Jamison Dance and Dave Smith
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It takes more than great code to be a great engineer. Soft Skills Engineering is a weekly advice podcast for software developers about the non-technical stuff that goes into being a great software developer.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Jameson Dance and Dave Smith make difficult engineering workplace decisions easier to reason about without draining them of humor or human complexity.
Soft Skills Engineering turns workplace questions from software developers into candid, funny conversations about decisions that code cannot settle.
Firefighting your way out of a promotion? Dave Smith and Jameson Dance have notes.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A blunt, useful tour through data sprawl and the etiquette of praising someone who has improved.
Soft Skills Engineering spends this hour on two familiar kinds of workplace friction: the knot behind CRM, CDP, data warehouse, and BI systems, and the awkward job of telling someone they used to be terrible and are better now.
A career-change episode that keeps the focus on tradeoffs.
This episode treats a software-to-UX move as a practical tradeoff, not a tidy reinvention. Jameson and Dave keep coming back to the same questions: what gets left behind, what the pay might look like, and whether a technical UX designer would actually fit the right company.
A skeptical, conversational look at crypto credentials, trust, and the limits of distributed ledgers.
An episode built around a listener question about crypto credentials and the jump between management and hands-on dev work settles into a skeptical but useful discussion of distributed ledgers, trust, and verifiability.
Soft Skills Engineering episode 469 looks at inherited code, shaky habits, and the politics of changing a team from the inside.
Soft Skills Engineering episode 469 stays on the human side of a messy codebase. A new joiner is trying to make sense of hacky tooling, an absent senior engineer, and a boss who wants to get to the destination fast and does not care much about process.
Tech debt gets easier to manage when change is handled like a shared, backward-compatible migration.
Soft Skills Engineering treats tech debt as a shared team problem rather than a solo cleanup chore. The episode keeps its focus on the real friction: surprise refactors, shifting permissions, and code changes that can block someone else from moving forward.
A brisk, practical talk about side project tradeoffs, family time, and making room for what matters.
Soft Skills Engineering episode 461 turns a side project problem into a plain talk about tradeoffs. Dave Smith and Jameson Dance keep the pace moving, but they do not dodge the awkward parts: talking with a spouse, finding time that is truly discretionary, and admitting that…
A blunt, practical reset on what a bad review may mean when a better job is on the table.
Jameson Dance and Dave Smith treat a bad performance review less as a verdict than as a signal to ask what it is really for. Is it feedback, leverage, or a quiet nudge toward the door?
Practical layoff-era advice, after a slow opening.
The episode starts with banter and patron shout-outs before settling into a listener question about three rounds of layoffs, low morale, and the choice to stay or leave.
Long-form interviews on AI coding agents, infrastructure, and security, plus a recurring SED News roundup.
Founders and engineers on AI coding agents like Claude Code, and supply chain security.
Stack Overflow's Ryan Donovan interviews founders and engineers on AI agents, protocols, and dev tools.
Michael Kennedy interviews Python maintainers on packaging, security, web tools, and AI.
Michael Kennedy and Brian Okken run down the week's Python tooling, typing, and packaging news.
Matt Stratton interviews DevOps practitioners on security, platform engineering, and trusting AI-written code.
This episode of the Soft Skills Engineering podcast humorously discusses non-technical aspects of software development careers, including a question about quitting an AI job before starting and lighthearted banter about vitamin D deficiency and Patreon supporters.
The hosts discuss whether software engineers are too loyal to their big tech jobs while reflecting on simpler technology times like running email servers.
This episode offers humorous advice for software developers on managing junior engineers and staying engaged in virtual meetings.
The hosts discuss the frustrations and practicalities of SOC 2 audits in software development, blending personal anecdotes with advice on handling non-technical workplace challenges.
This episode discusses the misuse of 'best practices' in software engineering and how it affects workplace communication and persuasion.
This episode humorously discusses how AI and LLMs allow software engineers to waste resources on refactoring and feature-building with minimal personal cost, while also thanking patrons.
This episode of Soft Skills Engineering discusses how to transition from QA automation to software development while addressing issues like underselling oneself and resume building.
The hosts discuss how engineering managers can gather feedback from their teams through listening to questions on their advice podcast for software developers.
The hosts discuss the evolving role of software engineers in the age of AI, expressing excitement about how technology is making computers more accessible and useful for everyone.
This episode explores how changing resource costs in software development, like computing power, affect engineering intuition and enable new possibilities, including AI tools like ChatGPT.
The hosts humorously discuss the concept of 'no-bugs-driven development' as a New Year's resolution for software engineers, blending satire with practical advice on methodology and LLM prompts.
This episode discusses patronizing performance reviews and productivity challenges for tech leads in software engineering, with humorous banter about database migrations and production issues.
The hosts discuss whether a listener should quit their solo developer job with a sports team and senior colleagues, while humorously exploring AI's potential to replace their podcast.
This episode discusses the dystopian implications of AI models enabling virtual relationships and their impact on software engineers.
The hosts of Soft Skills Engineering engage in humorous banter while introducing their weekly advice podcast for software engineers, discussing themes like dogmatic team leadership and thanking Patreon supporters.
This episode discusses the ethical dilemmas and practical challenges developers face with Git tools like Cherrypick and RefLog, exploring when advanced features become unnecessary complexity.
This episode of Soft Skills Engineering discusses workplace communication issues like team silence and skip level meetings, while humorously touching on emojis in coding and generational differences.
This episode discusses whether junior developers should use AI tools for ETL tasks, framed within broader software engineering career advice.
This episode of Soft Skills Engineering discusses workplace challenges like getting a promotion with a small raise and dealing with an imposter candidate during team hiring, framed within the context of non-technical aspects of software development.
This episode of Soft Skills Engineering discusses non-technical aspects of software development, starting with an analogy about Twitch Plays Pokemon to illustrate complex computing concepts.
This episode discusses challenges with hiring decisions and workplace annoyances like AI-generated memes, framed within a software engineering context.
The hosts discuss technical quirks in software applications and share lighthearted banter about engineering challenges.
This episode of Soft Skills Engineering humorously discusses workplace quirks in software development, including remote work habits and office stereotypes, while thanking patrons and sharing programming-related jokes.
The hosts discuss software engineering soft skills, humorously exploring ticket tracking systems like JIRA and Excel while sharing developer advice and thanking patrons.
The hosts discuss using analogies like the 2008 financial crisis to explain technical debt in software development while reflecting on aging and technology changes.
This episode of Soft Skills Engineering discusses non-technical aspects of software development, including vocabulary tangents and patron acknowledgments, with a focus on career advice topics hinted in the title.
The hosts discuss the etiquette and ethical concerns of adding AI notetaking bots to Zoom meetings without proper disclosure to attendees.
This episode of Soft Skills Engineering humorously discusses workplace communication issues in software development, focusing on Slack message threading and passive-aggressive behaviors.
This episode of Soft Skills Engineering discusses the philosophical and practical aspects of using metrics in software engineering, exploring how many metrics are too many and their backward-looking nature.
The hosts introduce their weekly advice podcast focused on non-technical aspects of software engineering, discussing stock options and secondary markets while promoting Patreon support.
This episode discusses mental health support and overcoming the fear of missing out when taking breaks from work, framed within a software engineering context.
The hosts of Soft Skills Engineering humorously dismiss celebrating their 500th episode, preferring base-two milestones like 512, while joking about HTTP status codes and no-bugs development.
This episode of Soft Skills Engineering discusses phishing scams, corporate domain strategies, and previews topics like testing in big corporations and getting a first management job in software development.
The hosts of Soft Skills Engineering discuss unconventional monitor setups, physical interfaces for technology, and briefly touch on workplace issues like management turnover and AI coding frustrations.
This episode of Soft Skills Engineering discusses quirky computer behaviors like mouse-wiggling to unfreeze apps and touches on career advice topics including team dynamics and PTO strategies.
The hosts discuss listener feedback about job interview success using their advice and reflect on AI's impact on programming.
The hosts answer two listener questions: one from a web developer worried about crypto work hurting their job prospects, where Jameson admits to discriminating against crypto resumes while Dave offers a counterview, and another from an engineering manager struggling to return to coding, with advice on managing transitions and using AI assistants.
The hosts tackle two listener questions: whether to rehire a former low performer who wants to return, and how to handle a teammate who mindlessly uses AI to generate unmaintainable code.
The hosts answer two listener questions: one about evaluating whether a fintech startup's complex data integration is cutting-edge or wasteful, and another about how to compliment a colleague who transformed from a workplace jerk to a supportive manager.
The hosts answer two listener questions: one from a senior engineer struggling with a brutal on-call rotation that causes health issues and family strain, offering advice on negotiating changes and improving systems.
The hosts answer listener questions about supporting an employee facing layoffs and rebuilding company culture after multiple rounds of layoffs, offering practical advice and personal anecdotes on managing these difficult situations.
The hosts answer two listener questions: Hugo debates whether to take a new job after a negative performance review, and Michael Q seeks advice on getting recognition for an underappreciated engineering team.
Nightly builds are already losing to physics in the cold open.
The hosts answer two listener questions: a CTO worried his resume is losing value after nine years at a failing startup, and an engineer who tried management and hated it, now feeling lost in his career.
The hosts answer two listener questions: one from a QA veteran passed over for a lead role in favor of an inexperienced hire, and another from a data engineer struggling with sloppy practices and a dismissive boss.
The hosts answer two listener questions: one about balancing side projects with family and a demanding FAANG job, offering advice on time management and spouse communication, and another about handling a promotion without a promised raise, discussing employee leverage and negotiation strategies.
The hosts answer listener questions about whether to consult a previous manager when an employee joins your team and how to replace a 30-year-old ticketing system.
The hosts answer a listener's question about using a $500,000 inheritance to pivot from software engineering to UX design, discussing risks, mental models, and the value of education.
The hosts discuss learning Haskell through Advent of Code and the value of gaining programming knowledge even if you forget the syntax.
The hosts answer listener questions about managing technical debt that spirals into more debt and feeling siloed in a big tech company.
A humorous advice podcast for software developers about non-technical workplace issues, featuring banter and listener questions.
A humorous advice podcast for software developers discussing non-technical aspects of being a great engineer, with this episode featuring banter about RAM and patron shoutouts.
Hosts Jamison Dance and Dave Smith introduce the podcast, joke about HTTP status code 506, and thank patrons.
A humorous advice podcast for software engineers discussing non-technical career challenges, with this episode featuring banter about vibe-coding and patron shoutouts.
A humorous advice podcast for software developers about non-technical aspects of the job, with hosts joking about cyclomatic complexity and modular episodes.
A weekly advice podcast for software developers covering non-technical aspects of the job, with host banter and patron shout-outs.
A weekly advice podcast for software developers covering non-technical topics like workplace dynamics, career growth, and interpersonal skills.
A weekly advice podcast for software developers discussing non-technical aspects of being a great engineer, with hosts joking about documentation and alignment.
The hosts reminisce about old technology like overhead projectors and introduce the show's theme of non-technical skills for software developers.
The hosts banter about Counter-Strike skins and loot boxes before thanking patrons, setting up the show's format as a weekly advice podcast for software developers.