Gil Tayar, a Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft, discusses his impressive 35-year journey in software engineering and his contributions to the Node.js ecosystem. He explores the evolution of build systems, emphasizing the importance of modularization and package management. The conversation touches on the transition from CommonJS to ECMAScript Modules and the challenges it presents. Tayar also shares insights on the role of Gen.ai tools like GitHub Copilot in enhancing developer productivity and reflects on the influence of science fiction literature on society and self-understanding.