Key Takeaways
- Using IDEs took some of the mental load out of hand coding because of features like code completion
- Switching to IDEs from plain text editors was a bit of a mental change for many of us (maybe not as big as AI-assisted coding)
- AI-assisted coding gives us a similar feel to text editor based coding à la VIM
- AI-assisted coding is ADHD friendly — you can explain your architecture and the AI can do the mundane task of writing the code for you
- Vibe coding has turned senior developers into architects
- Vibe coding turns side projects that have been on your mind forever into reality in hours, days, or weeks
- Writing code in a language you don't know becomes dangerous if you're implementing it at scale
- As seasoned practitioners, when we vibe code, we know what "good code" is supposed to look like.
- The difference between a good senior developer and a great one is mentorship.
- We need to be willing to fail more in order to learn, but we also need a safe space to fail.
- Should non-developers write code just because they can, through AI coding agents? Not production-ready code, but it shouldn't stop them from using it to show off a proof-of-concept.
- Making space for "awesome slop projects" is a great way to showcase creativity and fun side projects, even if they never make it into production.
- AI side projects have led to an increase in purchase of domain names as developers finally have the "bandwidth" bring dust off old projects and bring them to life.
- Lot of developers now are becoming carpenters. They're building these tools that sometimes it's just vibe coded slop. Sometimes it's just being creative.
- Non-developer founders can bring ideas to life, but without a developer at their side, they risk introducing applications into the world that are non-scalable and walking security risks.
- Gen Z/Gen Alpha are NOT well positioned as devs in the AI native era if they don't understand some fundamental principles and if they don't learn through failure
- The most important skills a software engineer needs today: Trust, but verify, be curious, be a good communication, be willing to teach and learn from other humans
Chapters
00:08 Intro
00:42 Guest intros
03:15 What was your first programming language?
07:59 IDEs took the mental load out of coding
11:21 AI-assisted coding is ADHD friendly
11:40 What do you despise most about hand coding?
13:34 What's your coder persona?
17:50 How do you feel about trusting AI implicitly to write code in a language you don't know?
23:04 Cassidy rant
28:19 Failure is a teaching aid
33:14 "Awesome Slop"
35:13 AI + domain name purchase side effect
36:49 Vibe coding + startup founders
41:54 Are Gen Z/Gen Alpha better positioned as devs in the AI native era?
45:36 Beware the non-developers with no coding experience'
53:35 Why is the AI writing React for me?
58:25 What's the most important skill a software engineer needs today?
About our guests
Cassidy Williams
Cassidy is the Senior Director of Developer Advocacy at GitHub! Outside of that fancy title, Cassidy is a startup advisor and investor, open source-er, and meme-maker on the internet. She enjoys building mechanical keyboards, playing music, hanging out with family and friends, and teaching in her free time.
Find our guest on:
Tim Banks (they/them)
Tim’s tech career spans over 25 years through various sectors. Tim’s initial journey into tech started in avionics in the US Marine Corps and then into various government contracting roles. After moving to the private sector, Tim worked both in large corporate environments and in small startups, honing his skills in systems administration, automation, architecture, and operations for large cloud-based datastores.
Today, Tim leverages their years in operations, DevOps, and Site Reliability Engineering to advise and consult with the open source and cloud computing communities in his current role. Tim is also a competitive Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner. They are the 2-time American National and is the 5-time Pan American Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion in their division.
Find our guest on:
Jeff Blankenburg
Jeff Blankenburg spent the early part of his career in digital advertising, building websites for Victoria's Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Ford Motor Company, among others. He also spent 8 years at Microsoft, primarily as an evangelist for any new technology he could get his hands on. He followed his passion to Amazon, where he was the Chief Technical Evangelist for Alexa for 7 years.
Today, he is the Principal Developer Advocate at Dynatrace, helping developers make cloud native apps easier to build and maintain. Jeff has spoken at conferences all over the world, including London, Munich, India, Tokyo, Sydney, and New York, covering topics ranging from software development technologies to soft skill techniques. He also serves as an organizer for the Stir Trek conference.
Find Jeff on:
Josh Lee
Josh is a Developer Advocate at Altinity, where he applies his observability and engineering background to ClickHouse use cases. He has over 15 years of experience in developing and leading software projects for various clients and industries. Josh is also a speaker and a contributor to the OpenTelemetry and CNCF communities, sharing his insights and best practices on topics such as distributed tracing. He is always eager to learn new things and explore new challenges, and he strives to create elegant and innovative solutions that take into account the nuances and correlations of complex problems.
Find Josh on:
Find Geeking Out on
Show Notes
