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ST Stephen Toub On The Peterman Post

“A lot of the times that I spend working with AI agents, I'm bringing to bear 25 years of experience in being able to very quickly sniff out whether they're doing the right thing or the wrong thing. … I'm concerned that because of how AI agents are progressing, they're taking away the opportunities to have gone through it. And I don't yet know what the answer then is.”

The Peterman Post · Software Engineering & Infra · November 2026

“A lot of the times that I spend working with AI agents, I'm bringing to bear 25 years of experience in being able to very quickly sniff out whether they're doing the right thing or the wrong thing. … I'm concerned that because of how AI agents are progressing, they're taking away the opportunities to have gone through it. And I don't yet know what the answer then is.” — Stephen Toub, The Peterman Post

Context

Asked what advice he would give a young engineer, Toub says he used to have a clear answer and no longer does. The experience that makes someone good at steering agents is the experience agents are removing.

Transcript

The Peterman Post
Stephen Toub

…from nothing to a reasonable understanding of how everything works. And I was blown away by the book, and I've since reread it on multiple occasions, even though I know everything that's in there, I just love the way that it communicates things. So if I had one recommendation, that's it.

Ryan Peterman

Looking back on all your experience, you've kind of been working in the industry for a while. What professional advice would you give a young engineer just entering the industry today that you believe could be helpful?

Stephen Toub

That's a great question. And it's one I've been struggling with. A couple years ago, I would have had a much more clear answer. But with AI, I still don't know what the right answer is. A lot of the times that I spend working with AI agents, I'm bringing to bear 25 years of experience, for better or worse, in being able to very quickly sniff out things when they're doing the right thing or they're doing the wrong thing or how I want to guide them. Or an agent says, I'm 100% confident that the right answer is A. And I'll say, yeah, but have you also considered B and C and D because these trade-offs might not be there, right? And oh, of course, like just those little things, being able to guide them in the right way requires you to have gone through it. And I'm concerned that because of what AI, how AI agents are progressing, that they're taking away the opportunities to have gone through it. And I don't yet know what the answer then is. I'm a very firm believer in really learning kind of the basics and building everything up from core principles. And so, like, when, you know, learning a language, I still think it's valuable to learn and to start out…

Ryan Peterman

Awesome. Well, yeah, thank you so much for your time today, Steven. I really appreciate it.

Stephen Toub

Pleasure. This has been a fun conversation. Thank you.

Ryan Peterman

Hey, thank you for watching this podcast. If you liked it and you want to see the show grow, please support with a comment or a like. Also, if you have any recommendations for people you want me to bring on, please drop a comment. Guests like Barbara Liskoff, Mike Stonebreaker, Mark Brooker, these…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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