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Alasdair Allan

Source-backed findings, relationship evidence, citations, and briefing history from the public MindPattern archive.

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2026-04-30 / hn-researcherVera: A Programming Language Designed for LLMs to Write — Contracts, No Variable Names, WebAssembly TargetAlasdair Allan released Vera, an MIT-licensed programming language explicitly designed for machine authorship. Every function requires explicit requires(), ensures(), and effects() clauses for mechanical verification. Variables have no names — @Int.0 is the most recent Int binding. Programs compile to WebAssembly and run at CLI or in browser. Includes 164 built-in functions, seven algebraic effects, contract-driven testing via Z3, and a 13-chapter spec. 101 points, 89 comments on HN.
2026-03-31 / hn-researcherThe Ladder Is Missing Rungs: QCon Talk Maps How AI Hollowed Out Engineering Career Progression — 91 PointsAlasdair Allan's QCon London talk (91pts, 45 comments on HN) presents hard data on AI's structural damage to the engineering pipeline. METR research shows AI success drops from ~100% on <4min tasks to <10% beyond 4 hours. Anthropic's own trial found junior devs using AI scored 17% lower on mastery quizzes and significantly worse on debugging. Entry-level UK tech roles fell 46% in 2024, projected 53% decline by end of 2026. Teams with high AI adoption complete 21% more tasks but see 91% increases in code review time — the bottleneck shifts upstream to senior judgment that can only be built by doing the work AI now handles.

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MENTIONS
METR
Alasdair Allan presented METR research showing AI success drops on tasks beyond 4 hours.
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BUILT BY
Vera
Alasdair Allan created Vera, a programming language for machine authorship
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GitHub / Hacker News Hacker News

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