Speaker: Dan Vega (@therealdanvega)

Nate Schutta (@nts.bsky.social) – not here due to snow

See the live blog table of contents

---

General

• They wrote a book called Fundamentals of Software Engineering

History

• 1950s: Punchards/machine code
• 1960s: Assembly language
• 1970s: High level languages (ex: COBOL)
• 1990s: OOP and frameworks
• 2010s: Cloud/platform
• 2020s: AI assisted development

History repeats

• Each time, here that engineers will be replaced by IDEs, co-code, etc. Still here
• Roles change

Role of dev

• We don’t sit and write code all day.
• Writing code is one of the tasks
• ex: problem solving, communication, debugging
• SDLC – Plan, Analysis, Design, Implementation, Testing, Deployment, Maintenance
• Outside world thinks it is just about code
• Even vibe coders plan

Hiring/News

• Market overhired
• Always ups and downs in job market
• Many large layoffs in 2025
• “”Job hugging” vs “job hiring” – https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/18/job-hugging-job-hopping.html
• Salesforce regrets firing senior engineers and replacing with AI
• Amazon had prod deleted by AI without sufficient oversight
• Anthropic said a year ago that AI would write 90% of the code in 3-6 months. Keep in mind source of claim. Also they have access to “free tokens” every day. Also they are hiring a number of engineers.
• 2015 – self driving cars in 2 years, 2016 – radiologists replaced in x years. Now radiologist driving own car to work.

Overhyped claims

• Tool makers – want to sell tools
• Non programmers – lowered barrier to entry is good; but don’t know all it entails.
• Business – Blaming AI is a good excuse.

Vibe coding

• Great for weekend programs. At work, more meticulous about what goes into Prod
• “We vibe code a 30K a month SaaS app in 64 minutes” – click bait. Can clone screens but not getting 30K
• Worlds apart from engineering system

AI

• “Lowering the Floor and Raising the Ceiling: Building With AI”
• Give us superpowers
• Not a silver bullet

Social

• Made website and then link to c drive
• AI broke code/repo
• AI generated code and don’t understand it

Other problems

• Who is supporting the code that AI broke
• In danger of stopping pipeline that creates experts

Exciting time to be a builder

• Find joy in solving problems and making something that works
• Something you imagined became real
• Not about typing
• Less abandoned ideas for side projects. Easier to do just for fun

Experience

• Anyone can create code; can they create software.
• Wouldn’t higher neighbors kid to as photographer for a wedding
• In sports, constantly work on fundamentals.

Paths to computer engineering

• college degree – undergrad prepare you for graduate program – os, compiler theory, etc
• bootcamp – lots of info in very short time – frameworks, language de jour, debugging, mostly learn how to code
• self taught
• But there is a huge gulf between any of these and what you need to know to be successful.
• Approaches even out over time
• Coding is more about communicating than computing. Language aptitude better predictor of learning to code; not math.
• Problem solving and curiosity key

Reading code

• Spend 10x more time reading code than writing it
• With human languages, we learn to read first.
• In era of AI, spend even more time reading code
• AI can write code quickly but needs constant supervision
• “What idiot wrote this code?” – oh, me from months ago
• Shipping speed affects readability
• IKEA effect – place a higher value on things we created

Learning more languages

• Easier to learn other languages/frameworks when know more
• More receptive of new features

Managing your career

• “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you havne’t found it yet, keep looking, Don’t settle” – Steve Jobs
• When start as a software engineer, think role is to learn to code, get better at coding and keep coding. But tech offers other unique roles, not just manager
• Advocate for yourself; your manager can’t read your mind
• Make new friends/networking.
• There’s always something you know more about than something else, share
• Learn from others
• Find what you are passionate about – ex: manager, dev advocate, sales engineer

Deliberate skill acquisition

• Work backwards from where want to be
• Need to accept than can’t learn everything
• Must learn core skills – ex: data structures, design patterns
• T shaped – horizontal is general knowledge and vertical is deep knowledge in primary stack
• Build a personal technology radar
• Record your wins – provides confidence and helps track professional growth. More useful if specific (metrics, tech skills)

AI

• Ok to feel overwhelmed
• Too many new things “supposed to learn”

AI Dev Stack

• Models – a new one comes out every week. Experiment and see what works
• Context and memory
• Tools and functions
• Agents and workflows
• Your app

Will AI replace software developers

• It depends
• Software engineering isn’t what it was two years ago
• Need to learn things and adapt to current events

Takeaways

• Keep your passion
• Technology changes constantly
• Don’t put head in the sand
• Define self by problems will solve in the future vs what did in past
• Whatever path you choose, change is inevitable
• You are responsible for your own career
• Fundamentals will always serve your well
• “Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinary well”

My take

I was torn on whether to go to this session because I wasn’t clear on whether it was current events or covering the fundamentals like design that I’ve been doing for 20+ years. I was pleased it was the former. It was fun. Some events I noticed go by and some I didn’t. Fun start to the morning. Also good tie to the actual fundamentals rather than teaching them.