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The Peterman Pod

Ryan Peterman

Sharing the transparent career stories of technical people. Hosted by an ex-Staff engineer at Instagram

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  • 32 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 1 hr 19 min
  • English

Episodes 32

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  • June 15 · 1 hr 4 min

    Google DeepMind Pre-Training Lead: How To Land a Job at a Frontier Lab | Vlad Feinberg

    Vlad Feinberg is Google DeepMind’s pre-training area lead and I asked him all about how to land a job at a frontier lab like Google DeepMind, Anthropic or OpenAI. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ • The Kickstarter page for it: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/cDyi91onoJ8 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/google-deepmind-pre-training-lead Thank you to this episode's sponsor for supporting my work: • WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at https://workos.com/ Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:33) Skills frontier labs need (08:45) The difference between AI research and engineering (21:41) Domains that matter for the frontier (30:50) Marketing yourself to frontier labs (35:13) Concrete steps engineers can take (38:29) Overview of pre-training areas (47:23) Jeff Dean spot bonus story (50:14) Favorite Gemini war story (58:59) Advice for his younger self (01:03:07) Outro Where to find Vlad: • Personal Website: https://vladfeinberg.com/ • Twitter/X: https://x.com/FeinbergVlad • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vladimirfeinberg/ Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman Referenced in this episode: • How to Land a Job at a Frontier Lab: https://vladfeinberg.com/2026/05/10/how-to-land-a-job-at-a-frontier-lab.html • ThunderKittens: https://github.com/HazyResearch/ThunderKittens • Deedy's doomer Tweet: https://x.com/FeinbergVlad/status/2056383124829872466?s=20 • Jacob Steinhardt's "Research as a Stochastic Decision Process": https://cs.stanford.edu/~jsteinhardt/ResearchasaStochasticDecisionProcess.html • The Scaling Book: https://jax-ml.github.io/scaling-book/ • Dwarkesh and Reiner's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmkSf5IS-zw

  • June 8 · 1 hr 27 min

    Co-Creator of Haskell: Functional Programming, Thinking in Types, Useless Languages | Simon Jones

    Simon Peyton Jones is the co-creator of Haskell (pure functional programming language) and I interviewed him about functional programming, why it matters, and his thoughts on other programming languages. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/xcB_LF3cdqw • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/co-creator-of-haskell-functional Thank you to this episode's sponsor for supporting my work: • WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at https://workos.com/ Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:39) What functional programming is (09:18) Downsides of functional programming (10:53) Specialized hardware for functional programming (21:47) Haskell is useless (25:59) Rust vs C (28:26) Haskell vs OCaml (35:26) Side effects in Haskell (44:26) Type systems (57:30) How the Haskell compiler works (01:04:35) Why Haskell is talked about more than used (01:09:07) Avoiding success at all costs (01:11:12) LLMs and programming languages (01:13:57) New programming language design (01:15:59) Should students continue to learn programming (01:22:33) Why Excel is his 2nd favorite programming language (01:25:04) Advice for his younger self Where to find Simon: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonpj/ • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Peyton_Jones • Personal Website: https://simon.peytonjones.org/ Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman Referenced in this episode: • Haskell is useless: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSmkqocn0oQ • John Backus Turing Award lecture: https://worrydream.com/refs/Backus_1978_-_Can_Programming_Be_Liberated_from_the_von_Neumann_Style.pdf • Why functional programming matters: https://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/dat/miranda/whyfp90.pdf • Excel is his 2nd favorite programming language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M4P5M85KO8

  • June 1 · 2 hr 15 min

    Turing Award Winner: P vs NP, Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Quantum Computation | Avi Wigderson

    Avi Wigderson is the only person in history to have won both a Turing Award (computer science) and Abel Prize (math). I interviewed him all about his field. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/5GUcvSAJcJw • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-p-vs-np-zero Thank you to this episode's sponsor for supporting my work: • WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at https://workos.com/ Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (01:08) P vs NP (14:51) What if you relaxed correctness (25:38) Why NP complete problems are equivalent (30:33) Space vs time complexity (43:06) Why people use SAT solvers (45:53) Randomness is a resource (55:48) Randomness depends on computational power (01:21:20) Zero knowledge proofs and their significance (01:38:30) Quantum computation and why it matters (01:56:24) Math vs computer science (02:08:16) Major breakthroughs and his experience (02:12:31) Advice for his younger self (02:14:48) Outro Where to find Avi: • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avi_Wigderson • Personal Website: https://www.math.ias.edu/avi/home Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman Referenced in this episode: • PCP Theorem paper: https://www.cs.umd.edu/~gasarch/TOPICS/pcp/AS.pdf • Paper on SAT approximation hardness: https://www.cs.umd.edu/~gasarch/BLOGPAPERS/max3satl.pdf • Turing's paper: https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/Turing_Paper_1936.pdf • Original paper on NP completeness: https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~sacook/homepage/1971.pdf • Ryan William's breakthrough result on space vs time: https://people.csail.mit.edu/rrw/time-vs-space.pdf • Old result on space vs time: https://www-wjp.cs.uni-saarland.de/publikationen/HPV75.pdf • Paper describing constant space majority solution: https://people.cs.umass.edu/~barring/publications/bwbp.pdf • Fast primality test paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0022314X80900840/pdf?md5=6f748cd82fa8efa1a637efab5f632baa&pid=1-s2.0-0022314X80900840-main.pdf • Deterministic primality test paper: https://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/manindra/algebra/primality_v6.pdf • Randomness vs observer paper: https://people.csail.mit.edu/silvio/Selected%20Scientific%20Papers/Pseudo%20Randomness/How_To_Generate_Cryptographically_Strong_Sequences_Of_Pseudo-Random_Bits.pdf • Hardness vs randomness paper: https://www.math.ias.edu/~avi/PUBLICATIONS/MYPAPERS/NOAM/HARDNESS/final.pdf • Erdos original sum vs product paper: https://users.renyi.hu/~p_erdos/1983-18.pdf • Terrence Tao sum vs product paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/math/0301343 • Seminal interactive proof paper: https://www.cs.miami.edu/home/burt/learning/csc609.221/goldwasser-micali-rackoff-knoweldge-complexity.pdf • Zero knowledge proof paper: https://www.math.ias.edu/~avi/PUBLICATIONS/MYPAPERS/GMW86/GMW86.pdf • Shor's algorithm original paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/quant-ph/9508027 • Lattice paper (new hard problems): https://dl.acm.org/doi/epdf/10.1145/258533.258604 • MIP* vs RE paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2001.04383 • Zero knowledge non-interactive proofs: https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/1296.pdf

  • May 25 · 2 hr 1 min

    Dropbox’s Former Most Senior Eng: Building Great Systems and Advice for the AI Era | James Cowling

    James Cowling is the CTO at Convex and was previously the most senior engineer at Dropbox. We discussed technical details of his past projects, simplicity vs complexity, and career advice given where AI is today. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ Podcast links: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/3XkmNSuHFmY • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/dropboxs-former-most-senior-eng-building Thank you to this episode's sponsor for supporting my work: • WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at https://workos.com/ Timestamps: 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:53 Systems work during his PhD 00:13:05 Dropbox technical deep dive 00:21:57 Why Dropbox migrated from AWS 00:36:40 How to do massive migrations 00:44:31 Simplicity vs complexity in promos 00:49:23 What technical teams should be focused on 01:00:25 Doing the right thing vs promo hypothetical 01:08:13 Why he dipped into management sometimes 01:11:36 Why you should not lead by example 01:23:23 How to mentor Senior Staff engineers 01:27:30 Career advice for the AI era 01:37:21 Why he started his own company 01:46:05 The most technically challenging work of his career 01:48:10 How he got involved in Silicon Valley 01:52:16 Career regrets 01:55:54 Top technical book recommendation 01:56:36 Younger self and permanent underclass advice Where to find James: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcowling/ • Twitter/X: https://x.com/jamesacowling • His company: https://www.convex.dev/ Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman Referenced in this episode: • His PhD Thesis: https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/atc12/atc12-final118.pdf • Masters paper: https://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/fall19/cos418/papers/vr-revisited.pdf • Papercuts writing he mentioned: https://medium.com/@jamesacowling/embracing-papercuts-e6390055dfc4 • "Don't lead by example": https://medium.com/@jamesacowling/dont-lead-by-example-4f86b1174e64 • His writing about orienting teams around missions: https://medium.com/@jamesacowling/your-system-is-not-a-sports-team-e17f9eb16b94

  • May 18 · 1 hr 59 min

    Creator of C++: Bell Labs, Negative Overhead Abstraction, Mistakes | Bjarne Stroustrup

    Bjarne Stroustrup is the creator of the C++ programming language and a former researcher at Bell Labs. We talked about what Bell Labs was like, programming language design, and interesting anecdotes from his experience. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/U46fJ2bJ-co • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/creator-of-c-bell-labs-negative-overhead 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲'𝘀 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸: • Cursor 3: a unified workspace for building software with agents, check it out at https://cursor.com/ • WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at https://workos.com/ 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 0:00 - Intro 0:50 - The origin of C++ 8:46 - What Bell Labs was like 17:24 - Dennis Ritchie 24:00 - When to build a programming language 31:59 - Bootstrapping a language 33:58 - C++ is not object-oriented 37:32 - Discussing type systems 46:20 - Memory safety 49:26 - Standards committee anecdotes 1:09:40 - Adding automatic garbage collection to C++ 1:18:25 - Template instantiation is Turing complete 1:21:57 - Abstraction and performance 1:28:51 - AI writing code 1:35:54 - His motivation 1:39:18 - Famous quotes 1:46:48 - Reflecting on building C++ 1:49:12 - Top C++ book recommendation 1:50:59 - Advice for his younger self 1:58:06 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗷𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲: • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bjarne_Stroustrup • Personal Website: https://www.stroustrup.com/ 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲: • "A History of C++": https://www.stroustrup.com/hopl2.pdf • "Evolving a language in and for the real world": https://www.stroustrup.com/hopl-almost-final.pdf • "Thriving in a Crowded and Changing World": https://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/docs/papers/2020/p2184r0.pdf • The lecture where he mentioned he lost half his hair: https://youtu.be/69edOm889V4?si=IAZxYNwlUALodEV7&t=474 • Quotes I pulled: https://www.stroustrup.com/quotes.html

  • May 11 · 1 hr 3 min

    Harvard Professor: CS50, What Matters More Than CS, Lecturing Well | David J Malan

    David Malan is a Harvard professor known for turning CS50 into a popular online computer science course. We discussed the story behind CS50, how to lecture well, and how AI is changing CS education including in cheating/academic dishonesty. • My ergonomic keyboard project I mentioned, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/bB2o81DnKHk • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/harvard-professor-cs50-what-matters 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲'𝘀 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸: • Cursor 3: a unified workspace for building software with agents, check it out at https://cursor.com/ • WorkOS: makes your app Enterprise Ready with easy to use APIs to add SSO, SCIM, RBAC, and more in just a few lines of code, check them out at https://workos.com/ 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 0:00 - Intro 1:09 - Getting into computer science 3:27 - Becoming the professor of CS50 11:19 - How to lecture well 14:25 - Depth vs engagement in education 18:11 - Why don't we consolidate educational resources 23:20 - Why start with C 31:51 - The ideal use of AI in education 34:54 - Cheating and AI 38:21 - Should we really learn CS still? 45:24 - College vs online education 47:06 - The most difficult concept to learn 51:00 - Growth vs fixed mindset 52:35 - The future of CS50 55:56 - Biggest career regret 1:00:29 - Top book recommendations 1:02:36 - Advice for his younger self 1:03:35 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗱: • Personal website: https://cs.harvard.edu/malan/ • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dmalan • Github: https://github.com/dmalan • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davidjmalan/ • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malan/ • Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/davidjmalan/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/davidjmalan • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@davidjmalan 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲: • His first program for CS50: https://x.com/davidjmalan/status/1432538424590929920 • Paper about CS50 improvements: https://cs.harvard.edu/malan/publications/fp310-malan.pdf • Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy • How Computers Work book (not affiliate link): https://www.amazon.com/How-Computers-Work-Evolution-Technology/dp/078974984X

  • May 4 · 43 min

    PyTorch Eng Director: Promo Hacking, Industry Shifts, Regrets | John Myles White

    John Myles White recently left his role as a director of engineering at Meta Superintelligence Labs (MSL) so we spoke freely about promo culture, how big tech has changed, and how his career grew. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/aPfnP4iAIH8 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/msl-eng-director-promo-hacking-industry 𝗕𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗯𝘆: • Cursor 3: a unified workspace for building software with agents, check it out at https://cursor.com/ • My ergonomic keyboard project, you can follow along here: https://read.compose.llc/ 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 0:00 - Intro 0:54 - Is he bullish on MSL 5:23 - Running promotions at Meta 15:15 - Growing at Meta 22:22 - Julia core language contributor 29:24 - Academics failing into industry 31:48 - Stats book recommendations 38:02 - Biggest career regret 41:05 - Advice for his younger self 42:46 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗻: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-myles-white-115697180/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/johnmyleswhite • Personal Website: https://www.johnmyleswhite.com/ • Github: https://github.com/johnmyleswhite 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲: • Evaluating the design of the R language - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/240040602_Evaluating_the_Design_of_the_R_Language • Stats book he mentioned (not affiliate link) - https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Agnostic-Statistics-Peter-Aronow/dp/1316631141 • Stats book he mentioned (not affiliate link) - https://www.amazon.com/All-Statistics-Statistical-Inference-Springer/dp/0387402721

  • April 27 · 34 min

    Turing Award Winner: Data Abstraction, Dijkstra, Distributed Systems | Barbara Liskov

    Barbara Liskov is a Turing Award winner known for her work in programming languages and distributed systems. We discussed the major problems she solved in her career, stories about Dijkstra, getting rejected from Princeton because she was a woman and misc topics around her work. 🔸 My keyboard Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/T9CGjbPZeaM • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-data-abstraction 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Go To Statement Considered Harmful: https://homepages.cwi.nl/~storm/teaching/reader/Dijkstra68.pdf • Viewstamped Replication: https://www.cs.princeton.edu/courses/archive/fall09/cos518/papers/viewstamped.pdf 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 0:00 - Intro 1:00 - Getting rejected from Princeton 2:53 - The software crisis 9:03 - The drawbacks of Python 10:17 - Getting into distributed computing 13:09 - Paxos vs Viewstamped replication 21:44 - The significance of Dijkstras letter 25:04 - Why she stayed in academia 30:39 - Why her award was questioned 33:51 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗮𝗿𝗯𝗮𝗿𝗮: • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Liskov 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

  • April 20 · 56 min

    Turing Award Winner: Postgres, Disagreeing with Google, Future Problems | Mike Stonebraker

    Mike Stonebraker is a Turing Award winner famous for his contributions to fundamental database technologies. We discussed the story behind building Postgres, where he disagrees with Google/Amazon on databases, and what he's working on now. 🔸 My keyboard Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/YPObBOwIrHk • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-postgres-disagreeing 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Red book of database readings: http://www.redbook.io/ • BEAVER: An Enterprise Benchmark for Text-to-SQL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.02038 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 0:00 - Intro 1:03 - How he got into databases 6:43 - Competing with Oracle 9:07 - What made Postgres special 15:55 - One size fits none 21:37 - Why he disagreed with Google 29:14 - Why he chose academia over big tech 30:58 - Replacing state in an OS with a DB 42:02 - Future problems in databases 51:36 - Technical book recommendations to learn databases 52:20 - Advice for younger self 55:52 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗶𝗸𝗲: • His current company DBOS: https://dbos.dev/ 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

  • April 13 · 1 hr 11 min

    AWS Distinguished Eng: Learning From 3000 Incidents And How Engineering Is Changing | Marc Brooker

    In this episode, I talked to Marc Brooker, a distinguished engineer at AWS who started there as a new grad and rose through the ranks. We discussed technical learnings from 3,000+ cloud system postmortems, how software engineering is changing with AI, how to find impactful problems and much more. 🔶 My keyboard Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/u3GjIXP9N0s • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1qX2GfpbzxzGpGvDZVINdO?si=wsDGZo9PTbCNalKVybFVnA • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/aws-distinguished-eng-learnings-from 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Post we discussed on hobbies and apparent expertise: https://brooker.co.za/blog/2023/04/20/hobbies.html • Post on software engineering changing: https://brooker.co.za/blog/2026/02/07/you-are-here.html • Post about Senior engineers and AI: https://brooker.co.za/blog/2026/03/20/ic-leadership.html • Post on Junior engineers and AI: https://brooker.co.za/blog/2026/03/25/ic-junior.html 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 0:00 - Intro 1:27 - Finding problems that matter 11:42 - Learnings from 3000 postmortems 23:58 - Why caches are bad 29:37 - How AI will change software engineering 36:49 - Advice for junior engineers given AI 44:02 - Thoughts for senior engineers 49:59 - Why engineers should write 57:51 - Visibility and apparent expertise 1:04:23 - AWS engineers he admires 1:06:53 - Technical book recommendations 1:09:06 - Advice for his younger self 1:10:37 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-brooker-b431772b/ • Twitter/X: https://x.com/MarcJBrooker • Personal Blog: https://brooker.co.za/blog/ 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

  • April 6 · 58 min

    Ex-Head of Eng at Instagram: Career Regrets and Learnings | James Everingham

    This is James Everingham, former head of engineering at Instagram and a veteran of the tech world with experience at Netscape. We talked about his unconventional start in the industry, learnings from every leg of his career, and regrets he has looking back. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/VIF5Fm8NdE8 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/ex-head-of-eng-at-instagram-career 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 0:00 - Intro 0:57 - Kicked out of college 5:35 - FBI showed up at his house 7:43 - Pre-IPO Netscape experience 25:19 - Joining Instagram as head of eng 29:12 - Why shrinking teams improves velocity 32:59 - Working with Mike Krieger 37:16 - Leading Cryptocurrency project at Meta 42:30 - What he is working on now 54:29 - Career regrets 56:27 - Advice for his younger self 57:42 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗝𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jevering/ • Twitter/X: https://x.com/jevering • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@jevering 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

  • March 30 · 2 hr 50 min

    Retired Amazon VP: How Corporate Politics Work And How To Win | Ethan Evans

    Ethan Evans is a former VP at Amazon has seen pretty much every possible type of corporate politics. Now that he's retired, he could share everything he'd seen including stories about empire building, hidden politics, reorgs, senior promos and dealing with bad managers. 🔸 The keyboard I'm building: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/6WaeGfLnRvc • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/amazon-vp-reveals-everything-hes 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00 - Intro 2:33 - Empire Building 31:54 - Stealing scope 44:03 - Managing out via reorgs 51:01 - Bad managers and mutiny 01:01:43 - Political messaging 01:11:48 - Handling politically skilled operators 01:20:01 - Orgs trying to steal scope 01:30:26 - Handling difficult people from other orgs 01:36:19 - Handling weak managers 01:46:30 - Backchanneling 01:52:04 - Influence without authority 01:58:04 - Sexual harassment 02:00:49 - Skip overruling firing 02:05:39 - How to fire managers 02:11:31 - Leverage when people are getting fired 02:24:01 - How to grow past senior eng 02:43:01 - How to avoid politics 02:48:15 - Advice for younger self 02:49:51 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/EthanEvansVP • Newsletter: https://levelupwithethanevans.substack.com/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-BAdkBGjOIlccGLZ3jbLiA 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

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