Beyond Coding

Patrick Akil

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

  1. Top Microsoft Advisor: "Coding Is Cheap, Software Is Expensive." You're Focused on the Wrong Thing

    2 DAYS AGO

    Top Microsoft Advisor: "Coding Is Cheap, Software Is Expensive." You're Focused on the Wrong Thing

    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 point entirelyThe counterintuitive research showing junior engineers adopt AI faster than seniors"Coding is cheap, software is expensive" and what that means for your careerHow the boundary between product and engineering is disappearingWhy most AI coding tools are 80% the same and what to focus on instead Whether you're early in career and struggling to land a role, or a senior engineer rethinking where your value lies, Suzanne breaks down what actually matters when the coding part becomes cheap. Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:15 - Is AI Productivity the Whole Story? 00:03:26 - Why Outcomes Matter More Than Code Output 00:04:13 - The Real Value Was Never in the Coding 00:06:06 - The Product-Engineering Boundary Is Disappearing 00:07:37 - Why Junior Engineers Are Actually in High Demand 00:09:41 - Research Says Juniors Adopt AI Faster Than Seniors 00:11:31 - The Rise of Comb-Shaped Engineers 00:12:32 - The Energy Juniors Bring That Teams Need 00:14:06 - How Seniors Codify Knowledge for Agents and Humans 00:16:35 - Advice for Early Career Engineers Right Now 00:19:04 - Old Principles Getting a New Polish 00:21:13 - Coding Is Cheap, Software Is Expensive 00:22:52 - Will Agentic Development Change Your Programming Language? 00:24:53 - What Even Is an Application in the Agent Era? 00:28:34 - The Authenticity Paradox of AI-Written Content 00:30:12 - Why Your AI Output Needs a Human Value Add 00:32:12 - Is Open Source at Risk Because of AI? 00:35:09 - When Your Favorite Tool Doesn't Follow You to the Next Job 00:36:45 - Most AI Coding Tools Are 80% the Same 00:38:15 - What Engineering Leaders Should Enable Beyond Licensing 00:42:58 - Should You Leave If Your Company Won't Let You Experiment? 00:45:16 - Platform Engineering as the Foundation for AI Adoption Guest: Suzanne Danielshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannedaniels #SoftwareEngineering #AICoding #BeyondCoding

    46 min
  2. AI Expert: Most Software Engineers Aren't Ready for What's Coming

    1 APR

    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 itHow to prove feature parity between legacy and modern systemsWhy vibe coding without architecture knowledge gives you zero controlThe shift from execution-focused engineering to orchestrationWhy Dennis worries about the next generation of engineersWhether 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 - Intro00:00:51 - Dennis's Early AI Engineering Assignments00:02:23 - Side Projects: Reviving a 20-Year-Old Game in Rust00:04:36 - Why Vibe Coding Without Fundamentals Fails00:05:15 - The Fundamentals You Need for Code Migration00:06:45 - Proving Feature Parity with Automated Testing00:08:12 - Writing Tests First as Risk Mitigation00:10:13 - How Much Should You Care About Code Structure?00:11:18 - Migrating in Small Pieces of Value00:12:26 - 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 Painful00:16:12 - Prompting as the New Bottleneck00:17:23 - Parallelizing Work Across Projects00:19:08 - Why System Design Is the #1 Audience Demand00:20:19 - AI as a Differentiator for Strong Architects00:21:11 - Why the New Generation Should Worry00:23:01 - Are Bootcamps Still Worth It?00:25:15 - The Shift from Collaboration to Business Understanding00:27:56 - Infrastructure as a Core Competency Bet00:30:15 - Deterministic vs Non-Deterministic Code Generation00:32:16 - Can This Approach Scale to Million-Line Codebases?00:34:20 - Why a Finger-Snap Migration Would Scare You00:37:01 - Where to Start with Your Own Legacy Codebase00:38:43 - Which Languages Do AI Models Struggle With?00:40:24 - Building Around Hallucination with Scaffolding00:42:30 - Spec-Driven Development as the Future Way of Working00:43:30 - Turning a Non-Technical Colleague into a "Developer" in an Hour00:46:21 - 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

    48 min
  3. If You've Been At The Same Company 3+ Years, You're Already In A Box

    25 MAR

    If You've Been At The Same Company 3+ Years, You're Already In A Box

    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 flowsThe 30% rule: why you should feel uncomfortable at work and what it means if you don'tHow to pitch to senior leadership and actually get buy-inWhy AI makes distribution the real challenge, not buildingIf 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

    1hr 1min
  4. How to Battle Complexity Before It Kills Your Software (30-Year Veteran's Take)

    18 MAR

    How to Battle Complexity Before It Kills Your Software (30-Year Veteran's Take)

    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

    52 min
  5. Uber Engineering Manager on Scaling Systems, Career Trade-offs, and Why Clarity Beats Seniority

    11 MAR

    Uber Engineering Manager on Scaling Systems, Career Trade-offs, and Why Clarity Beats Seniority

    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 usersHow to know when to compromise on architectureThe trade-offs of going from IC to engineering manager and why the role is harder than it looksHow to handle opinionated engineers, set team guardrails, and build high-performing engineering culture Whether you're a senior engineer weighing the move into management, or already leading teams and looking to sharpen your system design thinking, this one's for you. OUTLINE: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:05 - The Ingredients for Building Systems at Scale 00:02:23 - When to Compromise on Your Foundation 00:03:42 - Scaling from 2,000 to 5 Million Users 00:06:37 - Why Clarity Beats Seniority Every Time 00:08:27 - The Danger of Muscle Memory in Engineering 00:10:25 - MVP Mindset: What You Can and Can't Compromise 00:13:22 - How High-Performing Teams Handle Growing Complexity 00:15:04 - Who Owns the Assumptions? Shared Team Responsibility 00:17:04 - Building Open Frameworks Instead of Closed Rules 00:19:53 - Latency Is Overrated (Here's Why) 00:22:52 - Recipes for Disaster: The Biggest System Design Pitfalls 00:24:17 - The Scala Horror Story: When Elegance Kills Velocity 00:26:52 - How to Handle Opinionated Engineers on Your Team 00:29:03 - Setting Guardrails: The Manager's Design Responsibility 00:32:01 - The Hardest Trade-Off Going from IC to Engineering Manager 00:34:35 - Should Great Engineers Stay IC or Go into Management? 00:37:11 - BFS vs DFS Engineers: Which Type Makes a Better Manager? 00:39:05 - The Real Cost of Becoming a Manager (And Why It's Worth It) 00:41:52 - Outro #systemdesign #engineeringmanager #softwareengineering

    45 min
  6. Lead Software Engineer: Why You Can Write the Code in a Day but Ship in a Month

    4 MAR

    Lead Software Engineer: Why You Can Write the Code in a Day but Ship in a Month

    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 earlyHow to identify and remove friction points in the software development lifecycleThe reality of using AI agents in production and who is actually responsible for the code If you are a software engineer or tech lead tired of the "Sacred Cloud Committee" and slow processes, this deep dive into DevEx is for you. Connect with Bas de Groot: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bas-de-groot-635013100 Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:00 - The Danger of "Future-Proofing" Your Architecture 00:03:18 - Why You Should Use Hypotheses Over Opinions 00:05:32 - "Shift Left Until There's Only Sh*t Left" 00:08:19 - At What Size Do You Need a DevEx Team? 00:11:02 - How to Measure Developer Friction Effectively 00:15:43 - Using Data to Fix Slow CI/CD Pipelines 00:17:26 - Why Surveys Beat DORA Metrics for Context 00:19:52 - The "Sacred Cloud Committee" Blocking Deployments 00:24:51 - How to Get Buy-In for DevEx Initiatives 00:28:56 - The Role of Hands-On Coding in DevEx 00:31:47 - Will AI Agents Fix Bad Processes? 00:34:44 - You Are Still Responsible for AI-Generated Code #developerexperience #softwarearchitecture #techlead

    40 min
  7. How Senior Software Engineers Balance Speed and Quality (Scale-Up Lessons)

    25 FEB

    How Senior Software Engineers Balance Speed and Quality (Scale-Up Lessons)

    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 the business demands speed? We break down why delivering features "fast" pays your salary, but how to negotiate deadlines so you don't drown in technical debt later. If you want to move from writing code to owning product decisions, this conversation is for you. In this episode, we cover: - How to push back on features and negotiate deadlines without upsetting stakeholders - Why chasing "perfect code" can hurt a company in growth mode - The Generalist vs. Specialist career path: Which one is right for you? - The potential pitfalls of using AI for unit tests without proper oversight Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:06 - Balancing Technical Excellence With Delivery Speed 00:04:11 - Why Delivering Features Pays Your Salary 00:06:51 - The Importance of Ownership and "Skin in the Game" 00:08:59 - Leaving WeTransfer: When Company Direction Shifts 00:11:49 - The Generalist vs. Specialist Career Path Debate 00:16:46 - How to Attract Top Engineering Talent to Your Team 00:18:50 - Is LeetCode the Right Way to Hire for Scale-Ups? 00:23:16 - Learning to "Say No" is a Sign of Seniority 00:25:17 - Negotiating Scope Without Burning Bridges 00:26:02 - When AI Generates Bad Unit Tests 00:28:14 - Never Compromise on Tests, Even in "Code Red" 00:33:59 - Communicating Technical Concepts to Non-Tech Stakeholders 00:35:35 - The Never-Ending Battle Against Complexity 00:37:26 - When to Build for the Future vs. Ship Now 00:42:30 - A Real-World Example of Refactoring for Simplicity 00:46:48 - The Skill That Will Be Make or Break for Engineers #SoftwareEngineering #ScaleUp #TechnicalDebt

    47 min
  8. How to Think About Software Engineering (CTO's Perspective)

    18 FEB

    How to Think About Software Engineering (CTO's Perspective)

    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 forcing companies to change their security strategies. Most importantly, we break down the difference between a "Programmer" and a "Software Engineer" with the introduction of agentic tools. If you want to future-proof your career and move from writing lines of code to designing systems, this conversation is for you. In this episode, we cover: Why banning AI at work actually increases your security riskHow to use AI to automate the boring parts of the SDLC (requirements & user stories)The critical difference between "Coding" and "System Architecture"Why you should check your AI Agents into your Git repositoryThe 20-year problem: what happens when engineers never learn the fundamentals? Connect with Joris Conijn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jorisconijn TIMESTAMPS 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:11 - What Keeps a CTO Excited About Tech? 00:02:58 - Stop Being the "Department of No" in Security 00:05:28 - The Real Risk of Banning AI at Work 00:06:32 - When Developers Hold the Organization Hostage 00:08:14 - The Hidden Dangers of Instant AI Code Fixes 00:09:50 - Will Future Devs Understand Object Oriented Programming? 00:11:36 - Using AI to Accelerate Learning vs Copy-Pasting 00:13:17 - Why Testing Matters More When AI Writes Code 00:16:42 - Automating the Boring Parts of the SDLC 00:19:06 - How to Turn Meeting Transcripts into User Stories 00:21:36 - The Critical Skill of Making Implicit Knowledge Explicit 00:23:10 - Why You Should Stop Obsessing Over Story Points 00:27:46 - The "A-Team" Approach to High-Trust Development 00:29:54 - Running Parallel Workflows with AI Agents 00:33:34 - Pro Tip: Check Your AI Agents into Git 00:35:52 - Balancing Autonomy and Governance in Large Teams 00:39:19 - There Is Finally an Alternative to Human Coders 00:41:07 - Programmer vs Software Engineer: What is the Difference? 00:44:45 - How to Teach Software Engineering in the AI Era #SoftwareEngineering #SystemDesign #AIAgents

    47 min
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About

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

Information

  • Creator
    Patrick Akil
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    246
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Patrick Akil
  • Show Website
    Beyond Coding

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