Another slick YouTube drop is fun, but demos aren’t production. I’ll keep betting on small teams that ship, wire AI into real workflows as a tool—not a savior, and measure impact by code in users’ hands. For backend speed and safety, modern Java with Quarkus still punches above its weight; start as a modular monolith, split only when the pain is real, and don’t overpay for cloud ceremony—an MVP runs fine on a single box. Vibe‑code the scaffolding, read the critical bits, and optimize where the CPU burns cycles. And yes—audio matters: if I can’t hear you, your meeting didn’t happen. Wear a headset.