The inane mutterings of Alexander Foxleigh
Hi. I'm Alex, I'm a lead frontend engineer and design systems specialist with a passion for building performant, accessible and highly usable web applications.
You can find out more about me by reading my blog, taking a look at my website or having a look at my social links which are below in the footer.
Here is an assorted collection of my rants, ravings and general ramblings. I apologise in advance.
After 12 years of contracting, I’ve decided it’s time to go permanent. This isn’t about the state of the market or personal burnout; it’s that my career has changed. I’ve gone from hands-on delivery to shaping systems, mentoring teams, and driving long-term strategy. That kind of work needs continuity, and contracting just doesn’t make as much sense for it anymore.
If you’ve ever had your AI pair-programmer produce code that looks nothing like what you had in mind, then you may be skipping a step with the AI that - before the AI revolution - you did all the time without realising it. Planning!
There was a time when writing beautiful code was the goal, where naming was poetry and indentation was sacred. But let’s be honest: it wasn’t about performance or outcomes. It was about making life easier for (and impressing) other developers. That era is fading fast, replaced by a world where results matter more than elegance and code isn’t written for humans anymore.
If you’ve ever copied something out of ChatGPT and pasted it into LinkedIn, Notion, or your CMS, I make a quick little tool to help you out.
You’re told to post daily, engage constantly, and craft a personal brand to stand out on LinkedIn. But between spam bots, content farming, and the creeping suspicion that half your audience isn’t even human, the whole thing starts to feel hollow. Welcome to the absurd reality of job hunting on LinkedIn in 2025.
We're on the brink of a major shift. For decades, the stereotype of the ideal developer has been the same: someone who lives, breathes, and dreams in code. They memorise algorithms, wrestle endlessly with syntax, and churn through lines faster than anyone else in the room. And for a long time, that's been enough. But those days are ending.
Development recruitment is broken and not suitable for the current era. It focuses on the ability to regurgitate memorised facts under pressure and does not focus on things that actually matter. Here's how to do it better.
A few days ago, I asked ChatGPT to tell me about "The Krell Tool Paradox" and how it affected ADHD. The answer was really well thought out and offered some real insight into how much ADHD people can struggle with the tools we use to help us. The only problem is, I completely made it up!