Show Notes
Coding Chats episode 60 - John Crickett and Paul discuss the transformative impact of AI on software engineering, exploring topics such as spec-driven development, the importance of small batches, and the challenges of requirements gathering. They delve into the evolving role of AI tools, the need for effective communication, and the balance between productivity and code quality. The discussion also touches on the future of AI in development, the significance of ownership in coding, and the potential for specialized AI agents to enhance workflows. Paul shares valuable tips for leveraging AI in software engineering, emphasizing the importance of joy, working in small units, and maintaining humility in the face of rapid technological change.
Chapters 00:00 AI in Software Engineering: A New Era 03:36 The Revelation of Prompt-Driven Development 06:08 Spec-Driven Development vs. Waterfall 09:16 The Importance of Small Batches in AI Development 12:05 Ownership and Responsibility in AI-Generated Code 14:57 The Challenges of Outsourcing and Communication in Software Development 20:15 The Future of Programming and Communication 23:38 AI Tools and Upstream Bottlenecks 27:18 Understanding JetBrains' AI Integration 31:40 User Experience and AI Interaction 35:42 Opinionated Workflows in Software Development 37:24 Finding Joy in AI-Assisted Engineering
Paul's Links:https://buildermethods.com/agent-os
John's Links: John's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncrickett/ John’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@johncrickett John's Twitter: https://x.com/johncrickett John's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/johncrickett.bsky.social
Check out John's software engineering related newsletters: Coding Challenges: https://codingchallenges.substack.com/ which shares real-world project ideas that you can use to level up your coding skills.
Developing Skills: https://read.developingskills.fyi/ covering everything from system design to soft skills, helping them progress their career from junior to staff+ or for those that want onto a management track.
Takeaways AI is revolutionizing software engineering practices. Spec-driven development formalizes the way we instruct AI agents. Small batches improve productivity and maintain context. Ownership of code is crucial for long-term success. Quality of code generated by AI is more important than quantity. Effective communication is key in AI-assisted development. Specialized AI agents will enhance the development process. JetBrains is evolving its tools to integrate AI effectively. Developers should find joy in their work, even with AI assistance. Humility is essential as we navigate the future of AI in programming.
More from Coding Chats
Coding Chats Episode 83 - In this episode, VB from OpenAI’s developer experience team explains why he thinks plan mode is obsolete and how coding agents have shifted from step-by-step instructions to outcome-driven, long-running work. We cover how to write a good agents.md, why tests still matter when agents write the code, spec-driven development, and why cloud agents may be the future of dev tooling.
Coding Chats Episode 82 - John talks with Dave Westgarth, head of delivery at a Databricks consultancy. Dave shares his path from a psychology degree and McDonald's into tech, and they discuss why the Scrum Master role is so misunderstood, how it differs from a delivery manager, and whether either needs to be technical.They also look at how AI is changing delivery work. Faster code just moves the bottleneck upstream, John argues there's no AI-specific skill you can't learn in a day, and engineering fundamentals are what make AI useful.
Coding Chats Episode 81 - Ben Howdle talks to John Crickett about being a first time CTO in a start-up. Ben, author of The First CTO, shares what changes when you move from building technology to leading a technical team: the pressure, the trade-offs, and the realization that writing code is only part of the job.Drawing on startup experience and lessons learned the hard way, Ben discusses how to balance quality against runway, manage people, and communicate technical decisions in terms that founders and other non-technical stakeholders can understand. He also explores why resourcefulness, resilience, and comfort with ambiguity matter so much—and why CTOs often spend more time selling ideas than they expect.Whether you’re stepping into your first CTO role or leading a technical team at an early-stage company, this conversation offers candid insights into the realities of technical leadership.
Coding Chats Episode 80 - start-up advisor Alexander Berkovich shares his expertise on building successful start-ups, hiring strategies, CTO roles, and the importance of communication between technical and business teams. Discover practical tips for navigating the challenges of early-stage companies and how to align technical excellence with business goals.
Coding Chats Episode 79 - Richmond Alake, Director of AI Developer Experience at Oracle, joins John to discuss agent memory — how AI agents store, retrieve, and adapt to information. He argues that developers building memory on flat files are naively reinventing the database, and that once you factor in concurrency, security, and scalability, a proper database is inevitable. The conversation covers the full memory stack and how Oracle's AI database keeps embeddings and data together without shipping sensitive information to external providers.