Explore every episode of the podcast The Marco Show

Casey Muratori (programmer, educator, performance advocate) joins Marco to explore why modern software feels so slow, even with today’s powerful hardware. From the infamous Windows Terminal controversy to game server limits, billion-row challenges in Java, and his unfiltered take on AI. This episode dives deep into performance, programming culture, and what developers should really care about.

💡 Topics in this episode:

• Why software performance matters (and how to avoid “ridiculously slow” code)
• The “excuse parade” developers use when things lag
• Expectations for game server concurrency
• Parsing a billion rows in Java: lessons in performance
• Containers, cloud, and performance myths
• AI: helpful tool or unethical theft?
• Why Casey would get rid of Python

New episodes every other Wednesday. Subscribe for more deep, developer-focused conversations.

Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://youtu.be/apREl0KmTdQ

Jodie Burchell (Data Scientist) joins Marco to cut through the hype around large language models. From GPT and Gemini to Claude and beyond — how do you really choose the right one? Benchmarks, context length, hallucinations, ethics, and AGI predictions — all on the table.

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Which LLM should I use for my work?” — this conversation will help you see past the hype.

💡 Topics in this episode:

• How to compare LLMs for different developer tasks
• Enhanced vs adaptive thinking (is it just branding?)
• Corporate considerations: cost, privacy, and hosting
• The ethics and lawsuits shaping AI’s future
• Predictions for AGI

⏱️Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Teaser

(00:00:37) Intro

(00:01:08) From PhD and academia to data science at JetBrains

(00:02:31) Early NLP versus modern LLMs

(00:04:46) From LSTMs to Transformers (BERT and GPT)

(00:08:49) The DeepSeek surprise and model scaling limits

(00:12:25) Benchmarks, assessments, and confusion for end users

(00:17:18) Choosing models in practice

(00:21:10) “Thinking” models and reasoning limits

(00:23:48) Do you really need the newest model?

(00:25:58) Hallucinations and how to handle them

(00:28:30) Agents and RAG: real-world applications

(00:32:55) Vibe coding: hype versus reality

(00:37:46) What are AI agents? Tools, MCP, and multi-agent apps

(00:43:01) Self-hosting versus proprietary models

(00:45:20) Fine-tuning explained and Hugging Face

(00:50:17) Building reliable AI apps (tests, A/B, traces)

(00:55:33) Privacy, company data, and self-hosting concerns

(00:58:37) Ethical issues: data sourcing and labor

(01:04:23) Environmental costs and the push for smaller models

(01:06:26) Juniors, skills, and the future of coding with AI

(01:09:15) Learning fundamentals in the age of LLMs

(01:13:24) AGI: definitions, timelines, and Jodie’s twenty euro bet

(01:20:03) Rapid-fire questions: slang, food, and culture

(01:25:47) Giveaway

(01:26:26) Outro

New episodes every other Wednesday. Subscribe for more deep, developer-focused conversations.

Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://jb.gg/themarco.show-youtube

Follow Jodie Burchell:

LinkedIn: jodieburchell

Bluesky: @t-redactyl.bsky.social

Mastodon: @t_redactyl@fosstodon.org

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