Scott Hanselman: The Future of Software Engineering - Episode 382
Dec 29, 2025
Scott Hanselman, Vice President at Microsoft and a seasoned content creator, shares his passion for coding through creative projects that reignite his enthusiasm. He discusses AI as a syntax helper rather than a complete solution, emphasizing the enduring need for developers' expertise. Reflecting on tech's promises, Scott highlights the shift towards design in coding and the importance of understanding complex systems for junior developers. He also advocates for multimodal user interfaces, envisioning a future where collaboration between machines and humans enhances software development.
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Waveform Vase From Weekend Hack
- Scott made a jazz-themed 3D printed vase by converting a WAV waveform into an STL using Copilot CLI.
- He used Python to generate G-code and finished it in a few hours as a delightful personal project.
Know The Stack Before Prompting
- Learn how pieces fit together; know the boundaries of abstractions before relying on AI.
- Be intentional: avoid 'vibing' your way into production without architectural understanding.
AI Shrinks Coding, Expands Ops Work
- Generative models handle well-understood, repetitive tasks like 'text boxes over data' reliably.
- Scott says writing will shrink while ops and reliability work will grow as AI reduces pure coding toil.

