I help teams adopt TypeScript and Rust, develop technical strategy, and solve thorny software problems. Previously LinkedIn.com tech lead; Ember TypeScript & Framework team emeritus. Theologian, writer, composer.
A meta note about this talk: I am, as a lot of folks out there know, not exactly bullish on LLMs in general. I think most of the hype is nonsense—even while I think some of their capabilities are really astonishing!—but I do think they’re here to stay. So: First of all, if we’re going to be working in a world where people are authoring code with LLMs (Copilot etc.) and using them to “do things” as agent-based systems, the world of inputs to the models matters, as do the environments in which they run. They matter a *lot*! Second, I think a lot of engineering organizations pretty consistently underinvest in foundations, because of the simple realities that many kinds of foundations projects take longer and have a less direct/measurable connection to profitability. They just do, no way around it. Third, then, what are the ways that engineering leaders—including managers, but especially Staff+ engineers—can mitigate the risks of LLMs and improve the chances that they are net neutral or even positive, rather than negative, for software quality, UX, and business outcomes? Secretly (and yes, I am saying it out loud now!) it is predicated on my belief that THESE ARE THE THINGS WE SHOULD BE DOING ANYWAY… but this is a moment when we have a really obvious reason how and why these things matter, with which we can make that case to decision-makers. And because these are the things we should be doing anyway, an organization which uses this LLM-hype-moment to improve the foundations on which we run LLM-related systems… will be in a better spot two years from now *even if the LLM ecosystem craters*. Seems like a win.
I help teams adopt TypeScript and Rust, develop technical strategy, and solve thorny software problems. Previously LinkedIn.com tech lead; Ember TypeScript & Framework team emeritus. Theologian, writer, composer.
Last Thursday, I gave this talk at LeadDev’s #StaffPlusNewYork, with a simple thesis: #LLMs are here to stay in software dev (for good or for ill)… and our #engineering #foundations are not ready for that reality. https://lnkd.in/gAXJKsxV
