Balancing cloud innovation with AI practicality, this week’s notes blend Azure updates, .NET’s AI roadmap, and clever Python hacks. A sharp reminder on burnout prevention anchors the mix, while creative teams and DevOps culture inspire fresh perspectives. From Docker model runners to Git worktrees, every corner here offers actionable insights or a spark of curiosity, no clichés, just tools and truths for developers navigating the stormy seas of tech.
Suggestion of the week
- To Every Developer Close To Burnout, Read This · theSeniorDev (Dragos Nedelcu) - Your friendly reminder to take care of yourself, it's more important than we think. Everyone should read this.
Cloud
- Azure Developer CLI (azd) - January 2026: Configuration & Performance ( PuiChee (PC) Chan) - Happy to see this great tool getting updated, as I will need it soon.
AI
.NET AI Essentials - The Core Building Blocks Explained - .NET Blog (Jeremy Likness) - A really interesting first post to a series with a lot of promises on .NET and AI
Unlocking AI's full potential: Why context is everything (Rahul Auradkar) - Learn how to avoid the pitfall of too many enterprises where they are agents are data-rich but are missing context.
Optimizing Python scripts with AI – Daniel Lemire's blog - Cool idea! This post shares how a Python script was used to aggregate c++ files following some rules.
Use Claude Code with Docker Model Runner (Dorin Geman) - Short tutorial use use your local model in one more tool.
Podcasts
493: Git's most powerful but underutilized tool (Merge Conflict) - Great episode where I finally understood what Git work trees are and how to use them in VSCode. Frank is also hilarious in this episode with all the emojis
Scott Hanselman: The Future of Software Engineering - Episode 382 (Azure & DevOps Podcast) - The Future of Software Engineering is definitely a hot topic; nice episode.
122. How AI Is Transforming Human Resources - with Ana Inés Urrutia (Betatalks the podcast) - AI is affecting ALL domains and is accessible to everyone. I'm always curious to learn more details on how.
Miscellaneous
- How a Creative Team Learned to Love Azure DevOps (Golnaz ) - More teams should take an example from this and bend tools to fully help them. We shouldn't accept the status quo. It's also great to see the synergy between different teams.
~frank