AI is moving faster than our collective ability to metabolize it. Between copilots, agents, vibe coding, and the ever-shifting definition of “senior engineer,” developers are asking a deeper question. Where is this all actually going? In this episode, Scott sits down with Gergely Orosz, author of The Pragmatic Engineer and longtime observer of how software gets built inside high-performing teams, to separate signal from hype.

They dig into what AI is really doing to day-to-day engineering work. Productivity boosts versus skill atrophy. The changing expectations for junior developers. Whether “AI-first” companies are structurally different or simply marketing-forward. Gergely brings his trademark data-driven pragmatism, grounded in conversations with hundreds of engineering leaders navigating hiring freezes, agent experiments, and the reshaping of career ladders.

Scott and Gergely also explore the human side. What happens to craftsmanship when code is abundant. How we teach the next generation to think, not just prompt. Why developer experience may matter more, not less, in an AI-accelerated world. Along the way, they consider whether we are watching a platform shift on the scale of cloud and mobile, or something even bigger.

 * https://www.pragmaticengineer.com/

Where is AI taking us? - with The Pragmatic Programmer Gergely Orosz

Sandboxing is having a moment. As agents move from chat windows into terminals, repos, and production-adjacent workflows, the question is no longer “What can AI generate?” but “Where can it safely run?” In this episode, Scott talks with Mark Cavage, President of Docker, about the resurgence of sandboxes as critical infrastructure for the agent era and the thinking behind Docker’s newly released sandbox feature.

They explore why isolation, reproducibility, and least-privilege execution are becoming table stakes for AI-assisted development. From protecting local machines to enabling trustworthy automation loops, Scott and Mark dig into how modern sandboxes differ from traditional containers, what developers should expect from secure agent runtimes, and why the future of “AI that does things” will depend as much on boundaries as it does on model capability.

Run your AI Agent in a Sandbox, with Docker President Mark Cavage

Join Scott and Eric Lippert for a lively tour through Fabulous Adventures in Data Structures and Algorithms, a fresh take on timeless topics that flips the script on how programmers think about core tools of the trade. Eric shares why he wrote a book that avoids the predictable interview-prep regurgitations, and instead dives into clever, lesser-known data structures and algorithmic ideas that he’s encountered over a long career in language design and tooling. You’ll hear how immutability can make data structures both simpler and faster, why backtracking shows up everywhere from tree search to puzzle solving, and how a deeper understanding of performance and abstraction can change the way you architect code. Along the way Eric reveals how to reconnect joy with problem solving, find surprising patterns that scale across domains, and build intuition that serves you long after the syntax fades from memory.

This episode sponsored by Mailtrap
https://mailtrap.io/

Fabulous Adventures in Data Structures and Algorithms with Eric Lippert

Join Scott and Eric Lippert for a lively tour through Fabulous Adventures in Data Structures and Algorithms, a fresh take on timeless topics that flips the script on how programmers think about core tools of the trade. Eric shares why he wrote a book that avoids the predictable interview-prep regurgitations, and instead dives into clever, lesser-known data structures and algorithmic ideas that he’s encountered over a long career in language design and tooling. You’ll hear how immutability can make data structures both simpler and faster, why backtracking shows up everywhere from tree search to puzzle solving, and how a deeper understanding of performance and abstraction can change the way you architect code. Along the way Eric reveals how to reconnect joy with problem solving, find surprising patterns that scale across domains, and build intuition that serves you long after the syntax fades from memory. 

 * https://www.manning.com/books/fabulous-adventures-in-data-structures-and-algorithms

Vjekoslav Krajačić on File Pilot and a return to fast UIs

Loris Cro on the Rise of Zig

In this partnership episode between Hanselminutes and the ACM Bytecast, Scott talks with Dr. Dawn Song, MacArthur Fellow and leading researcher in computer security and AI and co-director at the Berkeley Center for Responsible Decentralized Intelligence about how privacy-preserving computation, fairness, and accountability can help us design intelligent systems we can actually trust.    

https://agenticai-learning.org [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbTUzSDBhTGg1NjJMTmQtQl8yc1VSaWhVdEJYZ3xBQ3Jtc0ttNmNLSHdrTFJYQUJGOENIaTlyampKaGVha1hqVVdaZHdBNjl0TFpCTGFMTkp0c2g1NHYwOHpfYjZkRlFWQmw4M0tDRDdKbTBfTG9sNGloUjlxY0JfcjlZM3RWMGNQVGRTd2pvUklncWtQYXBEVHFlWQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fagenticai-learning.org%2F&v=MnKEOy38Ckc]

This episode is sponsored by Mailtrap.
Check out https://l.rw.rw/hanselminutes for modern email delivery that developers love.

Trusting Agentic AI with Dr. Dawn Song

In this partnership episode between Hanselminutes and the ACM Bytecast, Scott talks with Dr. Dawn Song, MacArthur Fellow and leading researcher in computer security and AI and co-director at the Berkeley Center for Responsible Decentralized Intelligence about how privacy-preserving computation, fairness, and accountability can help us design intelligent systems we can actually trust.

 * https://agenticai-learning.org

Hanselminutes is Fresh Air for Developers. A weekly commute-time podcast that promotes fresh technology and fresh voices. Talk and Tech for Developers, Life-long Learners, and Technologists.

Scott Hanselman

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