Gergely Orosz, author of The Pragmatic Engineer, discusses the bizarre trend of 'token maxing' in Big Tech, the evolving role of software engineers in the AI era, and why companies are heavily investing in internal AI infrastructure despite uncertain productivity gains.
Tuomas Artman, Cofounder and CTO of Linear, discusses the paradoxical challenge AI introduces to software development. While AI agents accelerate shipping features, this speed can lead to a decline in software quality. He argues for prioritizing "tasteful," high-quality software as the ultimate competitive advantage and shares Linear's unique internal practices, such as the "Zero-Bug Policy" and "Quality Wednesdays," designed to cultivate a deep-seated culture of quality.
Scott Breitenother, CEO of Kilo, discusses the evolution of software development, where engineers are shifting from writing code to orchestrating AI agents. He shares lessons from processing 25 trillion tokens, emphasizing the critical role of trust, the importance of end-to-end ownership, and how this new paradigm leads to a 10x increase in shipping velocity.
Notion's Co-Founder, Simon Last, discusses their evolution from a writing assistant to a platform for custom AI agents. He covers the technical hurdles of semantic indexing, the internal shift toward using coding agents to build Notion, and the fundamental transition from a tool where humans do the work to one where humans manage a swarm of agents.
Nathen Harvey, leader of Google's DORA research team, discusses the surprising findings from their latest research on AI's impact on software development. While initial AI adoption correlated with decreased stability and throughput, the latest data shows a reversal for throughput. The conversation explores why this happens, presenting AI as an amplifier of existing systems and introducing DORA's seven essential capabilities for successful AI adoption, including the critical roles of documentation, trust, and expertise.
In this interview from GOTO Copenhagen 2024, author Russ Olsen and software architect James Lewis dive deep into the philosophy and practice of functional programming, using Clojure and Lisp as key examples. They discuss effective strategies for learning and teaching complex technical concepts, the cultural nuances of programming communities, and the inspirational power of large-scale engineering achievements like the Apollo moon landings.