Is coding essential for engineering managers today? We dive into what “being in the code” really means for EM impact and explore practical ways for managers to stay technical without becoming a bottleneck. It’s more nuanced than just writing features.
After a year working with LLMs, we’ve distilled key practices for prompting, RAG, and evaluation. Learn how to structure inputs, optimize workflows, evaluate outputs effectively, and tackle persistent challenges like hallucinations. Ship robust, reliable AI applications.
AI is rapidly changing the job market, but who benefits? Explore a new framework that looks beyond skill level to AI’s relative performance, revealing how automation and augmentation play out within occupations and hinting at the jobs best positioned for growth in the AI era.
Optimizing code structure isn’t just about performance; it’s about clarity and reducing bugs. We explore two simple rules of thumb—pushing conditional logic up the call stack and pulling loops down into batch operations—that can simplify control flow, improve cache locality, and unlock vectorization.
Unit tests are mini-experiments, and circular reasoning invalidates the results. We’ll explore how to spot this common pitfall, why it creates a false sense of security, and how to build truly effective tests by comparing code output to independently verified results.
Your tech choices—like static typing or dependency aversion—might be less about logic and more about childhood experiences. This episode explores how our formative years shape our engineering styles and why accepting diverse approaches is crucial for a healthier tech industry. Tune in to understand yourself and your colleagues better.
The “Father of Java” reflects on 30 years of the iconic language, its evolution, and its future. James Gosling shares candid thoughts on Oracle’s stewardship, open source, the JVM’s stunning progress, and offers a pragmatic, often witty, take on the current AI hype.
Ever feel AI makes your thoughts irrelevant? Join us as we explore the “AI sedation” effect – how LLMs provide answers without the intellectual growth from the journey, and why writing things down might be more crucial than ever for software developers.
Accidental complexity can sink projects and empower “complexity merchants” who profit from confusing systems. Chris and Amy discuss how this happens, its real costs, and practical strategies engineers and leaders can use to build simplicity and deliver value. Learn to spot the signs!
Why do experts achieve better results more efficiently than novices? It’s not just about raw skill. Explore the subtle differences in problem-solving approaches, decision-making visibility, and the critical role of expert guidance, even in the age of AI and abundant online resources.