Beyond Coding

Reddit Reacts is back. I'm taking the most controversial takes on software engineering from Reddit and giving you my unfiltered perspective on what's happening, from juniors leveraging AI tools, to the culling of engineers who refuse to adapt, to whether you should take a gap year after a layoff.In this episode, we cover:How to become technically "cracked" and what really separates great engineersWhy juniors learning with AI have an edge over 20-year veteransThe future of writing code by hand (and why fulfillment is shifting)Vibe coding, security holes, and what happens after 6 monthsThe brutal reality of layoffs, gap years, and AI-driven hiringIf you're an engineer trying to figure out where this industry is going and how to stay competitive, this one is for you.Mentioned in the episode:⁠ADP List⁠ - free mentorship from senior engineersTimestamps:00:00:00 - Intro00:00:54 - How to Become Technically Cracked in 202600:05:35 - Will Juniors Who Only Code with AI Get Stuck?00:09:26 - Will Senior Engineers Stop Writing Code By Hand?00:11:11 - I Vibe Coded for 6 Months and It's a Disaster00:15:04 - Why Leaders Demand Screen Sharing on Incident Calls00:17:34 - "I Don't Do Anything and Still Get Promoted"00:20:33 - Have the Best Engineers Stopped Applying?00:25:39 - The Future of Software Engineering in the AI Era00:32:15 - Are Most Programmers Actually Bad?00:34:58 - Should You Take a Gap Year After a Layoff?#softwareengineering #aicoding #techcareers

Most engineers are using AI coding tools without understanding what they actually are and it's costing them. Microsoft Certified Trainer Rob Bos has trained thousands of engineers on AI tooling, and he sees the same gaps in fundamentals show up again and again, regardless of seniority. This is what you need to know:What an LLM actually is (and why understanding this changes how you use it)Why prompt engineering isn't optionalHow AI magnifies your existing technical debt instead of fixing itThe 6-month learning curve nobody warns you aboutWhy your role as an engineer was never about writing codeThe environmental cost behind every promptWhether you're skeptical of AI tools or already living in agent mode, these are the fundamentals that separate engineers who get real value from those who get burned by the hype.Connect with Rob:https://www.linkedin.com/in/bosrobReferences:Token tracker: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=RobBos.copilot-token-trackerDev survey: https://www.activestate.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/ActiveState-Developer-Survey-2019-Open-Source-Runtime-Pains.pdfTimestamps:00:00:00 - Intro00:00:43 - The #1 Thing Engineers Get Wrong About AI00:02:09 - How Much LLM Theory Do You Actually Need?00:03:58 - Why Pair Programming Is Still the Best Way to Learn AI00:05:26 - Why Rob Skips Tab Completion and Lives in Agent Mode00:07:03 - The "AI Doesn't Increase Productivity" Debate00:08:29 - Why Your Real Job Was Never Writing Code00:09:14 - The 2-Hours-of-Coding Problem No One Talks About00:11:02 - More Code = More Pressure on Your Review Process00:12:21 - Why AI Magnifies Existing Technical Debt00:13:39 - The Customer Who Couldn't Start AI With Developers Yet00:15:11 - The Future Engineer: Reviewer, Not Writer00:17:00 - Convincing the AI Skeptic Who Tried It Years Ago00:19:17 - LLMs Explained Without Visuals (Attention & Semantics)00:22:41 - Why Prompt Engineering Actually Matters00:24:20 - From Zero to Hero: The 6-Month Learning Curve00:26:18 - Is This Confrontational for 20-Year Veterans?00:29:30 - Becoming a Better Engineer by Thinking in Systems00:31:26 - Will AI Stop Working as Innovation Slows?00:34:26 - The Lost Art of Pair Programming with AI00:35:44 - Tribalism in AI Tools (And Why It's Pointless)00:37:33 - Tool Agnostic: Start With the Foundations00:39:40 - Is the IDE Still Relevant?00:40:50 - The Bluescreen Story That Changed His Mind00:41:47 - The Hidden Environmental Cost of AI Coding00:44:15 - 36 Million Tokens in 30 Days: What Does It Mean?00:45:47 - Running LLMs at the Edge to Cut the Footprint00:46:48 - Why You Should Be Allowed to Wait Five Minutes Longer00:47:05 - Outro#githubcopilot #aicoding #softwareengineering

Most engineers approach open source the wrong way. They write code, open a PR, and wonder why it never gets merged. Bruno Schaatsbergen, Terraform core contributor and ex-HashiCorp engineer, breaks down the real craft behind contributions that actually land, and why AI is quietly breaking the ecosystem we all depend on.In this episode, we cover:Why pull requests get ignored (and the counterintuitive fix)How AI slop is killing open source from the insideUsing AI agents without losing your identity as an engineerWhy open source beats a tailored resume in today's marketHow consistent contributions can reshape your entire careerIf you've ever wanted to contribute to open source but didn't know where to start, this episode gives you a clear perspective from someone who's been on both sides.Connect with Bruno:https://www.linkedin.com/in/bschaatsbergenOUTILNE00:00:00 - Intro00:01:04 - How Open Source Shaped My Entire Career00:02:14 - Why I Take Pride in Every PR I Write00:03:16 - Open Source vs Personal Projects: The Real Difference00:04:18 - Why Your PRs Get Ignored (And How to Fix It)00:05:41 - Know Your Audience: The Counterintuitive PR Hack00:06:35 - Dealing With Imposter Syndrome as a Contributor00:07:10 - Read Code Like a Writer Reads Books00:09:31 - My First Contribution (And How It Changed My Career)00:10:51 - Should You Contribute to Open Source Early in Your Career?00:12:46 - The Dark Side: When Contributions Become Noise00:13:44 - Killed With Kindness: The AI Slop Problem00:16:17 - How Maintainers Are Fighting AI Slop00:18:02 - How I Actually Use AI Agents in My Workflow00:19:11 - Don't Outsource Your Thinking to AI00:20:11 - Who's Liable for AI-Generated Code?00:21:16 - Earned Rights: Why Trust Matters in Open Source00:22:52 - How to Approach People at Tech Conferences00:24:52 - Open Source Is Not a Democracy00:26:04 - Why Open Source Beats a Tailored Resume00:27:12 - Never Contribute With the Goal of Getting Hired00:28:38 - The Real Reason Consistency Pays Off00:29:30 - Admitting I'm a University Dropout00:30:42 - Why I Haven't Contributed in Weeks (And That's Okay)00:32:07 - The Trap of Chasing Contributor Rankings00:34:32 - Open Source Lets You Work With Anyone in the World00:35:52 - Final Advice: Don't Let AI Steal Your Identity

What separates software that survives from software nobody wants to touch? Nico Krijnen has spent 30 years building systems, coaching teams, and learning why some projects thrive while others quietly become the legacy code everyone avoids. In this episode, he shares why the real work starts after you ship, what actually turns a system into legacy, and why the knowledge in your team's heads matters more than the code itself.In this episode, we cover:Why production is where the real learning beginsThe team composition that consistently delivers resultsPeter Naur's Theory Building and why documentation alone falls shortHow knowledge leaving your team turns working systems into legacyWhy assuming you're wrong leads to better architectureWhether you're a senior engineer rethinking how you build or earlier in your career trying to understand what really matters, this episode will change how you think about software that lasts.Connect with Nico: https://realworldarchitect.devTIMESTAMPS00:00:00 - Intro00:01:17 - Why He Keeps Choosing Engineering Over Management00:04:01 - Three Seniors Solved in Three Weeks What Management Couldn't00:05:14 - The Signals You Miss When You're Not in the Team00:06:26 - The #1 Skill Behind Every Successful Project00:08:04 - Why Production Is the Starting Line, Not the Finish00:10:13 - The Habit Most Teams Skip After Deploying00:11:28 - Why the Best Teams Mix Designers and Engineers00:14:36 - Finding the Right People for the Job at Hand00:17:01 - What Juniors Bring That Seniors Can't00:20:57 - How to Handle Ideas You Disagree With as a Senior00:24:21 - A Simple Technique to Surface Everyone's Best Ideas00:27:09 - What Makes a System Survive Long-Term00:30:53 - What Actually Makes a System "Legacy"00:35:01 - The Knowledge That Keeps Software Alive00:36:06 - Peter Naur's Theory Building: Why Documentation Isn't Enough00:40:06 - How Knowledge Loss Is Killing Your Codebase00:42:42 - The Hidden Risk of AI Tools for Team Knowledge00:48:14 - Why You Should Assume Everything You Build Is Wrong00:51:31 - Make Hard Things Easy to Change#SoftwareEngineering #SystemDesign #TechPodcast

Suzanne Daniels is a Top Microsoft Advisor who works with CTOs and engineering leaders across EMEA on developer productivity, GitHub, and AI adoption. Her take: the industry is obsessing over coding speed, but that was only ever level one. The real shift is in who defines the solution, not who writes the code.In this episode, we cover:Why the "55x faster coding" marketing misses the point entirelyThe counterintuitive research showing junior engineers adopt AI faster than seniors"Coding is cheap, software is expensive" and what that means for your careerHow the boundary between product and engineering is disappearingWhy most AI coding tools are 80% the same and what to focus on insteadWhether you're early in career and struggling to land a role, or a senior engineer rethinking where your value lies, Suzanne breaks down what actually matters when the coding part becomes cheap.Timestamps:00:00:00 - Intro00:01:15 - Is AI Productivity the Whole Story?00:03:26 - Why Outcomes Matter More Than Code Output00:04:13 - The Real Value Was Never in the Coding00:06:06 - The Product-Engineering Boundary Is Disappearing00:07:37 - Why Junior Engineers Are Actually in High Demand00:09:41 - Research Says Juniors Adopt AI Faster Than Seniors00:11:31 - The Rise of Comb-Shaped Engineers00:12:32 - The Energy Juniors Bring That Teams Need00:14:06 - How Seniors Codify Knowledge for Agents and Humans00:16:35 - Advice for Early Career Engineers Right Now00:19:04 - Old Principles Getting a New Polish00:21:13 - Coding Is Cheap, Software Is Expensive00:22:52 - Will Agentic Development Change Your Programming Language?00:24:53 - What Even Is an Application in the Agent Era?00:28:34 - The Authenticity Paradox of AI-Written Content00:30:12 - Why Your AI Output Needs a Human Value Add00:32:12 - Is Open Source at Risk Because of AI?00:35:09 - When Your Favorite Tool Doesn't Follow You to the Next Job00:36:45 - Most AI Coding Tools Are 80% the Same00:38:15 - What Engineering Leaders Should Enable Beyond Licensing00:42:58 - Should You Leave If Your Company Won't Let You Experiment?00:45:16 - Platform Engineering as the Foundation for AI AdoptionGuest: Suzanne Danielshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannedaniels#SoftwareEngineering #AICoding #BeyondCoding