Episode 519: Why does my team not have a tech lead and rumors!

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1. 

   3 Aug 2026 · 32 min

   Episode 524: My CTO AI-codes big piles of slop and early mornings, late meetings

   In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: I work for a small software company on a team of about 7 or 8 engineers. I like working here. I like the people, the autonomy, the pay, my boss, and the stack among other things. I try to remind myself of this regularly so I don’t take it for granted. I’ve been here for about 2.5 years and would love to continue working here. Our CTO, like many, has become a big AI cowboy coder. Every few months, he vibe codes a new project and then decides to interrupt the full workloads that we have a limited number of engineers to do to hand his…

2. 

   27 Jul 2026 · 33 min

   Episode 523: (Rerun of 331) Prickly ticket and title downgrade

   This is a rerun of episode 331. In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: Listener ninjamonkey says, I am a new grad who is half a year into the role now at a very large company. Recently, a senior engineer on my team asked me to create a ticket for an infra team for a problem with a service. I provided logs and steps to reproduce the issue and did a health check before submitting. Right after, the manager of the team put me into a group chat with their team, asked why I created the ticket and told me to start doing my job and they can’t debug for me. From these interactions…

3. 

   20 Jul 2026 · 29 min

   Episode 522: I stayed too long at my first job and should I get a masters degree

   In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: I stayed too long at my first company and now my career is ruined? Hi both, long time listener. (Since I graduated university 4 years ago actually and felt I could never find a job but listening to you guys made me feel not like such an outcast in our field.) I graduated in 2022. Didn’t really apply around much and almost immediately accepted the full time offer from the company I did my internship with during my degree. And fast forward to middle of 2026… I am still here. I’ve long stopped growing as an engineer and have actually…

4. 

   13 Jul 2026 · 31 min

   Episode 521: negotiating . . . now? and doing good work is not enough for promotion?

   In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: Dwill Ainghell asks, During the golden era of software development, it was commonly stated that you should always negotiate job offers. The argument was that the company has invested significant time and resources into you as a candidate and there is always some wiggle room for negotiations. A popular article / podcast by Patrick McKenzie likened it to doing something slightly uncomfortable like “reciting poetry while simultaneously standing on one foot” with almost no downside. (…

5. 

   6 Jul 2026 · 40 min

   Episode 520: I came back to my former team and was shocked by AI and my team does not care at ALL about the code

   In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: Hey Dave & Jamison, Long time listener. Love the podcast. I recently rejoined a remote team that I worked with in the past. I was super stoked to rejoin this team because they were collectively one of the most competent and technically excellent teams I’ve ever worked with. And they’re all genuinely nice people as well. I left the team before AI coding had really caught on, but coming back to the team has been a huge shock to me. Almost everyone now exclusively writes code with AI. PR descriptions are all AI generated, and code review…

6. 

   22 Jun 2026 · 33 min

   Episode 518: stuck at startup and is my employer mistreating me because I'm on a visa?

   In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: I have been at a small startup company for 5 years now. It’s a very small technical team, 4 devs and a tech lead that contributes code & architecture. I am getting a small raise this week for my 5 years but it’s a smaller raise than I was expecting. We’re an all remote team across the globe but I had a dev co worker in the same city as me just leave the company. This has put more pressure on me as I’m the only dev in the primary time zone we operate in, everyone else is east coast or opposite side of the world. With the added pressure…

7. 

   15 Jun 2026 · 32 min

   Episode 517: Is it good for my career to work at a SaaS company and why am I being asked to manage two teams?

   In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: Hey guys. This question comes all the way from New Zealand. Recently discovered your podcast about a month ago, and have been catching up with older episodes on morning walks ever since - you guys are awesome. Anyway - the question: Is it more beneficial to work for a company where the software itself is the product (SaaS etc) or does it no longer matter given the rise of the robots anyway? For context - I’ve been working for a telco/internet company for just over five year. Initially when I joined there was a huge roadmap of software…

8. 

   8 Jun 2026 · 37 min

   Episode 516: Not a baby and my product manager doesn't know the product

   In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: My company follows scrum, with daily standups. We got a new scrum master. He is very formal and procedural and I struggle with our daily meetings. He goes through a long list of assigned tickets, asking each ticket owner about status and info on progress. We are all engineers with many years of experience but it feels like we are in the kindergarten. We don’t have deep expertise about each others work. It is important to know what each of us is doing more or less, but going deep in these issues makes me disconnect, and I think these…

9. 

   1 Jun 2026 · 35 min

   Episode 515: My junior team member won't listen to me and will I be the dumbest employee at a quantum computer company?

   In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: Hi from a long-time listener and first-time caller. I need some advice on a toxic workplace situation. I’m currently unhappy with my job due to a difficult dynamic with a colleague. My manager put us on the same team, meaning we share responsibility for our output. Although this colleague is technically a level below me, they act as though they have seniority. This creates significant friction: they’re resistant to advice, insist they’re always right, and refuse to accept reality even when they can’t deliver what’s required. They’re…

10. 

    25 May 2026 · 38 min

    Episode 514: Trust issues and underperformers and my coworker resents me for being faster

    In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions: My parent organization has trust issues: we registered on a recent survey as one of the lowest across the bigger software org (thousands of employees). There are two groups: functional, trustworthy people who get stuff done, and people who are behind, stuck, or just not working. Those struggling say they need better emotional support, but there is consistent, documented evidence that they cannot keep up. I’m perpetually frustrated that there are only two or three people in an org of 30 who can effectively complete tasks and manage the…