
We're back!
From StaffEng by David Noël-Romas (@davidnoelromas) and Alex Kessinger (@voidfiles)
January 20, 2026 · 8 min
About this episode
The hosts discuss the challenges engineers face in learning new AI coding tools that promise significant productivity boosts.
After 3 years, we’re coming out of retirement, because something fundamental broke open in the last few months—something that changes everything about how we work. We Don’t Know How to Learn This Yet AI coding tools promise a 10X—maybe 100X—productivity boost. But here’s what we’re seeing: most engineers don’t know how to learn these tools. The old playbook—read the docs, practice, master—doesn’t work when the tools are fundamentally stochastic and changing weekly. Even worse, there’s nowhere...
People in this episode
Hosts: David Noël-Romas, Alex Kessinger
Topics covered
- AI coding tools
- productivity
- learning
- engineering
- technology
Keywords
- AI
- coding tools
- productivity boost
- learning
- engineering
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: AI coding tools
More episodes of StaffEng
- StaffEng with Karla Burnett: You're all 100x engineers...now what? · April 27, 2026 · 45 min
- A look inside an engineering team @OpenAI with Dylan Vassallo · April 10, 2026 · 45 min
- How BabyList Accelerated AI Adoption in Engineering with Karynn Ikeda · March 20, 2026 · 50 min
- I Haven't Opened an IDE Since November — Will Maier · March 11, 2026 · 47 min
- Alex Kessinger (Stitch Fix) and David Noël-Romas (Stripe) · December 28, 2021 · 1h 8m
- Peter Stout (Netflix) · December 14, 2021 · 52 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the StaffEng podcast page.