# Software Engineering Past, Present, and Future with Grady Booch

- Show: [Oxide and Friends](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends)
- Published: 2026-02-07
- Length: 54m
- Episode: 3
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-02-07-software-engineering-past-present-and-future-with-grady-booch
- Listen: https://share.transistor.fm/s/de217423

## Summary

Grady Booch, software engineering pioneer and co-founder of Rational Software, joins Bryan Cantrill and Adam Leventhal to trace the history and future of software engineering. Booch details the evolution from the 'software crisis' of the 1970s and the creation of UML to the current 'third golden age' driven by distributed systems and LLMs. He argues that while LLMs are powerful tools for increasing abstraction, they are architecturally incapable of abductive reasoning and require experienced engineers to guide them, emphasizing that fundamentals like coupling, cohesion, and judgment remain essential.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-02-07-software-engineering-past-present-and-future-with-grady-booch#t=0) Introduction: Grady Booch and Early Computing History
- [2:23](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-02-07-software-engineering-past-present-and-future-with-grady-booch#t=143) The Software Crisis, SAGE, and Margaret Hamilton
- [8:10](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-02-07-software-engineering-past-present-and-future-with-grady-booch#t=490) Rational Software, UML, and the Rise of Object Orientation
- [14:54](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-02-07-software-engineering-past-present-and-future-with-grady-booch#t=894) Three Golden Ages of Software Engineering and Abstraction
- [27:09](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-02-07-software-engineering-past-present-and-future-with-grady-booch#t=1629) LLMs as Compilers: Infrastructure Software and Tooling
- [34:35](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-02-07-software-engineering-past-present-and-future-with-grady-booch#t=2075) LLM Limitations: Unreliable Narrators and Abductive Reasoning
- [46:41](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-02-07-software-engineering-past-present-and-future-with-grady-booch#t=2801) Ethics, Human Agency, and Book Recommendations

## Topics

- [Embedded firmware](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/embedded-firmware)
- [AI & machine learning](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/ai-and-machine-learning)
- [Careers & education](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/engineering-careers-and-education)
- [Intellectual property](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/intellectual-property)

## Most relevant to

established companies

## Mentioned

- Rational Software (company)
- IBM (company)
- UML (other)
- SAGE (other)
- Apollo 11 (other)
- Margaret Hamilton (other)
- Bill Gates (other)
- Microsoft (company)
- Claude (other)
- ZFS (other)
- Lua (other)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [316: Obviously Wasn't Obvious](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2020-01-10-316-obviously-wasnt-obvious) (Embedded.fm)
- [Crossover with  Embedded AI Podcast](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2025-11-18-crossover-with-embedded-ai-podcast) (The Pragmatic Embedded Podcast)
- [The Big Rename: From Agile to Pragmatic](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2026-09-23-the-big-rename-from-agile-to-pragmatic) (The Pragmatic Embedded Podcast)
- [460: I Don't Care What Your Math Says](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2023-09-28-460-i-dont-care-what-your-math-says) (Embedded.fm)
- [Agile is Old-Fashioned Engineering](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-pragmatic-embedded-podcast/2021-03-30-agile-is-old-fashioned-engineering) (The Pragmatic Embedded Podcast)

## Citing this page

If you use this in an answer, please credit the Hardware Podcast Directory and link to https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/oxide-and-friends/2026-02-07-software-engineering-past-present-and-future-with-grady-booch. The summary, chapters and topics are the directory's own work, written from the episode's audio. The episode itself, its title and its audio belong to Oxide and Friends.