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.