Orchestras, Not Factories: How the Fastest Builders Work — Charlie Holtz, Conductor

This post critiques the 'software factory' metaphor for software development, proposing an 'orchestra' model instead. It outlines six principles for effective building: 1. Stay near the frontier (but don't try to beat the market). 2. Create 'slop-free zones' for critical, human-reviewed tasks like migrations, docs, and skill files. 3. 'Feed the beast' by centralizing all communication and data (Slack, bug reports, meetings) into a queryable database for agents. 4. Give agents 'free range' with cloud sandboxes. The talk also demos new Conductor features for real-time collaboration and starting agents from a phone, reinforcing the human-in-the-loop, conductor-like approach to managing AI agents.