In this episode I talk with Becky Freeman, staff engineer at Caribou and co-organizer of Rocky Mountain Ruby, about legacy code, refactoring long-running applications, and the psychological skills required to get team buy-in for technical improvements. Links: Bekki Freeman on LinkedInRocky Mountain RubyCaribouNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Paul Hammond about TDD as a discoverable principle—something alien programmers would independently arrive at. We discuss my "specify, encode, fulfill" formulation, why programming needs theory instead of rules of thumb, and the business payoff of technical quality: Paul returned to a well-built project after 18 months and delivered months of planned work before Christmas. Links: ScenaristNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Ernesto Tagwerker about using AI for Rails upgrades, AI as an unblocking tool rather than just a speeder-upper, and the dangers of AI-generated "speculative code" that adds liability without value. Links: FastRuby.ioOmbuLabs

In this episode I talk with Steven Diamante about coaching teams on XP practices and AI coding agents. We discuss why change is so hard (people have to want it), his success turning an underperforming team around through weekly learning hours, and how to use TDD with AI—including "predictive TDD" where you have the agent guess if tests will pass or fail. Links: Diamante Technical CoachingSteven Diamante on LinkedInNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Cory Zue about his solopreneur journey building SaaS Pegasus, a Django boilerplate product. We discuss AI's potential impact on the business of selling code, the financial anxiety that persists even when things are going well, and content marketing strategies for technical products. Links: coryzue.comSaaS PegasusNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Wale Olaleye about finding consulting clients through referrals and word of mouth. We discuss the "hunting vs farming" analogy for marketing, simplifying your pitch, filtering clients with deposits, and how genuine community relationships lead to business over time. Links: railsfever.comWale Olaleye on LinkedInNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Dave Thomas about why code reuse is overrated, the economics of programming principles, and why we can't empirically test whether practices work—we have to scrutinize the arguments behind them. Dave also discusses his new book Simplicity and his "developer without portfolio" concept. Links: SimplicityNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Eleni Konior about her path from economics to graphic design to programming, and how creative skills benefit technical work. We discuss building customer-focused features, the importance of assuming the customer's role, and AI in products beyond chatbots—like proactively surfacing recommendations based on user behavior. Links: datgreekchick.comNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Andrea Laforgia about programming principles, why good code is code that's easy to change, and his motto: "write your code so it can be easily deleted." We discuss technical debt as an operating model, the fallacy of sacrificing quality for speed, and AI's impact on learning fundamentals. Links: Andrea Laforgia on LinkedInNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Kendall Miller about MCP (Model Context Protocol) and why AI agents need third-party guardrails. His company Maybe Don't sits between AI agents and MCP servers to prevent disasters—because AI sometimes solves problems in creative and terrifying ways. Links: Maybe Don't, AIKendall Miller on LinkedInNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Joel Drapper about defect-free development—not just automated testing, but the full spectrum: linting, static typing, database constraints, and especially runtime assertions. Joel's library Literal lets you define type expectations that blow up immediately when violated, catching bugs before they spread. Links: literal.funphlex.funjoel.drapper.meNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Lio Lunesu, CTO of Defang, about infrastructure as code, Docker, and Docker Compose. Defang compiles Docker Compose files into cloud infrastructure code. Links: DefangLio Lunesu on LinkedInSaturnCINonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Chris Gaffney about Dead Man's Snitch, a cron job monitoring service he's run full-time for six years after Collective Idea acquired it at a very early stage. We discuss the five-year path to profitability, SaaS being harder today, and dopaminergic personalities in tech. Links: Dead Man's SnitchNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Kate Holterhoff, senior analyst at RedMonk, about her PhD research on Darwin's methods, speculation in science, and how 19th century evolutionary thinking influenced literature. We discuss epistemology, conjecture and criticism, and how these ideas connect to programming. Links: RedMonkSpeculation and the Darwinian Method in British Romance Fiction, 1859-1914Nonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Jeff Casimir, founder of Turing School, about why AI is far down his list of reasons for the tech job market downturn—he points instead to macroeconomic policy, copycat layoff culture, and companies using layoffs to suppress worker organizing. We also discuss aptitude vs. belief, why school is mostly daycare, and his prompt injection resume experiment. Links: Jeff Casimir on LinkedInNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Ryan Frisch and Brendan Buckingham from the Rails Business Podcast about whether info products are viable in the Rails community, how business ideas emerge from personal pain points rather than brainstorming, and I give an update on SaturnCI sales. Links: Rails Business PodcastLocableSaturnCINonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Tom Akehurst, CTO and Co-founder at WireMock, about API mocking, testing philosophy (verification vs specification, contracts, the testing pyramid), inner vs outer loop development, and MCP (Model Context Protocol) for integrating AI coding tools with external services. Links: WireMockWireMock on YouTubeTom Akehurst on LinkedInNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Michael Ferranti from Unleash about feature flags, trunk-based development, and why DevOps metrics alone aren't sufficient. We discuss FeatureOps—focusing on customer outcomes rather than just code delivery—plus the "three voices" (engineering, business, customer) and AI's role in accelerating feedback loops. Links: UnleashNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Jarrett Yew about his 10-year programming journey, early freelancing failures, working with difficult clients, and we go deep on AGI, neuroscience, spatial reasoning in language, and David Deutsch's theories on perception. Links: Jarrett Yew on LinkedInjarrettyew.comNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Josef Strzibny about his books Deployment from Scratch and Kamal Handbook, the economics of info products in the Ruby space, his new project Lake AI, and his road trip through the Balkans. We also compare driving cultures across Europe and the US. Links: Kamal HandbookDeployment from ScratchNonsense Monthly