Fundamentals of Software Engineering

In this episode of Fundamentals of Software Engineering , Nate and I dig into the reality of working remotely and push back on a viral clip claiming that remote work is nothing more than white collar fraud . Drawing on nearly a decade of remote experience, we unpack why that argument glosses over the distractions of the office , the daily stress of the commute , and the return to office mandates p...

In this episode of Fundamentals of Software Engineering, Nate and I dig into the increasingly tense overlap between open source maintainers and the new wave of AI-generated contributions. We start with the policies maintainers are putting in place to refuse AI-driven pull requests, and why a flood of low-signal 50,000 line diffs is genuinely threatening the open-source contribution model. From the...

In this episode of Fundamentals of Software Engineering, Nate and I dig into the love hate relationship every developer has with the inherited code base. We unpack what actually makes code 'legacy', why working with it feels so painful, and the strategies that turn it from a burden into something you can confidently change. From Mike Feathers' definition ('legacy code is code without tests') to th...

In this episode of Fundamentals of Software Engineering , Nate and I dig into what we learned at the Arc of AI conference in Austin. We discuss the big conversations happening around AI-generated code in production, why vibe coding falls apart at scale, and how tools that let developers move faster can also get them off course just as quickly. From an AI agent that tried to delete production to 50...

In this episode of Fundamentals of Software Engineering , we dive deep into the diverse career paths available to software engineers beyond just writing code. Many engineers start their careers thinking the only options are coding until retirement or eventually becoming a manager , but the reality is far more exciting. We explore how the tech industry offers numerous opportunities that combine tec...

We kicked off Episode 4 by tackling something every developer faces but rarely masters: learning to learn . In our industry, the technology changes constantly , and staying relevant means embracing a lifetime of learning . Nate and I dove into how successful engineers aren't just smart, they're insatiably curious . We talked about moving past the misconception that learning ends with school and re...

In this episode, we tackle the question that's been keeping developers up at night: will AI replace software developers? As your hosts, we dive deep into the real impact of AI on our industry, drawing parallels to historical technological shifts like the Jacquard loom and ATMs. I share insights from our new book, The Fundamentals of Software Engineering , and we explore how AI tools from ChatGPT t...

In this episode, we tackle the elephant in the room for so many developers: burnout . Whether you're just starting out or you've been coding for decades like us, the constant pressure to learn , ship, and stay relevant takes a serious toll. I share my own experiences with that Sunday evening dread and how setting boundaries at home became non-negotiable. Nate opens up about the challenges of remot...

Launching the Fundamentals of Software Engineering Podcast with Dan Vega and Nate Schutta We are thrilled to introduce Episode One of the Fundamentals of Software Engineering podcast. In this inaugural episode, we share the origin story of how this book and podcast came to be, starting with a simple tweet about goals for the year. I talk about how Nate responded to my tweet saying he could help wi...