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Devoxx 2025 - Outcoded by our kids

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending Devoxx 2025 as a speaker. I didn't know what to expect as this was my first Devoxx experience.

Together with Jan Van Wassenhove, I presented on being an AI-native developer:

Outcoded by Our Kids: It Took Us 20 Years, They Used 20 Prompts!

What took us two decades—learning frameworks, debugging builds, arguing about folder structure—took our kids… 20 prompts.
This is the painfully real story of two tech dads—Jan and Bart—whose 11 and 12 year-old sons built games using agentic platforms. With no coding experience, they created levels, enemies, sounds, and score systems by simply describing what they wanted. No IDE. No syntax errors. Just intent, interpreted by a growing wave of AI agents.
In this talk, we contrast their lightning-fast creative process with our traditional, structured dev mindset. We showcase their games, break down how these tools work, and explore what this means for software development.
Some key questions we asked ourselves:

  • Are we witnessing the end of traditional programming?
  • Are we still relevant as architects, developers, and engineers?
  • What roles and skills matter in a world of AI-assisted, no-code creation?
  • How do we move from being builders to being orchestrators?
Funny, humbling, and deeply relevant—this session is for every dev who's ever thought, "That’s not how we used to do it..." And for those who are ready to embrace what’s next.

We brought our kids along (after all, they did all the hard work!). What I didn't expect was that we'd get a full behind-the-scenes tour from Stephan Janssen, the Devoxx founder himself. If I hadn't already succeeded in getting my son interested in STEM, Stephan's stories and enthusiasm certainly did!

Needless to say, our kids had the time of their lives.

The talk is already available on YouTube—check it out:

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