{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Agents and Engineers","title":"From Supervising AI to Building Systems for It","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3592,"description":"Dan and Eleanor open by discussing how fast software engineering has changed. In the last six months, Eleanor's practice flipped from treating AI as a messy assistant that needs close supervision to building systems that put the agents on the path to success. She now writes essentially no code herself, arguing that the models have become good enough that her involvement mostly makes the results worse.\nThis journey starts from babysitting agents locally to delegating to async, cloud-based agents like GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Devin, OpenHands, or Factory. Eleanor warns that the home-grown terminal \"loops\" everyone is building right now are great for learning but too brittle to scale.\nNext up, what does an agent engineering system actually need? Eleanor recommends starting with a sandboxed, execution environment (usually containers), careful configuration over how the agent reaches the outside world (MCP servers and selective network access), a way to see across multiple repositories, and layered rules via AGENTS.md and skills.\nEleanor makes the case that async delegation is a forcing function for better specifications. Deterministic feedback like static analysis and test suites are the single biggest factor in work quality because \"you can't control AI with AI.\" She has moved to fully test-driven development and notes that current-generation models no longer find unintended workarounds to tests (e.g., deleting them) the way Claude 4 and early GPT-5 once did.\nDan and Eleanor turn to adoption and skills, including how to get better at using AI with deliberate practice. Eleanor explains why she moved using Python, which she was most familiar with from use over her career, to statically typed languages like TypeScript and Go for agent work, why supply chain risk at her healthcare company has her questioning every dependency, and why she dislikes the term \"junior developer.\" Curiosity and systems thinking, not tenure, are what matter now.\nThe episode closes on...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/TK0Nqa_Yt1Nidvhw7SvORku00Quhyrr-EpS6aCekMzA/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9hMmU5/YmJlYjNlY2E2ZThh/OGYwZmExY2M5MGMz/MDQyNC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}