Why Teams Will Break This Year (and How to Fix Them) | Battery Venture’s Dharmesh Thakker
Navigating the AI revolution within your organization.
Recorded in front of a live audience in San Francisco, Dev Interrupted explores the future of developer productivity with Ori Keren (CEO of LinearB) and Dharmesh Thakker (General Partner, Battery Ventures). The conversation examines the exciting possibilities and potential challenges of AI-powered tools, from code completion and review to more advanced agentic AI.
Moderated by Ben Lloyd Pearson, this episode captures the insights of the event, including audience Q&A and feedback. Ori and Dharmesh share their insights on how these trends will shape the future of software development over the next 12 to 24 months, offering predictions and practical advice for engineering teams and leaders.
Tune in to discover how these shifts will impact your work and the broader tech industry.
"Developer experience is like achieving both of those goals. Take the highest impact things and help [developers] do it more effectively. Take the lower impact things that have to be done and automate it." — Dharmesh Thakker
The Download
The Download commits to making you smarter. 📂
1. Elon Musk’s bid to acquire OpenAI 💼
Elon Musk, leading a consortium of investors, has made an unsolicited $97.4 billion offer to acquire OpenAI, the organization behind ChatGPT. Musk aims to revert OpenAI to its original open-source, safety-focused mission. However, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, swiftly declined the offer, humorously suggesting a counter-proposal to purchase Twitter for $9.74 billion. This development intensifies the ongoing rivalry between Musk and Altman, who co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but parted ways over strategic differences.
Read: Elon Musk just offered to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion
2. Reflections of an Amazon engineer 🛠️
In a candid blog post, Amazon engineer Chris Kiehl shares insights gained over a decade in software development. They emphasize that simplicity requires ongoing effort and that typed languages are crucial for teams with varying experience levels. The engineer also highlights the importance of communication in engineering and the need to allow junior developers the space to learn from mistakes. Notably, they assert that most programming should be completed before writing any code and that good management is invaluable — a rarity in their experience.
Read: Software development topics I've changed my mind on after 10 years in the industry
3. Chat is holding back AI 💬
This week’s Dev Interrupted podcast touches on why chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools. Daniel De Laney argues that current AI coding tools rely too heavily on chat-based interfaces, which are ill-suited for the precision required in software development. He contends that programming is more akin to writing detailed documents, like legal texts, where clarity and structure are paramount.
On a broader level, this reminded me of
’s great article from November (happy 2 years, Artificial Ignorance!) about the cognitive cost of conversation and how the ubiquity of chat is stunting AI.
The 8 Habits of Highly Productive Engineering Teams 📈
Habits make or break engineering teams.
The 8 Habits of Highly Productive Engineering Teams is a practical guide packed with actionable advice and templates to help you build data-driven, durable habits. It covers:
☑️ Setting actionable team goals that align with business outcomes
☑️ Coaching developers to level up their skills
☑️ Using monthly metrics check-ins to unblock friction points
☑️ Running efficient sprint retrospectives that actually improve delivery
This isn’t just theory. These habits are battle-tested by top engineering leaders. Ready to level up your team’s productivity?
Read: The 8 Habits of Highly Productive Engineering Teams
4. Is OpenAI on the wrong side of history? 🤔
In a recent Reddit AMA, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that the company may have been “on the wrong side of history” regarding open-source strategies. He suggested that OpenAI should consider adopting a more open-source approach, though he noted that not everyone at the company shares this view and it’s not currently their highest priority. This introspection comes amid rising competition from open-source AI models like China’s DeepSeek, which has recently surpassed OpenAI’s ChatGPT in popularity and claimed the #1 spot in the App Store.
Read: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Says They’ve ‘Been on the Wrong Side of History’
