Build the scary stuff | Bryan Cantrill (Oxide)

More from Software Misadventures

1. 

   E43 · 2 Jul 2024 · 1 hr 23 min

   Breaking distributed systems for fun and profit | Kyle Kingsbury (Jepsen)

   Well-known for his insightful and meticulous write-ups on testing distributed systems, Kyle (aka Aphyr) joins the show to chat about the origins of Jepsen, how he built a business around testing distributed systems, his writing process, favorite databases, and more. Segments: (00:03:29) From Physics to Software Engineering (00:07:47) The origins of Jepsen (00:09:41) Turning Jepsen into a full-time venture (00:13:14) Jepsen's testing philosophy (00:16:30) The consulting journey (00:19:16) Structuring a consultancy (00:22:32) Setting boundaries (00:24:32) Pricing misadventures (00:29:17) Pros…

2. 

   E42 · 25 Jun 2024 · 1 hr 9 min

   The 3 traps of open source funding models | Wes McKinney (pandas, Voltron Data, Posit)

   From creating one of the Python's most influential libraries to co-founding Voltron Data, Wes joins the show to chat about why the book cover of the pandas book doesn't feature a panda, open source pitfalls to avoid, the pros and cons of hiring engineers at a non-profit, and more. Segments: (00:02:50) Guang's complaint about the pandas book cover (00:04:38) Quarto and Open Access Publishing (00:12:00) Convincing Wall Street to Open Source (00:15:31) Publishing the first python package over Christmas (00:18:01) Doubling Down on Building pandas (00:23:23) Personal sacrifices for the sake of…

3. 

   E41 · 18 Jun 2024 · 1 hr 19 min

   Impact Driven Development | Matt Klein (Envoy, bitdrift)

   From creating Envoy to co-founding bitdrift to reimagine mobile observability, Matt joins the show to chat about being told to simply "write some proxy in Python" in the early days of building Envoy, early influences from building "shrink wrap" software at Microsoft, the process of spinning bitdrift out of Lyft, and much more. Segments: (00:03:10) Being a plumber on LinkedIn (00:05:00) Early influences from building "shrink wrap" software at Microsoft (00:10:44) Getting diverse work experiences (00:16:36) Setting high standards for the team (00:20:42) Lessons from failure of the first…

4. 

   E39 · 4 Jun 2024 · 1 hr 16 min

   Lessons from the early days building Kafka and Confluent | Jay Kreps

   From writing the first lines of Kafka over a Christmas break as a LinkedIn engineer to running a public company as the CEO of Confluent, Jay joins the show to chat about how he and his co-founders convinced investors to take a chance on their vision, what many engineers get wrong about communication, and why engineers can make great CEOs - even when coding is not in the job description. And much more. Segments: (00:01:16) The Shaved Head Bet (00:04:07) Fundraising (00:12:16) The Role of Technical Background in VCs (00:15:48) The power of believing in the possibility of important changes…

5. 

   E38 · 21 May 2024 · 59 min

   Building 2 Iconic OSSs Back-to-Back | Maxime Beauchemin (Airflow, Preset)

   If you've worked on data problems, you probably have heard of Airflow and Superset, two powerful tools that have cemented their place in the data ecosystem. Building successful open-source software is no easy feat, and even fewer engineers have done this back to back. In part 2 of the conversation, we talk about Max's journey in open source. Segments: (00:03:27) "Project-Community Fit" in Open Source (00:08:31) Fostering Relationships in Open Source (00:10:58) Dealing with Trolls (00:13:40) Attributes of Good Open Source Contributors (00:20:01) How to Get Started with Contributing (00:27:58)…

6. 

   E37 · 14 May 2024 · 41 min

   Become a LLM-ready Engineer | Maxime Beauchemin (Airflow, Preset)

   If you've worked on data problems, you probably have heard of Airflow and Superset, two powerful tools that have cemented their place in the data ecosystem. Building successful open-source software is no easy feat, and even fewer engineers have done this back to back. In Part 1 of this conversation, we chat about how to adapt to the LLM-age as engineers. Segments: (00:01:59) The Rise and Fall of the Data Engineer (00:11:13) The Importance of Executive Skill in the Era of AI (00:13:53) Developing the first reflex to use AI (00:17:47) What are LLMs good at? (00:25:33) Text to SQL (00:28:19)…

7. 

   E53 · 8 Oct 2024 · 14 min

   Podcast update and news!

   Some reflections on running the podcast and Ronak has some eggciting news to share :) Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Forest License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

8. 

   E52 · 24 Sep 2024 · 1 hr 27 min

   Uncrating the Oxide Rack | Bryan Cantrill, Steve Tuck (Oxide)

   Oxide co-founders Bryan and Steve are back on the show to give an impromptu peek at the Oxide server rack and to chat about writing their own manufacturing software, overcoming false summits before shipping the first rack, the #1 reason startups fail and more. Don't miss the full-circle moment on their "meet cute" story from last time, shared at the end of the conversation :) Segments: (00:00:00) The Oxide rack uncrating experience (00:02:40) The office tour (00:04:03) Challenges of shipping and unboxing hardware (00:11:04) Hybrid hardware company? (00:13:38) Custom designing a crate for the…

9. 

   E51 · 10 Sep 2024 · 1 hr 56 min

   LLMs are like your weird, over-confident intern | Simon Willison (Datasette)

   Known for co-creating Django and Datasette, as well as his thoughtful writing on LLMs, Simon Willison joins the show to chat about blogging as an accountability mechanism, how to build intuition with LLMs, building a startup with his partner on their honeymoon, and more. Segments: (00:00:00) The weird intern (00:01:50) The early days of LLMs (00:04:59) Blogging as an accountability mechanism (00:09:24) The low-pressure approach to blogging (00:11:47) GitHub issues as a system of records (00:16:15) Temporal documentation and design docs (00:18:19) GitHub issues for team collaboration…

10. 

    E50 · 27 Aug 2024 · 1 hr 26 min

    From "AI mid-life crisis" to the "time of my life" | Steve Yegge (Sourcegraph)

    A Silicon Valley veteran and known for his writings like "The Death of the Junior Developer", Steve Yegge joins the show to chat about his "AI Midlife Crisis", the unique writing process he employs, and building the future of coding assistants. Segments: (00:00:00) The AI Midlife Crisis (00:04:53) The power of rants (00:09:55) "You gotta be able to make yourself laugh" (00:11:46) Steve's writing process (00:14:10) "I published them… and nothing happened for six months" (00:17:30) Key to perseverance in writing? Get pissed. (00:23:24) Writing in one sitting (00:29:05) The AI Midlife Crisis…

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