Enthusiastically. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/leadership-is-hard https://maniginam.dev/blog/leadership-is-hard Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT I decided to save my original EPIC drawings by laminating them, only to remember I'd drawn them with a heat-sensitive erasable pen. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/navigating-the-unknown https://maniginam.dev/blog/navigating-the-unknown Tue, 06 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT Spending ten years in chemical manufacturing is not the typical path to preparing for a career in software development. But that's what I did. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/epic-growth https://maniginam.dev/blog/epic-growth Thu, 07 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMT From a toddler's one-word school report to building a full production platform — a reflection on growth, persistence, and the slow accumulation of craft. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/dont-get-stranded-testlessly https://maniginam.dev/blog/dont-get-stranded-testlessly Wed, 01 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT On the importance of testing and what happens when you skip it — told through the lens of learning TDD from scratch. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/car-soup-is-too-hot https://maniginam.dev/blog/car-soup-is-too-hot Tue, 31 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT Life lessons from toddlers, applied to software development. Sometimes the simplest observations cut the deepest. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/milk-is-in-a-cup https://maniginam.dev/blog/milk-is-in-a-cup Wed, 25 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT Observations from raising kids while learning to code — where the mundane becomes metaphor. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/pee-youp https://maniginam.dev/blog/pee-youp Tue, 17 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT The apprenticeship continues. Learning, failing, growing — with colorful commentary from the peanut gallery at home. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/stuck-and-growing-fast https://maniginam.dev/blog/stuck-and-growing-fast Mon, 16 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT That particular feeling when you're stuck on a problem and growing at the same time. The apprenticeship grind, unvarnished. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/the-start-of-two-recurs https://maniginam.dev/blog/the-start-of-two-recurs Thu, 12 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT Recursion, explained — twice. When code calls itself and toddlers repeat themselves, the parallels are uncanny. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/cheeky-butt https://maniginam.dev/blog/cheeky-butt Mon, 09 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT Kids say the darndest things. So do error messages. Reflections from the intersection of parenting and programming. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/refactor-refactor-drop https://maniginam.dev/blog/refactor-refactor-drop Fri, 06 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT Learning to refactor code while learning to let go. The apprenticeship diaries continue. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/cats-vs-http https://maniginam.dev/blog/cats-vs-http Wed, 04 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT HTTP status codes explained through the universal language of cats. Because sometimes the best way to learn protocols is through memes. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/roadmaps https://maniginam.dev/blog/roadmaps Mon, 02 Aug 2021 00:00:00 GMT Planning the path forward — apprenticeship roadmaps, learning plans, and figuring out what to tackle next. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/choo-choo-peanut-poop https://maniginam.dev/blog/choo-choo-peanut-poop Sat, 31 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT The title says it all. Parenthood meets apprenticeship in the most unglamorous way possible. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/dragon-drops https://maniginam.dev/blog/dragon-drops Wed, 21 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT Drag and drop, explained. Also dragons. The early apprenticeship blog entries where code concepts meet creative storytelling. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/eleventeen https://maniginam.dev/blog/eleventeen Tue, 20 Jul 2021 00:00:00 GMT The very beginning. Starting a software apprenticeship with two small kids, a chemical engineering background, and zero idea what I was getting into. Gina Martiny https://maniginam.dev/blog/a-path-for-beginners https://maniginam.dev/blog/a-path-for-beginners Mon, 03 May 2021 00:00:00 GMT I wanted to learn how to code, but I neither knew where to start or what that path forward might look like. A decade of false starts before finding the right approach. Gina Martiny