#201 The "AI is going to replace devs" hype is over – 22-year developer veteran Jason Lengstorf
The freeCodeCamp Podcast
Quincy Larson
5.0 • 549 Ratings
🗓️ 12 December 2025
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today Quincy Larson interviews Jason Lengstorf. He's a college dropout who taught himself programming while building websites for his emo band. 22 years later he's worked as a developer at IBM, Netlify, run his own dev consultancy, and he now runs CodeTV making reality TV shows for developers.
We talk about:
- How many CEOs over-estimated the impact of AI coding tools and laid off too many devs, whom they're now trying to rehire
- Why the developer job market has already rebounded a bit, but will never be the same
- Tips for how to land roles in the post-LLM résumé spam job search era
- How devs are working to rebuild the fabric of the community through in-person community events
Support for this podcast is provided by a grant from AlgoMonster. AlgoMonster is a platform that teaches data structure and algorithm patterns in a structured sequence, so you can approach technical interview questions more systematically. Their curriculum covers patterns like sliding window, two-pointers, graph search, and dynamic programming, helping you learn each pattern once and apply it to solve many problems. Start a structured interview prep routine at https://algo.monster/freecodecamp
Support also comes from the 10,338 kind folks who donate to our charity each month. Join them and support our mission at https://donate.freecodecamp.org
Get a freeCodeCamp tshirt for $20 with free shipping anywhere in the US: https://shop.freecodecamp.org
Links from our discussion:
- Jason's previous freeCodeCamp podcast interview, with his developer origin story: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/from-drop-out-to-software-architect-with-jason-lengstorf-podcast-167/
- The first season of Web Dev Challenge on CodeTV: https://codetv.link/wdc
Community news section:
1. freeCodeCamp just published a Git and GitHub for beginners course. Git is a powerful version control tool that most developers now use to build software projects together. GitHub is a popular platform that adds tons of collaboration features on top of Git. You'll learn the basics of both in this course, which covers branching, merging, pull requests, and other key concepts. Well worth your time. (1 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/git-and-github-crash-course-for-beginners
2. freeCodeCamp also just launched our new Responsive Web Design Certification. You can now take the final exam and earn this verified cert, then add it to your LinkedIn, CV, or personal website. This is version 10 of the core fCC curriculum. The community collectively spent thousands of hours developing all this as your shortest path to front-end development skills. This announcement and comprehensive FAQ will help you figure out where this fits into your journey toward your learning goals. (100+ hour interactive curriculum): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamps-new-responsive-web-design-certification-is-now-live/
3. freeCodeCamp also just published a new Harvard CS50 course that will teach you R, a popular programming language for statistical computing and data science. You'll work with real-world datasets inside the RStudio Integrated Development Environment. You'll learn about Vectors, Matrices, Data Frames, filtering, visualizations, and more. (9 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-r-programming-from-harvard-university/
4. freeCodeCamp's JavaScript certification is now live. It's 1,033 steps long. and you'll build dozens of projects then sit for the final exam. This is a FREE verified certification you can earn then add to your LinkedIn, CV, and portfolio website. Dive in. Full announcement article and FAQ (5 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/freecodecamps-new-javascript-certification-is-now-live/
5. Today's song of the week is 1982's soul classic Risin' to the Top by Keni Burke. I love the laid back bass groove and spacious piano chords. The lyrics are about overcoming setbacks, which I know anyone who's attempted to learn programming can relate to. https://youtu.be/euysGPy2t0M
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the FreeCodeCamp podcast. I'm Quincy Larson, teacher and founder of FreeCodeCamp.org. |
| 0:05.3 | And today I'm interviewing 22-year industry veteran Jason Langstorff. |
| 0:09.7 | He's worked as a developer at IBM, Netlify. |
| 0:12.2 | He's run his own developer consultancy, and he now runs Code TV making reality TV shows for developers. |
| 0:17.8 | They are sweet. |
| 0:18.5 | You should totally check them out. |
| 0:20.0 | Jason says that lots of CEOs greatly overestimated the impact of AI coding tools. |
| 0:25.5 | They laid off too many developers. |
| 0:27.0 | And now the job markets finally starting to rebound. |
| 0:29.8 | He shares tips for how to make the most of the situation. |
| 0:33.2 | First, I'm going to give you some quick community news. |
| 0:35.5 | Free Code Camps JavaScript certification is now live. |
| 0:38.9 | It's 133 steps long, and you'll build dozens of projects, then sit for the final exams. |
| 0:45.5 | This is a free verified certification that you can add to your LinkedIn, CV, and portfolio |
| 0:51.0 | website. |
| 0:51.9 | I encourage you to dive in. |
| 0:53.5 | The full announcement article with an FAQ is in the description. |
| 0:57.1 | Check it out as soon as you finish listening to this podcast. |
| 0:59.9 | And FreecoCamp also published a Git and GitHub for beginners course. |
| 1:03.9 | Git is a powerful version control system that most developers now use to build software projects together. |
| 1:09.5 | GitHub is a popular platform that adds tons of collaboration features on top of Git. |
| 1:14.1 | You'll learn the basics of both in this course, which covers branching, merging, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Quincy Larson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Quincy Larson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

