Aaron Held

๐Ÿ‘‹ Hi, I’m Aaron Held

Engineering Leader & Software Architect I’ve been leading engineering teams and building software for over two decades, and there’s still so much to learn. I built the engineering team that helped Gopuff become Philadelphia’s beloved unicorn startup. Currently at Swiftly.com, I’m working to counter the damage done by the ‘winner-take-most’ mentality of overfunded startups. I believe regional grocery stores should thriveโ€”we can do better than discount stores and dark kitchens.

Streamlining Blog Writing with Claude Code: My Complete Workflow

Introduction For over 25 years, Iโ€™ve blogged through countless iterations of my writing and technical processes. Recently, Iโ€™ve found something that makes writing enjoyable again: Claude Code. This isnโ€™t another โ€œAI will replace writersโ€ story. Itโ€™s about how AI can enhance creative expression by handling the tedious parts of content creation. Crucially, it helps me overcome the final hurdle: actually publishing. Most of my posts start as first drafts that never see the light of day. Now, my Robot Buddy guides me through the entire process, from idea to execution. In this post, Iโ€™ll walk you through my complete workflow from initial idea to published post, showing exactly how Claude Code integrates with Hugo, my static site generator of choice. Youโ€™ll see real screenshots, actual commands, and the genuine collaborative process that happens when human insight meets AI assistance. ...

September 6, 2025 ยท 17 min ยท Aaron Held

Agile vs Economic Downturns

Is the Economy derailing your Agile Transformations? Economic uncertainty hits. Layoffs are all over the news and productivity suffers. Every time, I see people wanting to blame the loss or productivity on budget cuts and layoffs. That is the short term impact, but I see longer term harm playing out. Teams that were thriving on collaborative decision-making suddenly go quiet. The same people who were debating sprint priorities and pushing back on requirements start waiting for marching orders from above. ...

September 5, 2025 ยท 4 min ยท Aaron Held

The Weapon by Fredric Brown

๐—ฃ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐˜ƒ๐—ผ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐—ฅ๐—ผ๐—ฑ ๐—ฆ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜ˆ ๐˜ฒ๐˜ถ๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ต ๐˜ด๐˜ถ๐˜ฃ๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜ฃ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ. ๐˜ˆ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ, ๐˜ข ๐˜ด๐˜ค๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ต, ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜บ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜ฏ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ด ๐˜ง๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ. ๐˜๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ด ๐˜จ๐˜ช๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ญ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ข ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ถ๐˜ญ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ธ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ, ๐˜ข ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ๐˜ญ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ถ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ฆ. ๐˜๐˜ฆ ๐˜ด๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฑ๐˜ด ๐˜ด๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ๐˜ญ๐˜บ, ๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ด ๐˜ค๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ด๐˜ค๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ค๐˜ฆ ๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ฃ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ฃ๐˜บ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ฃ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ค๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ด ๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ. ๐˜‰๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ต๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ช๐˜จ๐˜ฉ๐˜ต, ๐˜ข ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜จ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜ฌ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ๐˜ค๐˜ฌ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฉ๐˜ช๐˜ด ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ. ๐˜ˆ ๐˜ด๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ญ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ, ๐˜ข ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ, ๐˜ธ๐˜ช๐˜ต๐˜ฉ ๐˜ข ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ๐˜ญ๐˜บ ๐˜ด๐˜ช๐˜ฎ๐˜ฑ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ ๐˜จ๐˜ช๐˜ง๐˜ต ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ด๐˜ค๐˜ช๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ด๐˜ตโ€™๐˜ด ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ด๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ. ๐˜๐˜ต ๐˜ช๐˜ด ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ต ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ค๐˜ข๐˜ด๐˜ถ๐˜ข๐˜ญ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ข๐˜ญ๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ฆ, ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ฑ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฑ๐˜ด, ๐˜ข ๐˜ฑ๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ข๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต. ๐˜๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ช๐˜ด ๐˜ข ๐˜ญ๐˜ฐ๐˜ข๐˜ฅ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ณ๐˜ฆ๐˜ท๐˜ฐ๐˜ญ๐˜ท๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ. ...

August 27, 2025 ยท 1 min ยท Aaron Held

We Finally Care About Context

I was reviewing an older repository during a production incident the other day and couldnโ€™t figure out what sections of the code were doing or what the overall system looked like. Itโ€™s so frustrating to be in undocumented code. Software documentation is a mature pillar of engineering these days. The tools are there, the patterns exist, the documentation standards are well-established. We justโ€ฆ donโ€™t do it. Why donโ€™t we when there is documented correlation between high performing engineering teams and open and accessible codebases? ...

July 14, 2025 ยท 3 min ยท Aaron Held

The Lost Art of Casual Conversation

I love taking the train to New York. Itโ€™s one of the few places left where you can strike up a genuine conversation with a complete strangerโ€”or so I thought. The other day, waiting on the platform for the NYC train, I fell into conversation with a friendly, grey-haired man who turned out to be a biology professor. We swapped stories about our kids: his son was diving into Python for machine learning, my daughter was studying virology. One of those lovely, serendipitous encounters that makes me appreciate Philadelphia. ...

June 24, 2025 ยท 2 min ยท Aaron Held