SUMMARY: Exploring how to fully embrace AI-driven, agent-based software development, resulting in dramatically increased productivity and faster feature delivery. It highlights a broader shift in engineering—from writing code to orchestrating AI agents.
GUEST: Sam Ramji, CEO/Co-founder at Sailplane
SHOW: 1023
SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Reasoning Show #1023 Transcript
SHOW VIDEO: https://youtu.be/q50s0oL37pQ
SHOW SPONSORS:
SHOW NOTES:
1. The “Halt and Retool” Moment
- A single-day build and deployment of a production feature triggered a company-wide realization
- Paused all development to reassess how AI fundamentally changes engineering workflows
- Creating “shock moments” (like stopping work) is key to driving mindset shifts
2. From Coding to Agent Orchestration
- Developers are shifting from writing code → managing AI agents
- Work resembles “multi-boxing” or conducting an orchestra of parallel agents
- Success depends on coordinating tasks, not executing them directly
3. The Rise of Harness Engineering
- Defined as everything between raw AI prompts and production-ready output
- Focus: eliminating friction across the software development lifecycle
- Key practices:
- Logging agent errors and friction points
- Continuously refining workflows and tooling
- Letting AI reflect on and improve its own mistakes
4. Spec-Driven Development Becomes Critical
- Poor specifications lead to exponential inefficiencies
- Teams now spend significantly more time on design and specs than coding
5. Measuring the Impact
- ~3x increase in code velocity
- Near-zero “bit rot”
- Faster feature delivery—sometimes within 24 hours
6. Token Maxing & Developer Fitness
- Higher token usage often signals better workflows and deeper integration with AI
- Performance becomes about system design, not efficiency constraints
7. New Tools & Interfaces
- Increased use of voice interfaces over typing
- Terminal-first workflows replacing traditional IDE-centric approaches
- AI-accessible knowledge bases becoming standard
8. The Future of Software Engineering
- Within ~6 months: developers may stop writing code
- Within ~12 months: developers may stop reading code
- Focus shifts to:
- Intent, design, and orchestration. Domain expertise and problem modeling
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