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Issue 351: Happy sweet 16, Developer Survey!

No one can deny that times are a-changing. Luckily, you’ve got the Annual Developer Survey to help you keep up with how software, technology, and the communities around them are evolving. We’ve spent the last 16 years tracking tech trends and developer sentiment to help you get the big picture of what’s happening in software, and this year is no different (except now, the Developer Survey is old enough to drive).

On the blog, we’ve got the rundown of the big data points from this year’s survey. And if you’re more of an auditory learner, our very own Senior Analyst, Erin Yepis, is diving into our findings on the podcast. Speaking of the pod, Datadog’s Yanbing Li also joins us for a look at observability in the age of AI, and how devs can navigate the complex world of AI security.

And in the spirit of celebrating the Developer Survey’s sweet 16, we’re asking ourselves the kind of deep questions 16 year olds have. Are there any original ideas anymore? Why is creativity so difficult? Can I just use AI to finish this hard math problem? Why doesn’t this app on my phone work anymore? Dust off your learner’s permit and drive on down below, because we have all of that and more in this week’s links.

From the blog

Taking a look under your agent’s hood

Ryan is joined by Yanbing Li, Chief Product Officer at Datadog, to talk about applying observability to non-deterministic AI agents, blurring the boundaries between software development and production workflows, and navigating emerging challenges in AI security and tokenomics.

Tales from the 2026 Developer Survey results

Ryan chats with Erin Yepis, Senior Analyst at Stack Overflow, about the results from this year’s Annual Developer Survey, including the overwhelming daily usage of AI coding assistants despite lingering developer trust issues, the critical role of well-organized documentation in providing verifiable context to mitigate AI hallucinations, and the evolving ways developers are shifting away from active community posting in favor of passive knowledge consumption.

The results of the 2026 Developer Survey are here!

Below, we’ll highlight some of the results we found interesting about what's going in the life of technologists, their technologies, AI usage, and more.

Fannie Mae: Explore our career opportunities

From day one, your expertise will be instrumental in solving high-stakes challenges that affect millions of households. At Fannie Mae, we’re looking for doers, leaders, and innovators seeking a new challenge with high stakes and real impact.

Interesting questions

How to write grant proposals for multiple years research in the age of AI

Solving problems AI can’t solve is the next academic frontier.

How to somehow detect this undefined behavior that leads to crash?

Sometimes the crash is because of the code, you know.

How many of the results released by OpenAI went against the conventional mathematical wisdom?

Forget everything you know about basic multiplication.

I upgraded an app now it doesn't work

One of the most common human experiences in the modern age.

Links from around the web

You might want to try being less creative

There’s a reason perfect is the enemy of good.

Why isn't the industry freaking out about DeepSeek 4.1 Flash?

A good reminder that the AI race has more than just American contenders.

Ideas aren’t getting harder to find and anyone who tells you otherwise is a coward

We should have packed it up and gone home after E=mc^2.

Triple-A Minesweeper

Finally, a professionally-voiced backstory for the sweeper.

More context won’t fix your AI systems. Accurate knowledge will. Join us on Thursday, October 29 for a live look at why Stack Internal is the trusted knowledge layer for your AI tech stack.