The Peterman Pod

Neetcode is the most well-known coding interview prep creator with over 1M+ subs on YouTube. I interviewed him about the latest on coding interviews, his career at Amazon vs Google, and what it was like quitting big tech to do his own thing. • 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/K15dND_Kfvg • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/neetcode-google-vs-amazon-programming 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) Quitting Amazon after 2 months (06:00) Testing Neetcode on Leetcode (12:57) Memorizing…

In this episode, I asked Ethan Evans (ex-Amazon VP) questions about common situations in corporate politics but they get increasingly darker. • 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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhjhRRz3VJw • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/e068-ethan-evans 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 (00:42) How to receive credit for your work (19:18) Ways for quiet people to get visibility (21:32) How to be trusted for top projects (29:52) How to defend from others taking your project (36:13) How…

Philip Su grew quickly to a Distinguished Engineer at Facebook and OpenAI. We talked about the psychology behind peaking in a tech career and the pressure at the highest levels. • 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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMo04pSSiao • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/openai-and-meta-distinguished-eng Thank you to this episode's sponsors 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/ • Jira by Atlassian: Get more work done with your favorite agents and models all in one place, check them out at https://jira.dev/ Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:37) Growth…

Casey Muratori is a video game developer and programming creator also known for his talks about the history of software and computing. We talked about surprising parts he found while digging through computer history, where bad code comes from, and his career story. • 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/jHLbL1Eg4gM • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/casey-muratori-surprises-in-computer Thank you to this episode's sponsors for supporting my work: • Jira by Atlassian: Get more work done with your favorite agents and models all in one place, check them out at https://jira.dev/ • 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,…

Thariq Shihipar is an engineer on Anthropic’s Claude Code team I asked him how Anthropic makes the most out of the models for engineering and how the industry will change soon. • 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/2Kch3tWMnw8 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/how-anthropic-builds-and-how-engineering 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 (00:29) Onboarding at Anthropic (02:53) Internal capabilities vs external perception (06:16) Model vs Harness (08:55) What percent of Anthropics changes are…

Martin Odersky is the creator of Scala and I interviewed him to compare different languages designs (Rust vs Zig vs Python vs Scala) and how AI will impact programming languages. • 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/LdN4sPWM-WY • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/creator-of-scala-comparing-languages?r=n49ky Thank you to this episode's sponsors 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/ • Jira by Atlassian: Get more work done with your favorite agents and models all in one place, check them out at https://jira.dev/ Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:44) Why care…

Sergey Levine is one of the world's top robotics researchers and co-founder of Physical Intelligence. We talked about where humanoid robotics is today, thoughts on the Chinese robotics ecosystem, and his predictions for future timelines. • 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/9OSbaPjv0Rc • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/sergey-levine-current-state-of-humanoid?r=n49ky 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 (00:37) Where are we today (04:20) Most surprising capabilities so far (07:03) The most…

Anders Hejlsberg is the creator of TypeScript and C#, and I asked him about how the TypeScript compiler got 10x faster through a rewrite in Go and his thoughts on how AI has impacted software engineering. • 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://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cywK3XYYJ2o • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/creator-of-typescript-10x-faster Thank you to this episode's sponsors 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/ • Jira by Atlassian: Get more work done with your favorite agents and models all in one place, check them out at https://jira.dev/ Timestamps:…

Leonardo de Moura is the creator of Lean and the Z3 theorem prover. I talked with him about how Lean works and why LLMs plus Lean will fundamentally change how we write software and do math. • 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/KzdYKeAqWhY • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/creator-of-lean-the-end-of-handwritten 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 (00:28) How formal verification works (05:21) A new way of writing software (13:15) Proof assistants vs programming languages (21:06) How Lean…

Roberto Ierusalimschy is the creator of the Lua programming language. I interviewed him about Lua's unique strengths, programming language design and predictions for how AI will impact programming languages. • 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/jCZnFKk6M9A • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/creator-of-lua-scripting-programming 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 (00:43) What sets Lua apart (08:35) Comparing Lua with Python (13:04) Top book recommendation on language design (14:20) How JIT…

Judea Pearl is a Turing Award winner and a pioneer in artificial intelligence and causal reasoning. We talked about how he got into science, his major breakthroughs and his predictions for AI today. • 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/FleTXB1fAcQ • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-early-ai-llm 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 (00:54) How he got into AI (11:17) Greatest scientist of all time (20:15) What people thought of AI in the 80s (26:23) Entering academia and…

Xavier Leroy (creator of OCaml) is an expert in compilers, formal verification of software and functional programming. This interview should be an approachable resource if you're curious about formal verification of software since I was learning that on the fly during it. • 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/9Cswiqrq6So • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/creator-of-ocaml-functional-programming 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 (00:43) What sets OCaml apart (04:39) OCaml vs Rust (07:57)…

David Patterson is a Turing Award winner famous for his contributions to computer architecture. I interviewed him about his past work, thoughts on GPU/TPUs and career advice from half a century of experience. • 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/Pn4ZwlEh5nw • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-tpu-vs-gpu-vs?r=n49ky Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:42) RISC vs CISC (12:51) Compilers (17:38) GPUs (23:07) GPU vs TPU vs CPU (32:12) Is Moores law dead? (38:04) GPU benchmarks (41:40) How to have a bad career (49:59) Courage and optimism (55:56) Advice for his younger self (58:15) Outro Where to find David: • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Patterson_(computer_scientist) Where…

Martin Hellman is a Turing Award winner who helped to invent public-key cryptography against the NSA's wishes. I interviewed him all about his work and why it broke the law at the time. • 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/AZLOETBCQM4 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-nsa-public-key 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 (00:34) Why his work broke the law (08:39) How people did encryption before (18:51) The crypto wars (26:22) The story behind Diffie Hellman key exchange…

Ryan Williams is a professor at MIT and the winner of the Gödel Prize in theoretical computer science. I interviewed him all about his work starting by asking him a popular Leetcode question (3 SUM). Correction: In this podcast I say "lower bound" when I mean "upper bound" and vice versa. Was speaking using the intuition that lower is better for running time. In reality, the accurate usage is: "Lower bound" = A proven floor for a problem e.g. "no algorithm can possibly be faster" "Upper bound" = A proven ceiling for a specific solution e.g. "there exists an algorithm this fast" Professor Williams answers as if I spoke accurately so the error didn't impact the flow of conversation. Just a correction for the record • 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/AaK1SL2i_4Y • Apple:…

Charlie Marsh is the founder of Astral, the Python devtool startup that was acquired by OpenAI. I inteviewed him about how software engineering is changing and learnings from starting his own company as an engineer. • 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/Iw65FD4MGgs • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/openai-eng-and-dev-tools-founder 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 (00:40) Origin story (06:04) The front page of Hacker News (14:35) Why he chose Rust (20:10) Full codebase migration from Zig…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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 -…

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…

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/ •…

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…

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…

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:…

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…

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 -…

This is a conversation with Brendan Burns, co-creator of Kubernetes and current technical fellow at Microsoft working on Azure. We discussed what it was like building it at Google, how he got buy-in, and what he learned along the way. 🔸 My keyboard project: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/FKijpCEH9D8 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/the-creator-of-kubernetes-on-building 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:37 - How he convinced Google leaders 00:09:26 - Building the MVP 00:11:43 - How he made time for Kubernetes 00:25:28 - Technical details on building Kubernetes 00:38:46 - Rallying the open source community 00:50:01 - Scaling Kubernetes up for AI training workloads 00:55:31 - Reflections on getting a PhD 01:00:22 - The inevitable trajectory of software is death 01:04:16 - Top book recommendations 01:05:22 - Advice for his younger self 01:06:21 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼…

Austen McDonald is a former hiring committee member at Meta, where he led mobile hiring and conducted hundreds of interviews. In this episode, we talked about what happens behind the scenes in a hiring committee, unethical candidates, and the role referrals play. 🔸 (Sponsor) Hello Interview's Website - https://www.hellointerview.com/ 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/nOapM8i5jr0 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/meta-hiring-lead-on-behind-the-scenes 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:49 - What goes on in hiring committees 00:09:02 - Unethical candidates 00:12:50 - How leveling is determined 00:23:12 - Can you negotiate level mid-process 00:32:30 - How non-tech leads can signal scope 00:39:11 - Referrals and bias 00:45:28 - What the rubric looks like 00:50:00 - OpenAI and Anthropic specific discussion 00:52:22 - Most common mistakes senior candidates make 01:02:31 - How to prep depending on your level 01:08:34 -…

This is Michael Bolin, the tech lead for the open source Codex repository and a former distinguished engineer at Meta. We talked about his career path, how OpenAI engineers use Codex and the difference between research-led vs engineering-led company cultures. 🔸 My keyboard project: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/hN5ZFzWFhhg • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/openai-codex-tech-lead-on-how-his 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:56 - Chickenfoot 00:02:45 - Working at Google 00:06:34 - Overhauling Facebook's build system 00:16:36 - Rewriting Facebook's IDE 00:26:01 - Struggles after Principal Eng (E8) promo 00:28:39 - Building a virtual filesystem for Facebook 00:35:47 - Delayed Distinguished promo (E9) and learnings 00:39:56 - Joining OpenAI 00:43:05 - Research-led vs engineering-led cultures 00:44:53 - The story behind Codex 00:51:00 - How he uses Codex 00:57:00…

Bryan Cantrill was a distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems and has now founded his own company called Oxide Computer Company. We discussed his career experiences through boom/busts, what competing with Bezos was like, and career regrets. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/qhSL-5GtmQM • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/distinguished-eng-on-stack-ranking 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Link to the part in the talk on Oracle/Sun we discussed - https://youtu.be/-zRN7XLCRhc?si=eExjIMZROGjJcDsw&t=1977 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:42 - Working at Sun Microsystems 00:10:17 - His growth to distinguished eng 00:19:14 - Why goaling on promotion is bad 00:29:34 - Stack ranking and layoffs 00:36:00 - Why he hated the Oracle acquisition 00:44:19 - Why Bezos is the apex predator of capitalism 00:48:04 - Differences between CTO and VP 00:49:58 - Starting his own company 01:02:37 - Grilling him on his past 01:11:57 - AI boom and bust…

I interviewed Leslie Lamport, a Turing Award winner known for his contributions to distributed systems and the inventor of the Paxos algorithm. We walked through the major contributions of his career for the stories behind them and what he learned along the way. 🔸 My keyboard project: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/U719vQz-WFs • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-on-working-with 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Bakery Problem Paper: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/bakery.pdf • Time Clocks Paper (most cited): https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/time-clocks.pdf • The Byzantine Generals Problem Paper: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/byz.pdf • The Paxos Algorithm Paper: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/lamport-paxos.pdf 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:25 - The Bakery Algorithm 00:08:28 - Experiences with Dijkstra 00:14:44 - His most…

David Ronca joined Netflix in 2007 and grew to an engineering director there. Later he joined Meta as a Director and transitioned to a Principal engineer working on video technologies. Now he's retired and was graciously willing to share his career story with us. I asked him for everything he learned in his 36 year career. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/retired-netflix-engineering-director • YouTube: https://youtu.be/ApG9vjbHDCk • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Netflix culture memo (2009) - https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/culture-1798664/1798664 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:40 - How Netflix was different 00:08:01 - The legendary Netflix culture memo 00:18:54 - How to hire engineers well 00:30:52 - The strongest engineer he's ever met 00:33:02 - Joining Meta 00:50:52 - Near death experience 00:59:04 - Where he learned the most 01:04:09 - Book that impacted his career most 01:11:33 - Advice for his younger self…

This is Adam Ernst, a Distinguished Engineer at Meta (IC9) who’s built iOS infrastructure that has impacted the entire company. We talked about how his career grew, a major failed project of his, and everything he learned growing to that level. 🔸 My keyboard project link: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/YA_OYJF3Mmw • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/meta-distinguished-eng-ic9-on-influencing 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:47 - His middle school company 00:03:50 - His first project and promo at Meta 00:10:03 - Why code review is undervalued 00:12:42 - Senior Staff (IC7) promo story and project 00:19:26 - His major failed project 00:26:35 - How to handle a failed project 00:29:04 - Thoughts on management 00:31:35 - Technical depth vs breadth 00:33:32 - IC9 expectations 00:34:46 - Senior engineers he admires 00:37:39 - Advice for his younger self 00:39:52 -…

Ryan Olson grew from mid-level engineer (IC4) to a principal engineer (IC8) at Instagram through a series of famous projects. The most notable was when he was the lead iOS developer that built Instagram Stories. We discuss his career journey and learnings. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/instagram-principal-eng-ic8-on-building • Spotify: Episode link from Spotify after scheduling • YouTube: https://youtu.be/gpVETZnY9Y0 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Zuckerberg emails I mentioned: Twitter link: https://x.com/TechEmails/status/1944451283236303184 Threads link: https://www.threads.com/@techemails/post/DMDi5IWpPyC 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:31 - Failing his FB interview 00:03:27 - Interning /w future billionaires 00:14:08 - Interview nerves tip 00:16:37 - Early Instagram experiences 00:34:08 - Building Instagram Stories 00:45:03 - 1 promo per half to Staff (IC6) 00:49:51 - Senior staff promo project (IC7) 00:57:37 - IG labs & his…

In this episode, I talked to "Asian Dad Energy" an anonymous big techie who was laid off after 25 years in the industry. We discussed his layoffs experience, his early career in engineering consulting, and the realities of big tech compensation. 🔸 My keyboard project link: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/8bs6KmJX4_g • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4ApCuf04MXv0nBRqKNLyiQ?si=bko-M46xQM2FHhTG6Vcy6Q • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/laid-off-from-big-tech-after-25-years 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:41 - His layoff story 00:07:02 - Why he expects more layoffs 00:09:42 - Tech consulting before big tech 00:19:25 - Consultants shipping bad code? 00:26:57 - Why do people dislike consultants? 00:30:55 - Big tech compensation 00:40:27 - When age impacted his flexibility 00:42:04 - Why YouTube 00:46:46 - Speaking advice for engineers 00:49:09 - Advice…

In this episode, I talked to Nimit Sohoni, a Stanford PhD and AI Researcher at Cartesia who previously worked as a quant at Citadel. We discussed the differences between AI research and quant careers, including work-life balance and the value of a PhD in these fields. Nimit also shared what he's currently working on and offered advice for those looking to transition into AI research. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/_jECS37M3dQ • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/stanford-phd-ai-researcher-and-quant 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:45 - Do you need a PhD? 00:06:25 - Research taste and finding problems 00:09:04 - Why become a quant 00:12:01 - What quants do 00:14:53 - How quants and SWEs collaborate 00:16:29 - Quant vs tech culture 00:26:39 - Quant firm tier list 00:27:56 - Quant insider trading and perf culture 00:30:53 - Going back to AI research 00:35:08 - Who the top competitors are in voice AI 00:39:22 - AI…

In this episode, I talked to Igor, a senior staff engineer who has worked at Meta, Google, and Cruise. We discussed his experience of wanting a demotion at Meta and the challenges he faced in that process. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/i1iBweuOQI4 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/meta-senior-staff-ic7-engs-honest 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Igor's post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7401415295409700864/ 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:37 - Why he wanted a demotion 00:07:32 - Why Senior Staff at Meta was different 00:16:01 - Meta vs Google culture 00:19:09 - Downleveling at Google 00:23:17 - Why he's willing to be transparent 00:25:11 - Best quality of life eng level 00:30:42 - Senior Staff promo at Google 00:42:27 - Mentorship stories 00:43:11 - Biggest career regret 00:46:46 - Advice for younger self 00:49:06 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗴𝗼𝗿: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/igorts/ • ML…

Laurent Charignon was a Staff engineer at Stripe, Airbnb, and Instagram with some experience in management as well. We discussed the unspoken rules you learn as a manager, how he transitioned, what good mentorship looks like, and advice for senior engineers who are stuck looking to grow to Staff. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/airbnb-staff-eng-on-how-to-not-get • YouTube: https://youtu.be/cgQY_1Uz2b8 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:44 - Joining Airbnb and transitioning to EM 00:18:29 - Untold rules of calibrations 00:23:50 - How to dispute bureaucracy 00:29:54 - Airbnb culture 00:31:36 - Leaving Airbnb for Meta 00:35:56 - Uber TL at Stripe 00:42:52 - How to scale yourself 00:45:22 - What people get wrong in coaching 00:52:58 - Why people get stuck at Senior eng 00:57:24 - Most career impacting book 00:58:39 - Advice for younger self 01:00:27 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗟𝗮𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁: • LinkedIn:…

Adrien Friggeri went from a new grad to a principal engineer (IC8) at Meta. He is the original TL who started Bento if you’re familiar with that infra at the company. He got to where he was through a series of promotions across different teams and projects. I interviewed him about everything he learned along the way 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/new-grad-to-principal-engineer-ic8 • YouTube: https://youtu.be/2Sjzd9pt6Ts • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00 - Intro 00:43 - First team at FB 07:24 - Senior promo /w IG 16:30 - Story behind Bento (Senior staff promo) 25:33 - Taking on perf risk to start the project 29:03 - Learnings from leaving big tech 32:46 - Joining Clubhouse 35:08 - Return to Meta (again) 40:51 - Principal promo (IC8) and tips 51:37 - Maximizing your luck /w people 54:26 - Advice for younger self 55:42 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/friggeri/ • Instagram:…

Fiona Fung currently supports the Claude Code team at Anthropic and was previously a Senior Director at Meta. She grew quickly through the ranks at Microsoft and Meta before joining Anthropic. I interviewed her about what she learned along the way. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/anthropic-eng-leader-and-ex-senior • YouTube: https://youtu.be/b5-d8u-c99s • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00 - Intro 00:38 - Impact vs team health 03:04 - Managing managers for the first time 05:31 - Advice on mentoring others 06:55 - What you should use 1 on 1s for 07:56 - Leaving Microsoft for Facebook 10:59 - Microsoft vs Facebook culture 12:01 - Why dogfooding is important 21:25 - Joining Anthropic 27:23 - Feedback that changed her career 28:43 - Advice for younger self 29:14 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fionafung/ 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter:…

Hi all, it's been such a fun project for me this year launching this podcast and trying my best to make the content as helpful as possibleAppreciate everyone who has taken the time to watch my videos and give feedback on how to make it betterIt wouldn't be the same without your support! Next year I plan to work hard to keep improving the content, see you in 2026 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00 - Intro 00:50 - Meta Distinguished Eng (Philip Su) 05:23 - Amazon Principal Eng (Steve Huynh) 06:23 - Google Staff Eng by 28 (Ricky Lee) 07:30 - Meta Staff Eng by 25 (Evan King) 08:51 - Shopify Distinguished Eng (Ilya Grigorik) 10:49 - Amazon VP (Ethan Evans) 12:24 - Meta Senior Staff Eng (Dwayne Reeves) 13:14 - CloudKitchens CTO, Ex Uber Senior Staff (Brian Attwell) 13:55 - Instagram Principal Eng (Jake Bolam) 14:42 - Uber Distinguished Eng (Joakim Recht) 15:03 - Creator of Claude Code, Ex Meta Principal (Boris Cherny) 15:45 - Outro

Rong Yan went from a frontline manager at Meta to a Senior Director at Snapchat in 3 years. I interviewed him to ask what led to that rocketship career trajectory in management. We went over how he job hopped into his first Director role and much more. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/frontline-manager-at-meta-to-senior • YouTube: https://youtu.be/BHlko_Mg-Jk • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00 - Intro 00:46 - Joining Facebook 03:06 - Moving up into a Director role 05:09 - Director skill gaps 15:31 - Domain knowledge & management 18:45 - LA vs SF cultures 20:48 - Senior Director growth at Snapchat 22:43 - Evan Spiegel stories 24:59 - Recruitment at higher levels 32:05 - Career planning in hindsight 34:08 - Biggest career regret 35:33 - How much of growth is luck? 38:19 - Advice for younger self 41:53 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗼𝗻𝗴: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rong-yan-2004692/ • Personal Website:…

Boris Cherny is the Creator of Claude Code but few people know his full career story. I interviewed him about everything he learned growing at Meta and for insights from his time building Claude Code at Anthropic. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/boris-cherny-creator-of-claude-code • YouTube: https://youtu.be/AmdLVWMdjOk • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:59 - Starting at FB 00:09:43 - Early side projects and book rec 00:17:05 - Being under leveled 00:18:55 - Staff (IC6) promo story 00:25:19 - Proximity to leadership learnings 00:29:36 - Scoping out work for 100s of engs 00:35:31 - Senior Staff (IC7) promo story 00:44:39 - How to find side projects 00:50:45 - Principal (IC8) promo story 00:54:20 - Building credibility in a new org 01:04:23 - Joining Anthropic 01:10:05 - Why Claude Code succeeded 01:15:56 - Claude Code use outside of code 01:17:22 - What he thinks of competition 01:22:57 - Advice for his…

Marius Schulz grew to a Senior Staff Engineer (IC7) at Instagram by redefining expectations three times (once for each promotion). We talked through each promotion and how he did it. There were also interesting learnings from when his promotion got blocked once even though he greatly exceeded expectations. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/instagram-senior-staff-eng-ic7-on • YouTube: https://youtu.be/OXJHfb_lZII • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00 - Intro 00:55 - Choosing his specialty 02:29 - Greatly exceeding expectations with no promo 08:04 - Senior promo 15:30 - Staff promo 24:43 - Leverage and IC4/5/6 way of solving problems 29:51 - Senior staff promo 44:29 - Career planning past IC7 47:32 - Did IC7+ expectations scare him 49:49 - Advice for his younger self 52:29 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘂𝘀: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariusschulz/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/mariusschulz/ • Threads:…

Jayendra Jog left Robinhood and raised $35m to start his own crypto startup (Sei Labs). Before he left, he got jaded about software engineering career ladders yet was coasting through promotions at Robinhood. I asked him about how he did that along with a bunch of questions about when to leave your job, how to raise money, and what to expect as a founder. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/quitting-robinhood-and-raising-35m?open=false • YouTube: https://youtu.be/f4eeoetb8t4 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:54 - Big tech internships 00:04:51 - Joining Robinhood 00:07:58 - Big tech vs startups discussion 00:10:16 - Getting jaded about Robinhood career growth 00:16:04 - Coasting and getting promoted 00:18:54 - Gamestop stories from the inside 00:22:34 - Leaving Robinhood 00:30:25 - Learnings from raising $35m 00:34:07 - What value does crypto provide? 00:37:47 - Learnings and when to leave 00:40:41 - Advice for…

Brian Attwell grew to Senior Staff at Uber by age 25. After that he left Uber to join CloudKitchens (Travis Kalanick’s current startup) and quickly became the CTO after his team doubled in size every 6 months. I asked him about how he did it. He also had a bunch of interesting takes about big tech and stories about Travis Kalanick and Steve Jobs. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/cloudkitchens-cto-on-intelligence • YouTube: https://youtu.be/egNtHu4q-vI • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:26 - Growth to Senior Staff at Uber 00:10:05 - Was it luck? 00:11:45 - Interviewing for IQ 00:18:02 - Intelligence and prioritization 00:22:19 - How his team doubled every 6 months 00:28:30 - Manager promos tied to scope 00:39:13 - Amazon and Google brutal honesty 00:43:39 - CloudKitchens behind the scenes 00:50:24 - Biggest career regret 00:54:17 - Travis Kalanick experiences 00:56:01 - Most impactful advice received 00:56:56…

Joakim Recht grew to a Distinguished Engineer at Uber and I asked him what it took to get there. We covered his full career including the project that got him promoted, what makes a great software engineer, and learnings from promo committees. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/uber-distinguished-eng-on-unfair • YouTube: https://youtu.be/feNh_ubBAMI • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0MX9PyeCzDhdlyRv6slwIX • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:56 - Distinguished promo project 00:19:07 - How to grow your influence 00:22:38 - Unfair promo story 00:33:09 - On delegation 00:39:05 - Why engs don’t trust management 00:47:58 - Politics as he grew 00:57:00 - How to pick mentees 01:03:22 - Why he left Uber 01:15:16 - Biggest Uber eng mistake 01:20:15 - Uber scandals 01:24:35 - Advice for younger self 01:26:14 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗝𝗼𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗺: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/recht/ 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻: •…

Ilya Grigorik grew to a Distinguished Engineer (VP-level role) at Shopify and I asked him what it took to get there. We covered his full career including the behind the scenes of his startup getting acquired by Google, his growth to Director at Google, and what it means to operate like a Distinguished engineer. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/distinguished-engineer-at-shopify • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0MX9PyeCzDhdlyRv6slwIX • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:45 - Thoughts on Waterloo 00:04:36 - Starting his own company 00:08:40 - Google acquisition story 00:14:04 - Joining Google 00:20:28 - Switching back to IC 00:26:42 - Principal+ Engineering at Shopify 00:40:09 - Career regrets 00:44:53 - Top career-impacting book 00:46:59 - Advice for younger self 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗹𝘆𝗮: • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@igrigorik • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/igrigorik/ • X/Twitter:…