Joe Cuevas Jr. is a seasoned software engineer based in San Antonio, Texas, with a strong focus on front-end development and user experience. At Southwest Research Institute, he contributes to innovative engineering solutions that span industries. With a background that blends technical precision and creative problem-solving, Joe brings a thoughtful perspective to the evolving world of software development. His passion for clean design, scalable code, and collaborative innovation makes him a standout voice in today’s tech landscape.
Topics of Discussion:
[1:46] Why Joe fell in love with programming after a single VB.NET class. [5:00] What guided Joe towards the enterprise side of .NET.
[6:25] Joe’s favorite foundational .NET and ASP.NET Core books.
[9:06] Learning algorithms, concurrency, and testing to make up for no CS degree.
[10:00] Why test automation is essential and doing testing immediately after writing the code. [12:14] Thoughts on test-driven development vs. testing right after coding. [14:18] Previewing Microsoft Semantic Kernel in Action, by Daniel Costa. [15:38] How Joe became a Manning book reviewer, and what he’s learned. [17:18] Prompt engineering and agent instructions: what’s ready now. [18:21] Codex and the moment that blew Joe’s mind. [22:26] How Joe sees software architecture evolving in the future. [24:09] Large language models vs. older code bases, and where they shine. [27:57] Dependency injections.
[32:43] Joe’s advice for junior developers and why persistence beats perfection.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Clear Measure Way
Architect Forum
Software Engineer Forum
Programming with Palermo — New Video Podcast! Email us at programming@palermo.net.
Joe Cuevas LinkedIn
ASP.NET Core in Action
ASP.NET Core in Action, Third Edition
Unit Testing Principles, Practice, and Patterns
Unit Testing Principles, Practices, and Patterns: Effective testing styles, patterns, and reliable automation for unit testing, mocking, and integration testing with examples in C#
Dependency Injection in .NET
Microsoft Semantic Kernel in Action
Explore — LeetCode
Joe on GitHub
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