Welcome back to I'm a Software Engineer ~ What Next? The podcast for devs figuring out their next move. Hosted by James Wilson and Matt Sinclair, we talk honestly about what it takes to build a meaningful career in tech.
In this week's episode, James and Matt take a look at AI-based code generation tools. Products like GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, and Tidewave are everywhere now — but are they making software engineers more productive, or just causing a whole new class of problems? In this episode, we unpack how AI is changing the way engineers work, code, and think.
In this episode, we cover:
- Why AI is both a superpower and a trap
- The shift from imperative to declarative computing
- How tools like Claude can help you rubber-duck a spec
- Why engineers who refuse to adapt may fall behind
- What hiring managers are really looking for in the age of AI
If you're a developer wondering whether AI is your best friend or worst enemy, this one's for you.
🎧 26 minutes. Zero fluff. Tune in now.
⏱️ Chapters
- 0:00 Intro: the Dragon Ball Z Goku t-shirt
- 0:55 The reel that blew up: is AI making the engineer's job better or harder?
- 1:48 Different, not better: change is inevitable, and here are the two extremes
- 3:24 The mech suit: Ripley in Aliens, 10x if trained, a world of hurt if not
- 4:51 The candidate who won't use Copilot, and the client's nuanced answer
- 6:36 Seduced by magic code: Matt threw away 60% of what Claude wrote
- 8:12 Will the code get better? Problem-solving minds, and safe vs unsafe use
- 9:56 Imperative to declarative computing: you keep the why and what
- 11:43 Rubber-ducking a spec with Claude, and code as the design canvas
- 13:29 What hiring managers look for: the what stage, and mission alignment
- 15:52 Matt's 300-point Hacker News comment: why so much negativity?
- 17:56 James builds a task list in JavaScript with ChatGPT
- 19:10 Make it work, make it right, make it fast: know the risks
- 20:19 Not a scam, but there are scammers: deepfakes are the tech working
- 21:32 Yes to both: fewer engineers per problem, but the level of commodity rises
- 23:30 Embrace it: the models plateau, but the tooling goes gangbusters
- 24:47 Wrap-up: change brings opportunity, and send us your topic ideas
🔗 Links
🗒️ Show Notes
- Awesome Code AI - a big list of AI-based code generation tools
- Tidewave - an MCP for your Elixir Phoenix apps
- Claude Code - Anthropic's CLI code gen tool
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