Develop Yourself

AI is changing coding faster than anyone expected. 

Two years ago, autocomplete felt wild—now people with zero dev experience are shipping apps over a weekend. 

The question isn’t “is AI replacing developers?” It’s “how do you actually use it without wrecking your codebase?” 

In this episode, I’ll break down when to use AI (and when not to), why Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is the real game-changer, and how you can stay valuable as a new developer in a world full of hype.

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Shameless Plugs

🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to go from HTML to AI

🤔 Got a question you want answered on the pod? Drop it here

Apply for 1 of 12 spots at Parsity - Learn to build complex software with AI integrations.

AI Bootcamp - for software developers who want to be the expert on their team when it comes to AI

It’s Labor Day weekend and, honestly? I’m burned out.

Maybe this isn’t the best business move, but I’d rather keep it real with you than fake the whole “everything is great in tech” narrative.

I’ve been plenty vocal about why AI isn’t about to replace us all tomorrow, much to the dismay of to all the AI bros out there.

But here’s the other side: being a developer is nothing like those “day in the life” TikToks where someone shows up to the office around 10AM, gets a fancy coffee, fixes a UI bug and then gets a 400K salary with stock options.

So here it is—my three worst parts of being a software developer.

... and why I still enjoy what I do.

Send us a text

Shameless Plugs

🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to go from HTML to AI

🤔 Got a question you want answered on the pod? Drop it here

Apply for 1 of 12 spots at Parsity - Learn to build complex software with AI integrations.

AI Bootcamp - for software developers who want to be the expert on their team when it comes to AI

What happens when you give an AI agent full control over a small business?

I mean, what could go wrong?

Things started off rough and then got down right creepy near the end of this experiment.

You can read the original article here: https://www.anthropic.com/research/project-vend-1

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Shameless Plugs

🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to go from HTML to AI

🤔 Got a question you want answered on the pod? Drop it here

Apply for 1 of 12 spots at Parsity - Learn to build complex software with AI integrations.

AI Bootcamp - for software developers who want to be the expert on their team when it comes to AI

What does it actually mean to be an “AI Engineer”? 

Honestly—not much. The title is overloaded and vague. 

But what is meaningful right now is knowing how to build real projects with AI that go beyond toy chatbots and portfolio fluff.

In this episode, I walk you through the exact project I’ve been building at two different AI startups: a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) app. You’ll learn how to:

• Scrape and store content in a vector database
• Use embeddings to turn your text into something a model can understand
• Stream responses back to your frontend with Next.js + TypeScript
• Reduce hallucinations and add structured, reliable outputs
• Understand why this is the skillset employers are actually hiring for right now

👉 Check out the repo and code from this episode here: https://www.parsity.io/ai-with-rag

If you’ve been wondering how to actually learn AI engineering skills that matter in 2025, this is the place to start.

Send us a text

Shameless Plugs

🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to go from HTML to AI

🤔 Got a question you want answered on the pod? Drop it here

Apply for 1 of 12 spots at Parsity - Learn to build complex software with AI integrations.

AI Bootcamp - for software developers who want to be the expert on their team when it comes to AI

In this episode of Develop Yourself, I sit down with Gabe Rucker, CEO of Founding Titans, to discuss everything from entrepreneurship and building startups to the practical side of networking and getting money from thin air.

We also dive into how Parsity students gained valuable, hands-on experience through an internship with Founding Titans, working alongside a real AI startup team.

Topics we cover include:

• Gabe’s journey from coder to founder—and what he’s learned along the way
• How to raise capital, attract the right investors, and avoid common startup pitfalls
• Validating your ideas and building a minimum viable product (MVP) that people actually want
• Why networking is critical—for both startups and job seekers
• The role of AI in software development today—and its limitations
• Behind-the-scenes: how our internship with Parsity students worked in a live startup environment

Connect with Gabe Rucker on LinkedIn:

→ Gabriel Rucker (CEO, Founding Titans)  

Send us a text

Shameless Plugs

🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to go from HTML to AI

🤔 Got a question you want answered on the pod? Drop it here

Apply for 1 of 12 spots at Parsity - Learn to build complex software with AI integrations.

AI Bootcamp - for software developers who want to be the expert on their team when it comes to AI

When I first tried to learn JavaScript, I hated it so much I told myself I’d just be an HTML and CSS developer and never touch it again. 

Of course, my first job threw me straight into Angular, C#, SQL, and a mountain of JavaScript I wasn’t ready for.

In this episode, I share what made JavaScript so brutal for me (and for almost every student I’ve worked with), the mistakes that keep people stuck, and the science-backed strategies that actually helped me go from totally lost to confident. 

If you’ve been banging your head against for loops, callbacks, or just “getting it,” this one’s for you.

Send us a text

Shameless Plugs

🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to go from HTML to AI

🤔 Got a question you want answered on the pod? Drop it here

Apply for 1 of 12 spots at Parsity - Learn to build complex software with AI integrations.

AI Bootcamp - for software developers who want to be the expert on their team when it comes to AI

When your only tool is a hammer - everything looks like a nail.

2 of these database I'm sure you've heard and 2 might be completely new to you.

Let's go past MongoDB and SQL to learn what tool is best for what job and what's the database choice for AI in 2025.

If you're interested in learning SQL, check out this episode: https://open.spotify.com/show/69BHCbRAl6rHT9LlNhFWUy

Send us a text

Shameless Plugs

🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to go from HTML to AI

🤔 Got a question you want answered on the pod? Drop it here

Apply for 1 of 12 spots at Parsity - Learn to build complex software with AI integrations.

AI Bootcamp - for software developers who want to be the expert on their team when it comes to AI

Every year, Stack Overflow surveys nearly a 100,000 developers to learn what technologies, languages and tools are trending.

The answers here might surprise you, especially when it comes to AI tools.

You can check out the survey here: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/developers/

Send us a text

Shameless Plugs

🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to go from HTML to AI

🤔 Got a question you want answered on the pod? Drop it here

Apply for 1 of 12 spots at Parsity - Learn to build complex software with AI integrations.

AI Bootcamp - for software developers who want to be the expert on their team when it comes to AI

Maybe I'm just coping.

Maybe.

I’ve been pretty vocal about the over-hype of AI coding tools and I always get the same responses from AI bros:

“YoU gOtta PrOmpt bEtteR!”

“This iz a skillz issue dawg”“I’m using [x] and it works perfectly”

“I’m a super duper senior architect and I’ve replaced my entire team with AI agents. You’re coping.”

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t doubt myself.

Maybe they’re right, maybe I’m just not using these tools correctly.

Let’s take a look at some big fax and small fax to understand where the truth ends and the hype begins.

Sources: 

TrueUp Software Engineering Job Trends (June 2025)

Business Insider: Google engineers just 10% more productive with AI (June 2025)

Computerworld: Minimal productivity gains from AI chatbots

 TechRepublic: IBM Study on AI ROI (2025)

https://metr.org/blog/2025-07-10-early-2025-ai-experienced-os-dev-study/

Send us a text

Shameless Plugs

🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to go from HTML to AI

🤔 Got a question you want answered on the pod? Drop it here

Apply for 1 of 12 spots at Parsity - Learn to build complex software with AI integrations.

AI Bootcamp - for software developers who want to be the expert on their team when it comes to AI

If I lost everything today—no job, no network, no portfolio—and had to start over in 2025 as a software developer, I wouldn’t be looking for a 3-month miracle. 

I’d be planning for 12 months. 

That’s how long it really takes now.

We cover:

• what tech stack you should learn
• networking as a developer using BFS
• a capstone project that is actually impressive
• an interviewing strategy
• 3 books I'd read as a new developer

At Parsity, we cover all this and much more. Apply here. 

Send us a text

Shameless Plugs

🧑‍💻 Free 5 day email course to go from HTML to AI

🤔 Got a question you want answered on the pod? Drop it here

Apply for 1 of 12 spots at Parsity - Learn to build complex software with AI integrations.

AI Bootcamp - for software developers who want to be the expert on their team when it comes to AI