Risk-First: Stars of Software #9 - Dave Thomas

Dave Thomas: Pragmatism, Feedback Loops, and Why AI Doesn’t Change the FundamentalsIn this episode of Risk-First: Stars of Software, Rob Moffat talks with Dave Thomas, co-author of The Pragmatic Programmer, original signatory of the Agile Manifesto, founder of The Pragmatic Bookshelf, and long-time thinker on software simplicity, agility, and feedback-driven development. Dave has spent decades shaping how software developers think about programming — from pragmatism and feedback loops, through Agile, Ruby, and testing, to his more recent work on simplicity and AI-assisted software development.Along the way, Rob and Dave dive into:Why nearly every idea in The Pragmatic Programmer still applies in the age of AI The role of feedback loops in software developmentWhy Agile was originally about values and adaptabilityThe origins of the Agile Manifesto and how it unexpectedly “went viral” after SnowbirdHow military concepts like “commander’s intent” parallel modern agile software teamsWhy organisations built around top-down command structures struggle to be genuinely adaptiveHow delighting users requires empathy, not just technical competenceWhy empathy matters not only for people, but for machines, systems, and software design itselfThe possibility that future AI-generated software may eventually become unreadable to humansWhy AI may ultimately reinforce good software design practices like small modules, meaningful names, and readable structureThe ongoing “CVE apocalypse”Why writing books — and software — is fundamentally about synthesising and refining ideas from reality into reusable formsDave’s belief that the best way to navigate an increasingly complex world is to live “agilely”: taking small reversible steps guided by feedbackLinksThe Pragmatic Programmerhttps://pragprog.com/titles/tpp20/the-pragmatic-programmer-20th-anniversary-edition/Classic software engineering book introducing concepts like pragmatism, tracer bullets, orthogonality, and feedback-driven development.The Pragmatic Bookshelfhttps://pragprog.comTechnical publishing company focused on practical software development books across programming, AI, testing, and engineering.Agile Manifestohttps://agilemanifesto.orgThe original Agile Manifesto and principles created at Snowbird in 2001.Simplicityhttps://pragprog.com/titles/dtlang/simplicity/Dave Thomas’ recent book exploring simplicity, empathy, systems thinking, and software design.FINOShttps://www.finos.orgOpen source foundation discussed in relation to software supply chain security and open source sustainability.Dave Thomas’ Substackhttps://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.comDave’s writing and commentary on software, AI, and programming ideas.