gen-z-developers.sgit.ai → The second edition

Generation ZX Developers (GenAI Startup Edition)

Release candidate v2.0.0-rc2, 2026-10-19: 41 chapters in 10 parts, 73,314 words, written from 198 of the 198 ideas in the register, with 47 places where only Dinis can fill in what is missing. The book rewritten under the Gen ZX frame Dinis chose (decision 014): two generations, the founder as the reader, the objective that by the end the reader has started a company, a new part Start the company at the centre, Building, safely rebuilt as Build it without a server, a new first chapter and four more hands-on chapters, the measure in the last chapter; the round-1 batch of newsroom articles processed into ideas and written in. Where the newsroom has no article yet (the UK company, Lithuania, Portugal, the EU, the first customers, the community), the chapter stands as its title, its ideas and what is missing.

A release candidate, not a version. This is v2.0.0-rc2 of the second edition: every chapter written by the book's agents from the ideas register, for Dinis to read, print and mark up. Nothing in it is signed off. The first edition, v1.0.0, is the only official version; the candidate's text is frozen at v2/versions/v2.0.0-rc2.md so that what was read cannot change behind the reader (decision 009).

41chapters73,314words198ideas written in47for Dinis

Read and review it · on one page, for print · the PDF · the frozen markdown · book.json · the chapter map · everything that waits on Dinis

How to read it, and how to answer

Read it as a reader first: the reader keeps your place, lets you mark each chapter (read, to review, continue, signed off), comment on any paragraph, and export the review as a file for the vault's reviews/ folder. Or print the one-page version or the PDF and write on it. Every chapter ends with where it came from: the ideas, the articles and the 2018 files, each a link. A verb on an idea (keep, rewrite, merge, cut, article first, later, not doing it) is a decision; the editor records it in the vault and the idea's state moves on the register.

  1. About this release candidate front matter
  2. 1Before you start 5 chapters

    Five chapters before the argument starts. Who this book is for and what it is for, why I think you are lucky to be here, one chapter on graphs because everything after it is one, how to find out which kind of developer you are, and why the path only makes sense afterwards. Read these first; then go where your map says.

    1. Gen ZX: who this book is for, and what it is for 1,648 words · 2 ideas · 2 for Dinis
    2. You are lucky to be here 2,062 words · 9 ideas · 2 for Dinis
    3. Everything is connected: graphs 1,983 words · 7 ideas · 2 for Dinis
    4. Where do you land? 2,080 words · 5 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    5. Connect the dots backwards 2,382 words · 10 ideas · 2 for Dinis
  3. 2The frame 4 chapters

    The frame the rest of the book hangs on. What generative AI is and is not, what happens between your prompt and the answer, why the word developer now means anyone who can brief an agent, and the founder's way of building: explore first, call it what it is, then hand it over.

    1. What generative AI is 1,895 words · 2 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    2. Lenses, roles and loops 1,922 words · 5 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    3. Everyone who can brief an agent is a developer 1,690 words · 2 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    4. Explorer coding, not vibe coding, and the handover 2,149 words · 9 ideas · 2 for Dinis
  4. 3Getting the job, or making it 3 chapters

    The part the first edition called your CV, rewritten for 2026, for the reader going into a job. You are hired for a workflow now, not a language; the way to show it is to act as the job you want before anyone gives it to you; and the place to show it is a newsroom of your own. In 2018 I said act like a founder. Now you can be one, and the next parts say how.

    1. Hired for the workflow 2,152 words · 3 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    2. Act as the job you want 2,133 words · 3 ideas · 2 for Dinis
    3. Publish, publish, publish: your own newsroom 2,169 words · 5 ideas · 1 for Dinis
  5. 4Working with agents 2 chapters

    How to work with the colleague that takes everything literally, whether it works for your employer or for your company. Where the agent runs and what it can reach, the brief as the unit of work, the mistakes that become rules, and why one focused session per job beats one long chat.

    1. Your first workspace 2,051 words · 2 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    2. How to work with agents 2,169 words · 6 ideas · 1 for Dinis
  6. 5Direction and judgement 2 chapters

    The scarce skill. When the making is cheap, direction and judgement are what you are paid for, and what a founder lives or dies by: which doors can be reopened, who answers for a decision an agent made, and the chapter the first edition promised and never wrote, on facts, evidence and the record.

    1. Direction is the scarce skill 2,175 words · 5 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    2. Facts, evidence and the record 2,139 words · 13 ideas · 2 for Dinis
  7. 6Start the company 6 chapters

    The centre of this edition. Execution just got cheap, so the person who knows the problem can build the first answer; then ship it and see if they miss it, price it and give it away, sell, decide whether to raise at all, and make the company itself real: the UK, Portugal, Lithuania, the European Union. From experience, mine and the people I work with; not legal or tax advice.

    1. Be a founder: the expert founders 2,228 words · 7 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    2. Ship it, and see if they miss it 2,118 words · 5 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    3. Price it, then give it away 2,143 words · 4 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    4. Sell 2,172 words · 8 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    5. Fund it, or do not 2,194 words · 6 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    6. The company itself: the UK, Portugal, Lithuania, the European Union 602 words · 3 ideas · 2 for Dinis
  8. 7Build it without a server 5 chapters

    Build it so that there is nothing to run at three in the morning. Serverless, for real; privacy by design, with data encrypted on the user's device on a server that cannot read it; control of the agents your company runs on; open source and who pays for it; and the only definition of shipped that counts: the user has it.

    1. Serverless, for real 2,321 words · 7 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    2. Privacy by design: SG/Send, sgit, and the value of constraints 2,086 words · 8 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    3. Controlling your agent: RiskMandate 2,199 words · 17 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    4. Open source 2,190 words · 7 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    5. Shipped means the user has it 2,095 words · 2 ideas · 1 for Dinis
  9. 8The long game 2 chapters

    What lasts. Graphs as memory for the person you will be, and the civic responsibility that comes with knowing how the machines work, for a small country and for a continent.

    1. Graphs, memory and your future self 1,892 words · 3 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    2. Civic responsibility 2,184 words · 4 ideas · 1 for Dinis
  10. 9Hands on, 2026 11 chapters

    The practical part, dated 2026 and renewed every year, inside the book. Eleven workflows you can follow this afternoon, from an agentic workflow from zero to forming your company, the credits and programmes as they stand this year, your first price and your first ten customers, and a serverless product shipped in a weekend.

    1. An agentic workflow from zero 1,059 words · 0 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    2. Your first graph, built by hand 1,107 words · 0 ideas
    3. One idea, five lenses 1,029 words · 0 ideas
    4. A tiny agent loop 1,065 words · 0 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    5. Images, infographics and storyboards, drawn by code 1,086 words · 0 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    6. Meeting briefs and follow-ups 784 words · 0 ideas · 2 for Dinis
    7. Your own newsroom and inbox 1,106 words · 0 ideas
    8. Form your company 598 words · 0 ideas · 2 for Dinis
    9. The credits and programmes, 2026 1,016 words · 2 ideas · 1 for Dinis
    10. Your first price and your first ten customers 1,107 words · 2 ideas
    11. Ship a serverless product in a weekend 1,115 words · 6 ideas
  11. 10How this book was made, and what you made 1 chapters

    The last part is the process, because the process is as much the product as the book: a repository for the official versions, a vault for the working ones, roles with folders, articles as briefs, decisions as files, a graph that says where every idea came from, release candidates and a review board. And the measure: the companies you create from it, and how to tell us.

    1. How this book was made, and what you made 2,332 words · 19 ideas · 2 for Dinis

Source: v2/content/, one markdown file per chapter with the ideas, sources and 2018 files it was written from in its front matter; admin/build/book_v2.py renders these pages and refuses a chapter that cites an idea, source, part or file that does not exist. Manifest: manifest.json.