Show notes
In this episode, we’re resharing one of the most popular & exciting sessions from ELC Annual 2023, featuring a panel of experts discussing what software dev will look like in the decades to come! This conversation features Tara Hernandez, VP Developer Productivity @ MongoDB; Erik Meijer, Sr. Director of Engineering @ Meta; and Jocelyn Goldfein, Managing Director @ Zetta Venture Partners. They debate & dissect how AI is changing what software dev looks like, what capabilities future eng leaders will need to build upon, where AI technology will need to improve moving forward, and more.
Tara Hernandez has spent nearly thirty years evolving ways for companies to develop and ship software. She helped launch Mozilla.org and has been a firm proponent of open source ever since. She also thinks smart companies understand the business value of having a diverse employee base. Tara currently works at MongoDB, is a member of the board for Women Who Code, and a member of the Continuous Delivery Foundation.
"What was so amazing about Da Vinci? Da Vinci was an artist, he was a painter, he was a sculptor, he was an engineer. Breadth, more than depth, is increasingly going to be critical.”
- Tara Hernandez
Erik Meijer is a Dutch Computer Scientist, entrepreneur, and AI enthusiast.
In his long career, he has democratized many academic concepts such as functional programming, reactive programming, and language-integrated query by introducing these concepts into mainstream languages such as C#, Visual Basic, Dart, and Hack, as well as through his startup Apllied Duality Inc.
As an educator, Erik has shared his knowledge through platforms like Channel 9, Coursera, and edX, enlightening learners worldwide with his courses on reactive and functional programming.
As the founder of the Probability team at Meta in 2016, he is one of the pioneers in applying AI to programmer productivity and systems efficiency.
Most recently, Erik is working on providing every knowledge worker with a personal assistant that supercharges their productivity and boosts job satisfaction.
"I think the engineer of the future will be more like an English major or a music major. Somebody that can really explain their thoughts very well. If you have kids, I would not send them to do computer science. Send them to a liberal arts.”
- Erik Meijer
Jocelyn Goldfein (@jgoldfein) is a Managing Director at Zetta Venture Partners, where she invests seed capital in AI-native startups with B2B business models.
Jocelyn is a widely recognized industry expert on product strategy, infrastructure, and organizational scale. Her career as an engineering leader spans from early-stage startups to high-growth years at Facebook and VMware.
During her tenure at Facebook, she helped convert News Feed to Machine Learning and spearheaded the transition to a ‘mobile first' product organization. As an early engineer at VMware, she built core virtualization technology and ultimately created and led VMware’s Desktop Business Unit. Jocelyn also held engineering and leadership roles at startups Datify, MessageOne, and Trilogy/pcOrder.
Jocelyn has a passion for STEM Education. She currently lectures at Stanford University where she received her BS in Computer Science.
"Part of me finds it almost insane to think about what if there's never a new programming language? What if we're at the end of history for new programming languages and the next and last programming language is Hindi?”
- Jocelyn Goldfein
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SHOW NOTES:
- Introducing Jocelyn, Tara, and Erik & their interest in the future of software dev (2:31)
- Ensuring AI accuracy / confidence as a key inflection point (5:06)
- What the next generation of building software will look like (7:09)
- Why engineers will always be needed for understanding machine capabilities (10:51)
- Erik & Tara’s perspectives on the future of AI & engineer interaction in software dev (13:19)
- Great engineers of the future need to have well-rounded skills (16:38)
- Why flow will (or will not) be as necessary in the future (19:06)
- How AI will augment human creativity & the engineering role (21:06)
- Will AI replace the need for cross-collaborative teams? (23:30)
- Jocelyn’s theory that today’s best QA folks will be the best engineers in 2033 (26:14)
- Audience Q&A: What logical & cognitive skills will still be needed as AI progresses? (28:24)
- Challenging the current definition of software development (31:45)
- What is the potential for a future dialogue system? (34:17)
- Will the change in eng skills also impact other degrees like mathematics? (36:46)
- How will the industry navigate workforce loss as AI replaces certain roles? (38:01)
LINKS AND RESOURCES
This episode wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our incredible production team:
Patrick Gallagher - Producer & Co-Host
Jerry Li - Co-Host
Noah Olberding - Associate Producer, Audio & Video Editor https://www.linkedin.com/in/noah-olberding/
Dan Overheim - Audio Engineer, Dan’s also an avid 3D printer - https://www.bnd3d.com/
Ellie Coggins Angus - Copywriter, Check out her other work at https://elliecoggins.com/about/
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