“Engineers are becoming sorcerers” | The future of software development with OpenAI’s Sherwin Wu

Sherwin Wu leads engineering for OpenAI’s API platform, where roughly 95% of engineers use Codex, often working with fleets of 10 to 20 parallel AI agents.

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We discuss:

1. What OpenAI did to cut code review times from 10-15 minutes to 2-3 minutes

2. How AI is changing the role of managers

3. Why the productivity gap between AI power users and everyone else is widening

4. Why “models will eat your scaffolding for breakfast”

5. Why the next 12 to 24 months are a rare window where engineers can leap ahead before the role fully transforms

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Brought to you by:

DX—The developer intelligence platform designed by leading researchers

Sentry—Code breaks, fix it faster

Datadog—Now home to Eppo, the leading experimentation and feature flagging platform

Where to find Sherwin Wu:

• X: https://x.com/sherwinwu

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sherwinwu1

Referenced:

• Codex: https://openai.com/codex

• OpenAI’s CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kevin-weil-open-ai

• OpenClaw: https://openclaw.ai

• The creator of Clawd: “I ship code I don’t read”: https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/the-creator-of-clawd-i-ship-code

• The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sorcerer%27s_Apprentice_(Dukas)

• Quora: https://www.quora.com

• Marc Andreessen: The real AI boom hasn’t even started yet: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/marc-andreessen-the-real-ai-boom

• Sarah Friar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-friar

• Sam Altman on X: https://x.com/sama

• Nicolas Bustamante’s “LLMs Eat Scaffolding for Breakfast” post on X: https://x.com/nicbstme/status/2015795605524901957

• The Bitter Lesson: http://www.incompleteideas.net/IncIdeas/BitterLesson.html

• Overton window: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

• Developers can now submit apps to ChatGPT: https://openai.com/index/developers-can-now-submit-apps-to-chatgpt

• Responses: https://platform.openai.com/docs/api-reference/responses

• Agents SDK: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/agents-sdk

• AgentKit: https://openai.com/index/introducing-agentkit

• Ubiquiti: https://ui.com

• Jujutsu Kaisen on Crunchyroll: https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GRDV0019R/jujutsu-kaisen?srsltid=AfmBOoqvfzKQ6SZOgzyJwNQ43eceaJTQA2nUxTQfjA1Ko4OxlpUoBNRB

• eero: https://eero.com

• Opendoor: https://www.opendoor.com

Recommended books:

• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs: https://www.amazon.com/Structure-Interpretation-Computer-Programs-Engineering/dp/0262510871

• The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering: https://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineering-Anniversary/dp/0201835959

• There Is No Antimemetics Division: A Novel: https://www.amazon.com/There-No-Antimemetics-Division-Novel/dp/0593983750

• Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future: https://www.amazon.com/Breakneck-Chinas-Quest-Engineer-Future/dp/1324106034

• Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company: https://www.amazon.com/Apple-China-Capture-Greatest-Company/dp/1668053373

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

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My biggest takeaways from this conversation: