Beyond Coding

The fastest engineers are falling behind, and Kitze was one of them. He built his reputation on raw coding speed, then realized his coding wasn't competing with anyone's coding anymore, it was competing with their setups. Wake-up call for developers: Kitze now runs 140 projects solo with agent loops, and in this episode he breaks down what separates the engineers pulling ahead from the ones gettin...

Danila Shtan runs engineering at Nebius, one of the biggest AI clouds in the world, and he told me exactly which engineers he hires on the spot. There are only hundreds of people on the planet with the skill he wants most, and it is not the one you are grinding on. We get into which engineering skills are actually scarce and well paid today, and which ones are quietly on the way out. In this episo...

120,000 tech workers have been laid off in 2026, yet there are 60,000 open roles. Engineers applying are sending out 100 applications for zero replies. Former Reddit, Uber and Disney Plus recruiter Keki Mwaba breaks down why the market broke, why every resume now looks identical, and what gets you hired when yours looks like everyone else's. In this video, we cover: Why 120,000 layoffs and 60,000...

Jeroen Gordijn and Jeroen Dee: two frontrunners who stopped writing code months ago and say software development is already solved. Typing code is no longer necessary, but what matters more now? If you're an engineer that loves coding, you're in a tougher spot than you might realize. In this video, we cover: - Why writing code is "solved" but engineering isn't - Spec-driven development and how to...

AI generates 10x more code, but your senior engineers still review it by hand and it's burning them out. Even Google admits code review is now the bottleneck nobody knows how to solve. Florian Buetow, AI engineer at Xebia, has been running experiments to eliminate the human from the review loop entirely, and what he found changes where engineers should focus their effort. In this episode, we cover...

Are you ready to adapt to the rapidly evolving rules of software development? In this deep dive, Logan Kilpatrick, Director and Engineer at Google DeepMind, breaks down how AI agents, advanced model-product symbiosis, and tools like Gemini 3.5 Flash are fundamentally shifting the engineering bottleneck. Learn how to maintain your competitive advantage by moving beyond the keyboard to focus on prob...

As AI agents transform software engineering, how do you leverage them without losing your coding skills or risking production disasters? In this episode, Google Cloud AI Director Addy Osmani breaks down the shift from babysitting basic models to mastering advanced agent harnesses. Discover how to safely delegate complex technical tasks while maintaining your human engineering identity and setting...

After 250 episodes of Beyond Coding, a pattern shows up again and again: the engineers who thrive aren't the ones chasing the newest tool or the cleanest code. They're the ones who learn fast, keep things simple, and understand the business they're building for. This special pulls the sharpest moments from recent guests into one conversation about what actually makes a great software engineer in 2...

Reddit Reacts is back. I'm taking the most controversial takes on software engineering from Reddit and giving you my unfiltered perspective on what's happening, from juniors leveraging AI tools, to the culling of engineers who refuse to adapt, to whether you should take a gap year after a layoff. In this episode, we cover: How to become technically "cracked" and what really separates great enginee...

Most engineers are using AI coding tools without understanding what they actually are and it's costing them. Microsoft Certified Trainer Rob Bos has trained thousands of engineers on AI tooling, and he sees the same gaps in fundamentals show up again and again, regardless of seniority. This is what you need to know: What an LLM actually is (and why understanding this changes how you use it) Why pr...

Most engineers approach open source the wrong way. They write code, open a PR, and wonder why it never gets merged. Bruno Schaatsbergen, Terraform core contributor and ex-HashiCorp engineer, breaks down the real craft behind contributions that actually land, and why AI is quietly breaking the ecosystem we all depend on. In this episode, we cover: Why pull requests get ignored (and the counterintui...

What separates software that survives from software nobody wants to touch? Nico Krijnen has spent 30 years building systems, coaching teams, and learning why some projects thrive while others quietly become the legacy code everyone avoids. In this episode, he shares why the real work starts after you ship, what actually turns a system into legacy, and why the knowledge in your team's heads matters...

Suzanne Daniels is a Top Microsoft Advisor who works with CTOs and engineering leaders across EMEA on developer productivity, GitHub, and AI adoption. Her take: the industry is obsessing over coding speed, but that was only ever level one. The real shift is in who defines the solution, not who writes the code. In this episode, we cover: Why the "55x faster coding" marketing misses the po...

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...

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...

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...

Sendil Nellaiyapen, Engineering Manager at Uber, has built systems that scale to millions of users. In this episode he shares what most engineers get wrong about both system design and the move into engineering management In this episode, we cover: Ingredients for designing systems that scale to millions of users How to know when to compromise on architecture The trade-offs of going from IC to eng...

Are you over-engineering for a future that might never come? In this episode, we explore why "future-proofing" often leads to wasted time and sunk costs, and how shifting your mindset from opinions to hypotheses can drastically improve your Developer Experience (DevEx). In this episode, we cover: The trap of complex architecture decisions like Hexagonal Architecture too early How to identify and r...

The difference between a junior and a senior engineer isn't coding speed, it's knowing when to say "no." "The best code you can write is the code you don't write." In this episode, I sit down with Alessandro Mautone (Senior Software Engineer at Aquablu, ex-WeTransfer) to discuss the reality of engineering at a scale-up: how do you maintain technical excellence when...

We are at a unique point in history where there is finally an alternative to human coding. If AI can write the code effectively, what is left for the software engineer? In this episode, Joris Conijn (AWS CTO at Xebia) argues that the era of "just coding" is over. We discuss why senior developers are safe (for now), why juniors are at risk of never learning the fundamentals, and how "Shadow AI" is...

Is your internal developer platform actually improving velocity, or is it a bottleneck? We discuss why platform teams building "cool" abstractions is a red flag, and you should aim to create the best platform for software engineers. In this episode, we cover: Why "Golden Paths" can turn into roadblocks for developers. The danger of Shadow IT and why it’s a symptom of a failed platform. How to meas...

Engineering hasn't become easier, writing code has just become faster. Time to stop fighting symptoms and start thinking in systems. In this Q&A, I break down the career advice I'd give to any engineer, from mastering architecture to knowing when to quit a high-paying job. In this episode, we cover: How "Systems Thinking" can be applied in practice The "Golden Handcuffs&...

The software engineering landscape is shifting rapidly. Coding is becoming "cheap" because of tools like Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Cursor etc. Interviews are evolving to focus on system design over syntax. In this Q&A, I break down exactly which skills matter now, how to negotiate the salary you deserve, and how to deal with difficult personalities on your team. In this episode: Ho...

"Architects shouldn't try to be the smartest people in the room, they should make everybody else smarter." In this episode, Gregor Hohpe (ex-Google & AWS, author of "The Software Architect Elevator") breaks down exactly how to transition from software engineer to architect. He shares the mental models used at Big Tech to handle complexity, visualize systems, and navigate office politics withou...

Are you waiting for a promotion that never comes? In this episode, we break down why relying on your manager to define your growth is a career-limiting mistake and how you can take full ownership of your professional path. In this episode, we cover: Why hard skills get you hired but won't get you ahead How to create growth opportunities when your company has no clear path Using RACI to own dec...