Dev Interrupted – Details, episodes & analysis

In our first-ever Friday edition, Andrew and Ben dive into the viral "Ralph Loop" phenomenon and discuss how simple bash loops and deterministic context allocation are changing the unit economics of code. They also explore Steve Yegge's chaotic "Gas Town" concept for orchestrating AI agents, debate whether AI is killing the individual contributor role, and share a laugh over a creepy link generator that challenges our trust in URLs. 

LinearB: Measure the impact of GitHub Copilot and Cursor

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• Follow Andrew
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Follow today's stories:

• Cowork: Claude Code for the rest of your work
• Gas Town Emergency User Manual
• Loom by Geoffrey Huntley
• AI Killed the Individual Contributor
• CreepyLink

OFFERS

• Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free.
• Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era.

LEARN ABOUT LINEARB

• AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production.
• AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance.
• AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil.
• MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.

Geoffrey Huntley argues that while software development as a profession is effectively dead, software engineering is more alive—and critical—than ever before. In this episode, the creator of the viral "Ralph" agent joins us to explain how simple bash loops and deterministic context allocation are fundamentally changing the unit economics of code. We dive deep into the mechanics of managing "context rot," avoiding "compaction," and why building your own "Gas Town" of autonomous agents is the only way to survive the coming rift.

LinearB: Measure the impact of GitHub Copilot and Cursor

Follow the show:

• Subscribe to our Substack 
• Follow us on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
• Leave us a Review

Follow the hosts:

• Follow Andrew
• Follow Ben
• Follow Dan

Follow today's guest(s):

• Geoffrey’s Website & Blog: ghuntley.com
• Build Your Own Coding Agent Workshop: ghuntley.com/agent 
• Ralph Wiggum as a Software Engineer: ghuntley.com/ralph
• Steve Yegge’s "Welcome to Gas Town": Read on Medium
• The "Cursed" Programming Language: github.com/ghuntley/cursed

OFFERS

• Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free.
• Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era.

LEARN ABOUT LINEARB

• AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production.
• AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance.
• AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil.
• MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.

AI is forcing engineering leaders to become part-CFO, part-governance expert, and part-business strategist. Are you ready for the shift? 

We're joined by Lake Dai, a globally recognized AI expert, professor at Carnegie Mellon, and founder of Sancus Ventures, to explore the new operating strategies required in an AI-first era. She explains why AI has evolved from a simple tool to a core business metric that leaders are held accountable for on earnings calls. This new reality introduces massive new compute costs—sometimes 30-50% of OpEx—forcing leaders to adopt the financial foresight of a CFO to forecast and justify spending.

Beyond the balance sheet, Lake identifies AI governance as the biggest blind spot for most leaders today, outlining the urgent need for an AI handbook to manage unit, system, and ethical risks. This strategic shift also reshapes the engineering org itself, from managing hybrid teams of humans and agents to the need for new training environments, almost like "AI flight simulators." This episode is an essential briefing on these new complexities, all centered on Lake's most urgent advice: in a world moving this fast, the best strategy is to slow down and focus on the fundamentals.

LinearB: Your AI productivity journey starts here

Follow the show:

• Subscribe to our Substack 
• Follow us on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
• Leave us a Review

Follow the hosts:

• Follow Andrew
• Follow Ben
• Follow Dan

Follow today's guest(s):

• Connect with Lake on LinkedIn
• Subscribe to Lake’s Substack: LakeD-AI Unbundled
• Learn more about: Sancus Ventures

OFFERS

• Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free.
• Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era.

LEARN ABOUT LINEARB

• AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production.
• AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance.
• AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil.
• MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.

What does protecting the more than 100 million developers on GitHub’s platform take? And what can your team learn from GitHub’s impressive security posture? 

On this week’s episode, co-host Conor Bronsdon is joined by Jacob DePriest, VP and Deputy Chief Security Officer at GitHub. Join them as they discuss Jacob's journey from the NSA to GitHub, delving into how AI impacts the security space and the future of Copilot's ever-expanding capabilities.

The conversation also explores how enhancing customer trust, investing in diversity within security teams, and bringing security to where developers work are critical in improving security industry-wide.

Whether you’re protecting dozens of users or millions, Jacob has practical advice for engineering leaders everywhere.

Show Notes:

• Get your free DORA dashboard: DORA Metrics. 100% Free. Forever.
• Vote for Dev Interrupted on the DevOps Dozen website: Best DevOps-Related Podcast Series

OFFERS

• Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free.
• Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era.

LEARN ABOUT LINEARB

• AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production.
• AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance.
• AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil.
• MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.

We are in the middle of a crisis of commitment in the workplace – 53% of managers are burnt out, 1 in 3 employees leave their jobs in the first 90 days, and an estimated $7.8 trillion in lost productivity is due to poor organizational fit.

On this week’s Dev Interrupted, we uncover the keys to a thriving workplace as co-host Conor Bronsdon is joined by Dr. Andre Martin, a seasoned organizational psychologist and author of the book 'Wrong Fit, Right Fit'.

Together, they share strategies to discern whether a job will be a right fit or a wrong fit and delve into how companies can align their structures with individual preferences to enhance employee engagement and productivity. This insightful conversation offers practical strategies for leaders and individuals alike to identify and cultivate the right fit for long-term success and fulfillment in their careers.

Order your copy today: Wrong Fit, Right Fit: Why How We Work Matters More Than Ever

Show Notes:

• Check out André's newsletter: Monday Matters
• Get your free DORA dashboard: DORA Metrics. 100% Free. Forever.
• Vote for Dev Interrupted on the DevOps Dozen website: Best DevOps-Related Podcast Series

OFFERS

• Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free.
• Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era.

LEARN ABOUT LINEARB

• AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production.
• AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance.
• AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil.
• MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.

What trends do engineering leaders need to pay attention to, and how will they impact your teams in 2024?

This week, co-host Conor Bronsdon is joined by LinearB co-founder and CEO Ori Keren to discuss his predictions for next year. 

Together they discuss why dev team metrics are here to stay, why Ori doesn’t like the term ‘developer productivity’ [hint: he prefers ‘engineering efficiency’], how the rise of gen AI written code will create a problem for development pipelines everywhere, and the potential friction points inherent to remote work.

Ori concludes the episode by offering advice to engineering leaders and startup founders on the need to adopt a metrics program or risk getting left behind. 

Show Notes:

• Get your free DORA dashboard: DORA Metrics. 100% Free. Forever.
• Vote for Dev Interrupted on the DevOps Dozen website: Best DevOps-Related Podcast Series

OFFERS

• Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free.
• Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era.

LEARN ABOUT LINEARB

• AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production.
• AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance.
• AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil.
• MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.

The story behind why some organizations win big and keep on winning.

This week, co-host Conor Bronsdon interviews Dr. Steven J. Spear, renowned MIT senior lecturer, founder, and author, to discuss the core principles from Dr. Spear's new book with Gene Kim, "Wiring The Winning Organization".

They delve into why some organizations consistently outperform others, highlighting how the best organizations create systems that enhance problem-solving through slowification, simplification, and amplification, aligning processes with cognitive strengths.

With case studies from NASA's Apollo missions to Apple's smartphone market dominance, the book is a must-read for those looking to harness collective ingenuity for exceptional achievements."

Show Notes:

• Order your copy today: Wiring The Winning Organization
• Vote for Dev Interrupted on the DevOps Dozen website: Best DevOps-Related Podcast Series

OFFERS

• Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free.
• Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era.

LEARN ABOUT LINEARB

• AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production.
• AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance.
• AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil.
• MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.

With all of the hype around the future impacts of AI, it can be easy to overlook existing solutions that solve some of the biggest pain points faced by your engineering team. 

On this week’s episode of Dev Interrupted, co-host Conor Bronsdon and LinearB’s Head of Developer Relations, Ben Lloyd Pearson, discuss programmable workflows and how you can apply policy-as-code principles. 

Recorded live at the DevOps Enterprise Summit, Conor and Ben explore how gitStream’s programmable workflows can reduce manual effort, facilitate faster feedback loops, and improve developer experience.

They also touch on the gitStream's seamless integrations and its future enhancements.

Show Notes:

• Unblock your code reviews with gitStream: https://linearb.io/platform/gitstream

OFFERS

• Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free.
• Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era.

LEARN ABOUT LINEARB

• AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production.
• AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance.
• AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil.
• MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.

Ever wonder what it takes to make it to the boardroom? This week's Dev Interrupted is your invitation to the table.

Join us as Conor Bronsdon puts host Dan Lines in the hot seat to uncover the secrets to rising through the ranks—from IC to engineering leader with a voice in the board meetings. Together, they discuss balancing tough decisions, team well-being, and how to maintain your technical edge while being able to speak in business terms to your CEO.

Strap in for the grand finale of our series—it’s your backstage pass to the boardroom!

Show Notes:

• Register today: DORA & LInearB Webinar Nov. 8

OFFERS

• Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free.
• Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era.

LEARN ABOUT LINEARB

• AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production.
• AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance.
• AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil.
• MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.

Staying on top of emerging trends is difficult enough, so what should you do when your whole career feels, well, stuck? 

In this week's episode of Dev Interrupted, join co-host Conor Bronsdon and Charles Max Wood, CEO of Top End Devs, as they delve into overcoming career stagnation for developers. They discuss strategies to reignite momentum in your career, highlighting the importance of effectively showcasing your work, building strong networks, and committing to continuous learning. 

Whether you're a newcomer seeking direction or a seasoned professional aiming to stay competitive, this conversation offers valuable insights and practical tools to confidently navigate today's complex tech landscape and get 'unstuck' in your career. 

Show Notes:

• Register today: DORA & LInearB Webinar Nov. 8
• Learn more at topenddevs.com 
• Follow Chuck on Twitter

OFFERS

• Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free.
• Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era.

LEARN ABOUT LINEARB

• AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production.
• AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance.
• AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil.
• MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.