What is software development?

A software developer's job is to...

A software developer's job is to...

A software developer's job is to...

Figure out what the problem even is

Like this?

We start with a problem or idea...

Full of assumptions about...

• the world
• what is possible with current technology
• shared understanding

Communicated imprecisely...

The most precise way to describe how an application works is...

code

Like this?

The process

• Follow up questions
• Push-back
• Tradeoffs
• Suggestions
• Inspiration
• Empathy for the user
• Solution architecture
• Selecting the right tools
• Validation of solution

Like this

Watch this...later

Evolution of code...

Punch cards

Time passes... abstraction happens

What is abstraction?

C and C++ era languages

Python era languages

• Keep evolving
• Become even more "human"

How might the language change?

Human languages

Punctuation

							"The koala eats shoots and leaves"
							"The koala eats, shoots and leaves"
						

Punctuation

							"She ran away from the fire, in her pajamas"
							"She ran away from the fire in her pajamas"
										

Common mistakes

							"There, their"
							"Too, to"
							"It's, its"
						

Misuses

							"Borrow versus lend"
							"Literally == figuratively"
						

Staying hip with the times

							Lit 
							Kiff
							Drip 
							Cool 
							Cheddar 
							Goat
							DRY 
							Lol
						

US CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE IV, SECTION 3

;

🔨 Hammers and laser-beams 💥

• Human languages are like hammers
• Programming languages like Python - more like a laser beam
• C is still a thing
• Even assembler

Code ==

Code up close

• What order things happen in
• Under what circumstances
• Where knowledge comes from, where it goes
• How things change
• When things repeat

Code up close

• Logic and algorithms
• Written in a way that is clear to machines
• Written in a way that is clear to people

What will get abstracted away?

• NOT if statements, loops, flow control
• NOT functions
• NOT variables
• NOT classes and objects
• NOT exceptions and errors

What will get abstracted away?

• NOT our ability to solve problems
• NOT our ability to express ourselves
• NOT our ability to describe algorithms precisely

Confusing things

New devs practice their skills

Hackerrank, leetcode etc

But LLMs do it better, so what's the point of getting a human to do it?

Rather: let the humans practice using LLMs, that's the future proof skill!

Problems

But wont AI get better?

YES!

LLMs will be able to do "harder" things in future

Token limits will increase

Should humans even try to outpace LLMs?

Will software devs become redundant?

Definitely not!

When learning any language we...

Start off by translating words and simple sentences

But we know the end goal is something more

When learning software dev

Start off by translating simple problems into code

Software development is...

NOT A TRANSLATION SERVICE

• A collaborative, iterative, exploratory process
• Code is an artifact output from that process

First step in learning this is: Translation and literacy

Like this!

But can't AI learn ALL the skills of software dev?

Still pretty far from AGI

There is still a lot of hype to cut through

• Only good at problems it's seen before!
• Strong evidence of memorization of problems in training set

Watch this! (Later)

Mirror, mirror: LLMs and the illusion of humanity - Jodie Burchell

To become a software developer, start with

Literacy!

Learn to write: translate simple ideas into code

Then...

Learn to apply that literacy to solve problems

Hackerrank etc

• Practice literacy
• Practice applying skills to solve basic problems

Body Builders

Software developers

Practice problem solving

Apply what you know, solve small problems

So that you can learn to solve bigger problems

Practice precision

Noob-friendly problems are simple. Maybe you can solve them with a hammer

But then you wont learn how to use laser beams

How?

by PRECISELY describing small, simple algorithms

you learn the skills to describe big, complicated ones

Remember

The most precise way to describe what a program should do is in code

Learn to code in order to

Learn to think

Express your thoughts precisely to...

• get feedback from people
• get feedback from the world
• get feedback from our future selves
• harden our own thinking

Sam Altman

Reading... Japanese?

Reading code...

• To read the minds of your team mates
• To read the minds of powerful thinkers

Can AI help me learn software development?

YES!

Illusions of competence

Richard Feynman

Components of illusions of competence

• Dunning Kruger effect
• Overconfidence in future-self
• Hindsight bias

MASTERY

• NOT Familiarity
• NOT Nodding while someone/something else does the thinking
• NOT Housed in your short-term memory

MASTERY comes from

• Deliberate practice
• Recall
• Struggle!

Strategy

• Try it yourself first - embrace struggle
• Opportunity to be wrong == Opportunity to upgrade yourself
• If you get stuck - get unstuck
• Recall things later on, practice over time
• Learn to teach (to learn) - protégé effect