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Beyond Coding

Patrick Akil

#30 in Technology this week

For software engineers ready to level up. Learn from CTOs, principal engineers, and tech leaders about the skills beyond coding: from technical mastery to product thinking and career growth. Created by Patrick Akil

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  • 23 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 47 min
  • English

Episodes 23

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  • #245
    April 1 · 47 min

    AI Expert: Most Software Engineers Aren't Ready for What's Coming

    The role of the software engineer is shifting from execution to orchestration, and it's happening faster than most of us realize. Dennis Vink, Principal Consultant at Xebia, breaks down how he approaches code modernization with AI, why fundamentals and system design matter more now than ever, and what the engineering role is actually becoming. In this episode, we cover: Why you need to mature your old codebase before you can migrate away from it How to prove feature parity between legacy and modern systems Why vibe coding without architecture knowledge gives you zero control The shift from execution-focused engineering to orchestration Why Dennis worries about the next generation of engineers Whether you're sitting on legacy code at work or wondering how your role as an engineer is evolving, this conversation will make you think about where you need to invest your time next. Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:51 - Dennis's Early AI Engineering Assignments 00:02:23 - Side Projects: Reviving a 20-Year-Old Game in Rust 00:04:36 - Why Vibe Coding Without Fundamentals Fails 00:05:15 - The Fundamentals You Need for Code Migration 00:06:45 - Proving Feature Parity with Automated Testing 00:08:12 - Writing Tests First as Risk Mitigation 00:10:13 - How Much Should You Care About Code Structure? 00:11:18 - Migrating in Small Pieces of Value 00:12:26 - Will Engineers Still Find Fulfillment in Building? 00:14:01 - How to Actually Start Side Projects (ADHD Brain) 00:15:34 - Why Pivoting Is No Longer Painful 00:16:12 - Prompting as the New Bottleneck 00:17:23 - Parallelizing Work Across Projects 00:19:08 - Why System Design Is the #1 Audience Demand 00:20:19 - AI as a Differentiator for Strong Architects 00:21:11 - Why the New Generation Should Worry 00:23:01 - Are Bootcamps Still Worth It? 00:25:15 - The Shift from Collaboration to Business Understanding 00:27:56 - Infrastructure as a Core Competency Bet 00:30:15 - Deterministic vs Non-Deterministic Code Generation 00:32:16 - Can This Approach Scale to Million-Line Codebases? 00:34:20 - Why a Finger-Snap Migration Would Scare You 00:37:01 - Where to Start with Your Own Legacy Codebase 00:38:43 - Which Languages Do AI Models Struggle With? 00:40:24 - Building Around Hallucination with Scaffolding 00:42:30 - Spec-Driven Development as the Future Way of Working 00:43:30 - Turning a Non-Technical Colleague into a "Developer" in an Hour 00:46:21 - When the House Is on Fire, That's When You Need Real Engineers Projects we discussed: Agent designer - hurozo.com Game project - Zorlore.com (https://github.com/zorlore/) Vibe coded solar system simulation - spacehaste.com #SoftwareEngineering #SystemDesign #AIEngineering

    • Transcript
  • #244
    March 25 · 1 hr

    Veteran CTO: How to Think About Your Software Engineering Career

    Most senior engineers don't realize they're stuck until it's too late. The longer you stay, the more people around you have already decided who you are and what you're for. Ian Miell, CTO at Container Solutions, breaks down why this happens and how understanding the system around you is the first step to growing beyond it. In this episode, we cover: Why staying too long gets you put in a box (and how to escape it) How your software architecture is shaped by money flows The 30% rule: why you should feel uncomfortable at work and what it means if you don't How to pitch to senior leadership and actually get buy-in Why AI makes distribution the real challenge, not building If you're a senior engineer trying to grow beyond your current ceiling, this one is worth your time. Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:42 - How to Pitch to Senior Leadership and Get Buy-In 00:03:26 - Why You Should Feel Uncomfortable 30% of the Time 00:06:33 - How to Break Through a Seniority Ceiling 00:08:24 - The Burden of Context: Why Being the Go-To Person Traps You 00:10:16 - How Ian Became CTO Without Trying To 00:13:40 - Why a CTO's Job Is Mostly Coaching Now 00:18:20 - Understanding Incentives: The Key to Navigating Any Org 00:23:08 - Startups vs. Large Companies: Completely Different Rules 00:25:00 - Why AI Makes Distribution the Real Problem, Not Building 00:28:16 - The Hidden Maintenance Risk of Vibe-Coded Software 00:30:13 - Security and Compliance: More Nuanced Than Engineers Think 00:36:54 - Where "Architecture Follows the Money" Came From 00:42:36 - The Wrong Number of Customers: A Systems Thinking Story 00:47:23 - Why Engineers Think Individually Instead of Systemically 00:51:53 - How to Start Thinking in Systems 00:57:50 - How to Create Cross-Pollination in Consulting Teams 00:59:39 - What CTOs Actually Look for When Hiring 01:00:34 - Outro #softwareengineering #systemsthinking #careergrowth

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  • #243
    March 18 · 52 min

    Top Tier Architect: Software Engineering Is About Battling Complexity

    Most architects stop coding... and that's exactly where they lose their edge. Dennis Doomen has been a hands-on coding architect for 30 years, and his take is blunt: if you're not in the code, you can't make good architectural decisions. Period. In this episode, we get into the real causes of codebase rot, why dogmatic pattern-following destroys teams, how Dennis uses AI tools to build open source projects without compromising his standards, and why documentation and decision records might be the most underrated investment a software team can make. This one is for software engineers and architects who want to stay sharp, stay relevant, and build systems that actually last. 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:05 - Why Dennis Refuses to Stop Coding (After 30 Years) 00:02:54 - The Only Way to Be an Effective Software Architect 00:04:43 - What Happens When Teams Copy Patterns Without Understanding Them 00:06:23 - Software Engineering Is About Battling Complexity 00:08:20 - When to Break Consistency to Reduce Complexity 00:09:24 - The Problem with Overzealous SOLID Principles 00:11:06 - The Future Where We Don't Care About Code Anymore 00:12:07 - How Dennis Built an Open Source Library with GitHub Copilot 00:14:18 - Accepting AI-Generated Code That Doesn't Meet Your Standards 00:16:39 - How to Use AI Without Losing Code Quality 00:17:41 - The Execution Is Accelerating — What Actually Matters Now 00:20:19 - Why Tests Are Your Safety Net in an AI-First World 00:23:44 - Lessons Learned from Letting AI Run Unsupervised 00:26:46 - Should Teams Standardize Which AI Tool They Use? 00:27:32 - Junior Devs and AI: Learning Skills vs. Speed 00:29:21 - How to Stay Curious and Critical in an AI-Assisted Team 00:33:43 - How to Build a Software Engineer from Scratch Today 00:34:38 - Dennis's Emoji-Based Pull Request Review System 00:36:45 - What AI Still Can't Do: Holistic Architectural Thinking 00:38:38 - Why Your Git History Is More Valuable Than You Think 00:40:44 - Decision Records: The Architecture Investment That Pays Off 00:43:16 - When Documentation Saved Dennis from a Bad Management Decision 00:44:47 - The Tailwind Layoffs and the Open Source Business Model Crisis 00:46:27 - Guidelines for Consuming Open Source Responsibly 00:49:51 - Why You Should Open Source Your Own Projects Guest: Dennis Doomen - Microsoft MVP, open source creator (FluentAssertions and more), and coding architect at Aviva Solutions. #softwaredevelopment #softwarearchitecture #softwareengineering

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Showing 21–23 of 23 episodes