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How AI will change software engineering – with Martin Fowler

Overview

Shownote

Highlights

Transcript

Chapters

Pins

How AI will change software engineering – with Martin Fowler

The Pragmatic Engineer

Nov 19
The Pragmatic Engineer

The Pragmatic Engineer

Nov 19
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

Brought to You By: •⁠ Statsig ⁠ — ⁠ The unified platform for flags, analytics, experiments, and more. AI-accelerated development isn’t just about shipping faster: it’s about measuring whether, what you ship, actually delivers value. This is where modern e...

Highlights

Martin Fowler, a seminal figure in software engineering, reflects on how the industry is navigating the transformative impact of AI. From foundational practices like refactoring to modern workflows such as vibe coding, he offers a seasoned perspective on what’s changing—and what remains constant—in the craft of building software.
04:45
Object-oriented thinking was a radical concept in the mid-1980s.
12:46
The radar’s public release stems from ThoughtWorks’ ethos of sharing all internal work openly.
22:21
Describing tasks in structured notation improves LLM understanding over plain English.
30:38
LLMs are inefficient at simple refactoring tasks compared to tools like Resharper
33:38
Vibe Coding removes the learning loop crucial for evolving code.
39:22
Developers should never blindly trust code from LLMs—they must understand, test, and refactor it.
49:00
LLMs blur the line between thinking and coding by turning natural language into executable logic
53:37
LLMs are good at refactoring code
56:40
Fowler decided to write 'Refactoring' because Kent Beck was focused on Extreme Programming
1:02:15
With AI generating more code, refactoring will become increasingly important.
1:27:07
Boris built 20 interactive prototypes in two days using AI-assisted prompts.
1:35:01
Probe AI's advice to understand its sources and limitations
1:40:22
AI won't wipe out software development but will change it

Chapters

Intro
00:00
How Martin got into software engineering 
01:50
Joining Thoughtworks 
07:48
The Thoughtworks Technology Radar
10:07
From Assembly to high-level languages
16:45
Non-determinism 
25:08
Vibe coding
33:38
StackOverflow vs. coding with AI
39:22
Importance of testing with LLMs 
43:25
LLMs for enterprise software
50:45
Why Martin wrote Refactoring 
56:38
Why refactoring is so relevant today
1:02:15
Using LLMs with deterministic tools
1:06:10
Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture
1:07:36
The Agile Manifesto 
1:18:26
How Martin learns about AI 
1:28:35
Advice for junior engineers 
1:34:58
The state of the tech industry today
1:37:44
Rapid fire round
1:42:40

Transcript

Gergely Orosz: What similar changes have you seen that could compare to some extent to AI in the technology field? Martin Fowler: It's the biggest, I think, in my career. I think if we looked back at the history of software development as a whole, the com...