What Changed and What Remains True with James Gray

In the final episode of Season 15, Charles Suggs and Emma Whamond are joined by James Gray, co-author of Designing Elixir Systems with OTP, to talk about what has changed in software development and what still holds true. Years after the book’s release, many of its core ideas around architecture, boundaries, supervision, and system design remain deeply relevant, even as AI tools reshape how developers learn, build, and collaborate. James brings a unique perspective to the conversation: he is an experienced Elixir and OTP educator who only recently began using LLMs in his own workflow. He shares what surprised him, where the tools have been useful, where they have created risk, and what happened when Claude accidentally wiped his local development database. The conversation explores how AI can speed up parts of the work while making foundational knowledge, code review, testing, and clear system boundaries even more important. To close the season, James and the hosts reflect on what developers should hold onto as the stack continues to shift. They discuss responsible LLM usage, the changing role of pair programming, who owns the mental model when AI helps write code, and why Elixir’s long-standing strengths may matter even more in an AI-assisted development world. James is scheduled to speak at ElixirConf 2026, September 10–11 in Chicago, and the Elixir Wizards will be there too! Join us and the broader Elixir community, and use promo code Elixirwizards for 10% off in-person or virtual tickets at https://elixirconf.com/ Key topics discussed in this episode: James Gray’s work on Designing Elixir Systems with OTP What still holds true in Elixir system design Layered architecture and durable software fundamentals Functional core, imperative shell in modern applications Supervision trees as application lifecycle maps Why boundaries still matter in AI-assisted development What AI changes about learning and building software What AI does not change about software design James’ first month using LLMs When Claude erased a local development database Trust, verification, and responsible LLM usage The risk of AI-generated boundary violations Pair programming, mental models, and developer judgment Ethical and legal questions around AI tools Why OTP concepts still matter in distributed systems How Elixir thinking applies to AI agent workflows What developers should preserve as the stack shifts James’ upcoming ElixirConf talk Links mentioned: Java Programming Language https://www.java.com/en/ Perl Programming Language https://www.perl.org/ Ruby Programming Language https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/ Best of Ruby Quiz by James Gray https://www.google.com/books/edition/Best_of_Ruby_Quiz/bMggAQAAIAAJ Designing Elixir Systems with OTP https://pragprog.com/titles/jgotp/designing-elixir-systems-with-otp/ RubyConf talk: Boundaries by Gary Bernhardt https://youtu.be/yTkzNHF6rMs Book: Real-World Event Sourcing by Kevin Hoffman https://pragprog.com/titles/khpes/real-world-event-sourcing/ Broadway Library https://elixir-broadway.org/ Supervision Trees https://elixir.hexdocs.pm/supervisor-and-application.html PostgreSQL https://www.postgresql.org/ ClickHouse https://clickhouse.com/ GenServer https://elixir.hexdocs.pm/GenServer.html Programming as Theory Building by Peter Naur https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/Naur.pdf “A computer can never be held accountable, therefore a computer must never make a management decision.” – IBM Training Manual, 1979 Oban https://oban.pro/ Anthropic Claude Fable https://www.anthropic.com/claude/fable Claude Design https://claude.com/product/design Tidewave Agentic Dev Environment for Phoenix and Rails https://tidewave.ai/ 2x – nine months later: We did it https://ideas.fin.ai/p/2x-nine-months-later James Gray’s Blog https://programmersstone.blog/about/ ElixirConf https://elixirconf.com/ ExMex https://exmexconf.com/ Special Guest: James Gray.