Hanselminutes with Scott Hanselman Learning to Code with AI and Steve Klabnik
Aug 7, 2025
Steve Klabnik, a software engineering manager at Oxide and co-author of the Rust book, shares his journey from skepticism to embracing AI in coding. He hilariously reflects on how AI has transformed his workflow, allowing him to create and ship more effectively. The discussion touches on the ethical dimensions of AI, likening it to dietary choices, and explores its impact on creative technology and programming tools. Klabnik also humorously navigates the quirks of language models, making the tech world feel both relatable and entertaining.
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Steve's AI Skeptic to User Story
- Steve Klabnik shares he was once very anti-AI but changed his mind after trying Claude 4.
- He now uses AI regularly for programming, finding it genuinely useful beyond a parlor trick.
Source Code as Copyrighted Book
- Copyright laws treat source code like books, not recipes, making it copyrightable.
- This decision greatly shaped software development and licensing as we know it today.
Software Was Once Shared Service
- Before the 1970s, software was a shared service bundled with hardware, not a sold product.
- The 1978 copyright act changed this, redefining software ownership and fostering open source movements.