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The Peterman Pod: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Ryan Peterman
Sharing the transparent career stories of technical people. Hosted by an ex-Staff engineer at Instagram
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- 3 days ago1h 28m
Brian Kernighan: Inside Bell Labs, The Best Programmer, Why C Won
Brian Kernighan is a former Bell Labs member of technical staff, co-author of the original C book, and the one who popularized “Hello World.” We talked about what Bell Labs was like and the stories behind all the famous tools that were built there.• 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-donePodcast links:• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMllOlxVgD0• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/e072-brian-kernighanThank 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: Intro What Bell Labs was and how he got hired Why so many inventions came from Bell Labs A day in the life at Bell Labs The most impressive people he worked with The AT&T film explaining Unix Why C was so influential How awk was created What he misses most about Bell Labs Are LLMs bad for computer science education His 1972 commit in the Go repo Grace Emlen, the fake Bell Labs employee Why he writes so many books His favorite and least favorite languages Advice for students and young people OutroWhere to find Brian:• Personal website: https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~bwk/• Princeton University faculty profile: https://www.cs.princeton.edu/people/profile/bwk• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_KernighanWhere 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/@ryanlpetermanReferenced in this episode:• UNIX: Making Computers Easier to Use: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvDZLjaCJuw• Brian Kernighan’s first Harvard CS50 lecture (1996): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ba1XFVy7qw• A Beautiful Mind: https://www.universalpicturesathome.com/movies/a-beautiful-mind• Shifts: Important Ideas in Computing: https://www.amazon.com/Shifts-Nine-Ideas-Revolutionized-Computing/dp/0262064294/• Labscam (Penn & Teller at Bell Labs, 1989): https://www.nokia.com/bell-labs/about/dennis-m-ritchie/labscam.html• Labscam video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnsmDNamd2g• Understanding the Digital World (new edition): https://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Digital-World-Computers-Internet/dp/0691288879
- 1 weeks ago53 min
The Story Behind Creating DNS | Paul Mockapetris
This interview is with Paul Mockapetris, the creator of the internet's Domain Name System (DNS). I talked to him about the story behind building it and certain design choices he made.• 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-donePodcast links:• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LT4iVeUoL18• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/e071-paul-mockapetrisThank 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: Intro What computing was like before DNS Why URLs are inverted How DNS works How he migrated the internet to DNS Why do companies host DNS servers What is an RFC How he got into computing Advice for his younger self OutroWhere to find Paul:• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_MockapetrisWhere 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/@ryanlpetermanReferenced in this episode:• Original DNS RFC 882: https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc882/• Original DNS RFC 883: https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc883/
- 2 weeks ago1h 1m
Scott Aaronson: The Mathocalypse, Will Intelligence Matter Anymore?
Scott Aaronson is one of the world's leading quantum computing researchers and spent two years at OpenAI working on AI safety. We talked about why he thinks the singularity has already begun for math, who gets credit when AI writes the proof, and whether intelligence will still matter once machines do the thinking.• 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-donePodcast links:• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORlscppGGh4• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/e070-scott-aaronsonThank 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: Intro Why he updated so hard on AI The people still denying AI progress The singularity has already begun for math Will human-driven math research survive Who gets credit for AI-written papers OpenAI's $15M Navier-Stokes proof What if AI proved P = NP Why AI is so good at finding counterexamples The goalposts keep moving Why AI disclosure matters in research The fake Monet experiment Why he blogs instead of getting rich Are AI labs racing too fast Will intelligence still matter Book recommendations Advice for students today Reacting live to a new AI result OutroWhere to find Scott:• Personal website: https://www.scottaaronson.com/• Blog — Shtetl-Optimized: https://scottaaronson.blog/• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_AaronsonWhere 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/@ryanlpetermanReferenced in this episode:• OpenAI's Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize solution: https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/32d9f210-8b73-45e0-91bc-82a30aef8a9a/navier-stokes.pdf• Rebecca Goldstein's The Mind-Body Problem: https://rebeccagoldstein.com/the-mind-body-problem-contemporary-american-fiction/• Andrew Hodges's Alan Turing: The Enigma: https://www.turing.org.uk/book/• The Man Who Knew Infinity: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Man-Who-Knew-Infinity/Robert-Kanigel/9781476763491• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76• Anthropic's subquadratic 3SUM result: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.06783
- 3 weeks ago34 min
Neetcode: Google vs Amazon, Programming Interviews, Quitting Big Tech
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-donePodcast 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-programmingThank 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: Intro Quitting Amazon after 2 months Testing Neetcode on Leetcode Memorizing vs deriving solutions and intelligence The story behind Neetcode Getting a job at Google How it was quitting big tech What he hated most about Google Top technical book recommendation Advice for his younger self OutroWhere to find Neetcode:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/navdeep-singh-3aaa14161/• Twitter/X: https://x.com/neetcode1• His website: https://neetcode.io/• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NeetCodeIO• GitHub: https://github.com/neetcode-gh• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/neetcodeio/• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@neetcode.io• Discord: https://discord.gg/ddjKRXPqtkWhere 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/@ryanlpetermanReferenced in this episode:• Neetcode's "Maybe Some People Should Just Give Up" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsoEipuwXiI• Designing Data-Intensive Applications: https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Data-Intensive-Applications-Reliable-Maintainable/dp/B08VL1BLHB
- Sep 28, 20263h 7m
Amazon VP: Questions On Corporate Politics But They Get Increasingly Darker | Ethan Evans
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-donePodcast 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-evansThank 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: Intro How to receive credit for your work Ways for quiet people to get visibility How to be trusted for top projects How to defend from others taking your project How to reject bad projects How to be first for promo How to handle managers that dislike career growth talk What if your manager is in the way Did he ever have overly political reports How to fire a bad manager What gives you leverage How to defend against peers undermining you What if everyone is good at politics How Jeff Bezos burned him for empire building How to retain your headcount Career recommendations for the current landscape How to avoid negative layoff optics How to develop executive presence How to network in a natural way How to network with powerful people How to learn hidden incentives What happens behind the scenes with HR Did he burn people to get ahead What he says to people who hate politics Top book recommendations on power dynamics How he would speedrun career growth today OutroWhere to find Ethan:• Personal website: https://www.ethanevans.com/• Newsletter: https://levelupwithethanevans.substack.com/• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EthanEvansVP• X/Twitter: https://x.com/EthanEvansVP• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ethanevansvpWhere 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/@ryanlpetermanReferenced in this episode:• Never Split the Difference: https://www.blackswanltd.com/never-split-the-difference• Leadership and Self-Deception: https://arbinger.com/bookstore/leadership-and-self-deception• The 48 Laws of Power: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/330912/the-48-laws-of-power-by-robert-greene/
- Sep 21, 202644 min
OpenAI & Meta Distinguished Eng (IC9): The Psychology Behind Tech Career Peaks | Philip Su
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-donePodcast 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-engThank 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: Intro Growth past IC9 Motivation changes over his career Asking to not be promoted What made it hard to sustain IC9 performance What motivated him outside of promos Is career advice useless Motivation after you've hit FIRE Meaning and fulfillment Top book recommendation What he would change OutroWhere to find Philip:• Substack newsletter: https://molochinations.substack.com/• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suphilip/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/philipsuWhere 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/@ryanlpetermanReferenced in this episode:• Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374715243/fourthousandweeks/
- Sep 14, 20261h 57m
Casey Muratori: Surprises In Computer History And Where Bad Code Comes From
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-donePodcast 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-computerThank 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, check them out at https://workos.com/Timestamps: Intro Digging into computer science history What shocked him Dijkstra was depressed The personal side of goto considered harmful The anatomy of a 35 year mistake Clean code horrible performance How to write high performance code Where bad code comes from Why design docs before code is a bad idea The only unbreakable law in software engineering How he got into programming Why he didnt work in big tech Should you work at a startup early on What video game engineering is like Why preventing recursion is reasonable Is vibe coding bad for the industry Technical reading recommendation Advice for his younger self OutroWhere to find Casey:• Website: https://caseymuratori.com/• Newsletter: https://www.computerenhance.com/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/cmuratori• GitHub: https://github.com/cmuratori• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MollyRocket• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/cmuratori.bsky.social• Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/molly_rocket• Handmade Network: https://handmade.network/m/cmuratori• Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casey_MuratoriWhere 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/@ryanlpetermanReferenced in this episode:• The Root of the Root of All Evil: https://computerenhance.com/theroot• The Big OOPS: Anatomy of a 35-Year Mistake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo84LFzx5nI• Edsger Dijkstra's "Notes on Structured Programming": https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD02xx/EWD249/EWD249.html• Donald Knuth's "Structured Programming with go to Statements": https://doi.org/10.1145/356635.356640• Edsger Dijkstra's "Go To Statement Considered Harmful": https://www.cs.utexas.edu/~EWD/transcriptions/EWD02xx/EWD215.html• Ivan Sutherland's Sketchpad thesis: https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-574.html• Clean Code, Horrible Performance: https://www.computerenhance.com/p/clean-code-horrible-performance• Where Does Bad Code Come From?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YpFGkG-u1w• The Only Unbreakable Law: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IUj1EZwpJY• Dijkstra letter's reference: https://medium.com/@acidflask/this-guys-arrogance-takes-your-breath-away-5b903624ca5f#.1rdj838x6
- Sep 7, 20261h 10m
How Anthropic Builds And How Engineering Will Change Soon | Thariq Shihipar
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-donePodcast 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-engineeringThank 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: Intro Onboarding at Anthropic Internal capabilities vs external perception Model vs Harness What percent of Anthropics changes are fully autonomous Computer use How to make the most out of your compute Loop engineering Where the industry will go soon Which model do Anthropic engineers use Is learning a particular model worth it Prompting tips for todays models How to get the models to do tasteful work How much of writing is done by AI at Anthropic Code ownership and maintenance at Anthropic How Anthropic prevents breakages Visibility and sharing your work Luck surface area example Should people still learn to code Advice for his younger self OutroWhere to find Thariq:• X/Twitter: https://x.com/trq212• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thariqshihipar/• Personal Website: https://www.thariq.io/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/@ryanlpetermanReferenced in this episode:• Anthropic's post on removing 80% of Claude Code's system prompt: https://claude.com/blog/the-new-rules-of-context-engineering-for-claude-5-generation-models
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Sharing the transparent career stories of technical people. Hosted by an ex-Staff engineer at Instagram
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