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

Overview

Shownote

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

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Feb 12
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Feb 12
OverviewShownoteHighlightsTranscriptChaptersPins

Shownote

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

Highlights

Sherwin Wu, who leads engineering for OpenAI’s API platform, discusses how AI is rapidly transforming software development, team dynamics, and startup economics—not as a distant future, but as an operational reality happening now inside OpenAI and across the industry.
00:00
95% of engineers use Codex for coding and 100% of PRs are reviewed by it
03:15
Nearly 100% of code is generated by AI, with 95% of engineers using Codex daily and 100% of PRs reviewed by it
09:26
AI tools act like genies—granting wishes literally, so instructions must be precise to avoid unintended consequences
12:27
Removing the option to not use AI has helped identify problems that need solving for greater agent adoption
17:29
Almost every engineer at OpenAI heavily uses Codex, and the vast majority of code is likely authored by AI
22:16
AI makes good people better and great people exceptional
29:28
Distribution becomes more important as there are many things vying for attention, making those with an audience and platform more valuable
31:45
Spend over 50% of management time with top 10% performers to unblock their progress
40:11
Tools like Codex at OpenAI drove internal adoption by getting employees excited
43:57
Models will eat your scaffolding for breakfast
48:57
Build for where models are going, not where they are today
52:56
Audio/speech will become more important and integral to the AI experience
53:35
There's a large, underrated opportunity to use AI to automate repeatable business processes, integrate with business data and systems, and improve productivity and work methods
57:23
OpenAI views itself as an ecosystem platform company, releases all models through its API, aims to keep the platform neutral, and supports competition
1:03:11
For $20 a month, users get the same Pro model as billionaires, enabling unprecedented AI democratization
1:05:22
The Responses API is popular for building long-running agents
1:15:39
A life motto of not feeling sorry for oneself

Chapters

Introduction to Sherwin Wu
00:00
AI’s role in coding at OpenAI
03:10
The future of software engineering with AI
06:53
The stress of managing agents
12:26
Codex and code review automation
15:07
The changing role of engineering managers
19:29
The one-person billion-dollar startup
24:14
Management lessons
31:40
Challenges and best practices in AI deployment
37:28
Hot takes on AI and customer feedback
43:56
Building for future AI capabilities
48:57
Where models are headed in the next 18 months
50:16
Business process automation
53:35
OpenAI’s ecosystem and platform strategy
57:22
OpenAI’s mission and global impact
1:00:50
Building on OpenAI’s API and tools
1:05:21
Lightning round and final thoughts
1:08:16

Transcript

Sherwin Wu: 95% of engineers use Codex. 100% of our PRs are reviewed by Codex. Lenny Rachitsky: For engineers, I don't know what job has changed more in the past couple of years. Sherwin Wu: Engineers are becoming tech leads. They're managing fleets and ...