Benevolent Dictatorship (with Mat, Noah, Sofia, and Chris)

Dead Code

38:16

Many of us are entering the new year with a similar goal — to build community and connect more with others. To kick off season five, Priya Parker shares ideas on how to be the host with the most. An expert on building connection, Priya is the author of “The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters.” Whether it's a book club, wedding, birthday or niche-and-obscurely themed party, Priya and Chris talk about how to create meaningful and fun experiences for all of your guests — including yourself. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts . For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts Want to help shape TED’s shows going forward? Fill out our survey here ! Learn more about TED Next at ted.com/futureyou Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

about a year ago 47:00

MP3•Episode home

In this episode, host Jared Norman and SuperGood teammates and guests Mat Harvard, Sofia Besenski, Noah Silvera, and Chris Todorov recap their experiences at Rails World 2024. They discuss the unique venue in Toronto, key takeaways from David Heinemeier Hansson's keynote on making Rails more accessible, and the shift towards on-prem solutions over services like Heroku. The panel highlights technical talks on scaling Postgres, Shopify’s automated Rails upgrade process, and debates on Kamal 2.0’s proxy features. They also explore Rails’ future direction, technical debt management, and the Rails boot process.

Links:

Dead Code Podcast Links:

Jared’s Links:

#Tech #Jared Norman #Software Development #Programming #Software Engineering #Software #Computer Science

Episode Transcript

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46 episodes

Dead Code

Benevolent Dictatorship (with Mat, Noah, Sofia, and Chris)

Dead Code

published about a year ago

Links:

Dead Code Podcast Links:

Jared’s Links:

#Tech #Jared Norman #Software Development #Programming #Software Engineering #Software #Computer Science

Episode Transcript

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

46 episodes

All episodes

Dead Code

1
Coffee Grindcore (with Alan Ridlehoover) 38:47

7 days ago38:47

38:47

In this episode of Dead Code , Jared talks with Alan Ridlehoover, Senior Engineering Manager at Cisco Meraki, about managing software complexity through clear abstractions and thoughtful design. Using a metaphor of a vending-style coffee machine, Alan explains how complexity often arises not from algorithms but from code that’s hard to understand due to excessive abstraction or poor structure. He emphasizes focusing on the readability of what’s directly in front of you, using tools like flog and the ABC metric to quantify complexity, while also trusting gut instinct and applying heuristics like Sandi Metz’s five-line rule. Alan discusses minimizing over-engineering, favoring well-named private methods over inline comments, and stresses that code and commit messages—not comments—should tell the story. He also introduces “rehydration,” the process of adding back duplication to reveal better abstractions, helping developers make their code more maintainable and easier to change over time. Links: Flog (Ruby) ABC Metric Gerrit DRY Principle (Don’t Repeat Yourself) Domain-Driven Design (DDD) Polymorphism Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Dead Code

1
Wish Granted (with Scott Werner) 27:52

14 days ago27:52

27:52

In this episode of Dead Code , Jared chats with Scott Werner, CEO of Sublayer, about his experimental AI web framework, Monkey’s Paw—a Ruby-based tool that uses natural language prompts to generate web pages, embracing LLM “hallucinations” as a creative feature rather than a flaw. Designed to bring back the playful spirit of early Web 2.0, Monkey’s Paw allows developers to prototype ideas quickly and unexpectedly, often resulting in delightful, unintended features like auto-generated tooltips. Scott explains how the project reflects a broader shift toward ephemeral, AI-assisted development and introduces Sublayer, his minimal agent framework built for AI generation. Both Jared and Scott agree that while LLMs may not produce enduring art, they offer fun, whimsy, and new ways to experiment in coding, highlighting how these tools can be valuable outside of pure productivity or profit-driven goals. Links: Monkey’s Paw Sublayer Artificial Ruby Works on My Machine (Substack) Websim TRICK Competition Rails Generators PowerPoint Copilot Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Dead Code

1
Pickaxe Resurrection (with Noel Rappin) 39:13

21 days ago39:13

39:13

Short-Form Summary: In this episode of Dead Code , host Jared chats with Noel Rappin, Staff Engineer at Chime and co-author of the updated Programming Ruby (“The Pickaxe Book”), about revitalizing Ruby’s most iconic reference. Rappin explains that despite claims Ruby is “dead,” it’s still widely used by startups and major companies like GitHub and Shopify. He took on the update to bridge the gap between Ruby 2.0 and 3.3, modernizing the book to reflect new features like pattern matching and changes in the ecosystem, while keeping it relevant for today’s developers, many of whom are coming from JavaScript, Python, or Java. They discuss the balance between Ruby’s flexible syntax and emerging norms via tools like RuboCop, the cautious use of metaprogramming, and how Ruby’s expressive power still stands out. Rappin hints at a future Ruby 4 update and encourages developers to embrace Ruby’s strengths, especially for teams valuing agility and clarity. Links: Noel Rappin Dave Thomas Programming Ruby (The Pickaxe Book) why’s (poignant) Guide to Ruby Bundler RuboCop StandardRB Ractors Pattern Matching in Ruby Sorbet RBS Steep Dry-types Sinatra RSpec Concurrent Ruby Fibers Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Dead Code

1
Undefined and Unforgiven (with Joel Drapper and Lucian Ghinda) 43:59

28 days ago43:59

43:59

In this episode of Dead Code , Jared is joined by Lucian and returning guest Joel to debate a classic Ruby dilemma: whether to access instance variables directly or use getter methods. Lucian advocates for getters, especially in large, fast-changing codebases, arguing they help catch subtle bugs and improve maintainability, as well as insights drawn from his time at Cookpad and the Short Ruby newsletter. Joel, while appreciating the clarity and performance of direct access, introduces his gem strict_ivars , which raises runtime errors for undefined variables, offering a hybrid solution that improves safety without sacrificing flexibility. The conversation expands into the future of Ruby developer experience, discussing AST-based tooling, the role of testing, and how small, intentional coding choices can add up to more resilient and readable software. Links: Short Ruby Newsletter Show Ruby YouTube Channel Joel Draper’s Website strict_ivars Gem Joel on Bluesky Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby (POODR) by Sandi Metz Prism Bootsnap ruby-require-hooks by Vladimir Dementyev AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) Modified Condition/Decision Coverage (MCDC) – advanced testing technique Ruby Keyword Arguments Cookpad Plane Shopify Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Dead Code

1
Poisoning the Well (with Heydon Pickering) 37:34

5 weeks ago37:34

37:34

In this episode of Dead Code, Jared interviews Heydon Pickering about his satirical strategy to sabotage AI web crawlers by generating nonsense versions of his blog posts. Using Eleventy and JS DOM, Heydon replaces keywords in his content with absurd alternatives from a static lexicon, creating grammatically broken, jargon-filled text that wastes crawler resources without harming his SEO. Frustrated by how LLMs scrape web content without consent, he frames his approach as both a protest and a creative, Dadaist rebellion against exploitative tech norms. While the method won’t cripple AI models, it reflects a broader resistance to the unchecked harvesting of human-created content. Links: “Poisoning the Well” (Heydon’s article) “Please Stop Externalizing Your Costs Directly In My Face” – The article that partly inspired Heydon’s efforts to push back against LLM scraping. Heydon’s Blog Webbed Briefs (Heydon’s video series) Eleventy (11ty) JS DOM robots.txt nofollow attribute Dadaism Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Dead Code

1
Deterministic Simulation (with Stevan) 28:27

6 weeks ago28:27

28:27

In this episode of Dead Code, Jared talks with Stevan about building reliable distributed systems using Erlang-inspired design patterns. Stevan shares how his background in functional programming and formal verification led him to simulation testing—a deterministic approach to testing distributed systems that avoids the flakiness of traditional CI environments. He emphasizes that Erlang’s true innovation lies not in lightweight processes, but in its structured behaviors (like gen_server and supervisor), which make systems easier to reason about, test, and verify. These behaviors support a more disciplined approach to concurrency, enabling reproducible fault injection and better simulation frameworks. Stevan advocates for programming languages that natively support deterministic testing and model checking, suggesting that the future of distributed systems lies in building on these structured, verifiable foundations. Links: Stevan’s Blog Erlang Elixir Agda Idris TLA+ Roc Jepsen Antithesis BEAM Let it crash philosophy Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Dead Code

1
Brutality of Behaviour (with Carson Gross) 45:58

7 weeks ago45:58

45:58

In this episode of Dead Code, Jared interviews Carson Gross, creator of HTMX, about the principle of Locality of Behavior (LoB) and its role in web development. Carson explains that HTMX enhances HTML rather than replacing it like modern JavaScript frameworks, offering a simpler, hypermedia-driven approach ideal for use cases like e-commerce. He critiques the traditional emphasis on Separation of Concerns, arguing that keeping behavior close to markup improves maintainability and avoids “spooky action at a distance.” Carson acknowledges trade-offs between LoB, DRY, and SoC, emphasizing the importance of context-based decision-making. He and Jared also discuss broader software trends, advocating for deeper modules, simpler APIs, and a pragmatic, less ideological approach to coding as the industry evolves. Links: HTMX Website HTMX Essays (especially Locality of Behavior and When to Use Hypermedia) grugbrain.dev Hypermedia Systems Book Richard Gabriel’s “Worse Is Better” Essay Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) John Ousterhout’s A Philosophy of Software Design The Uncle Bob vs. John Ousterhout Argument Big Sky Software (Carson’s Company) Hyperscript Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Dead Code

1
GOTO Precedence Hell (with Noratrieb) 28:55

8 weeks ago28:55

28:55

In this episode of Dead Code, Jared chats with Nora, a Rust contributor, about operator precedence and the trade-offs between code clarity and conciseness across programming languages. Nora, inspired by her blog post “ Don’t Play the Precedence Game,” explains how languages like C and Rust handle operator order differently, particularly around equality and bitwise operations, which can lead to subtle, hard-to-spot bugs. She advocates for using parentheses generously to make intent explicit, even if some consider it “noisy,” and highlights how tools like linters and formatters approach optional syntax differently. They also touch on Ruby’s permissive style, Lisp’s avoidance of precedence via prefix notation, and broader lessons for language design—ultimately agreeing that clarity should win when it matters, and that different languages cater to different developer mindsets. Links: “Don’t Play the Precedence Game” Rust C Programming Language Ruby Lisp Go Rescript rustfmt Clippy Prettier Nora’s Website Nora’s Mastodon Nora’s GitHub Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Dead Code

1
Cursed Return (with Nicole Tietz-Sokolskaya) 32:14

9 weeks ago32:14

32:14

In this episode of Dead Code, Jared speaks with software engineer Nicole Tietz-Sokolskaya about the ethical complexities of large language models (LLMs). Nicole shares her mixed experiences with LLMs—finding brief personal value but little long-term usefulness in her work—and critiques their environmental impact, reliance on questionable training data, and potential to concentrate power among major tech companies. She raises concerns about consent, bias, and the quality of generated code, while also acknowledging LLMs’ potential in accessibility and trust and safety roles. Ultimately, both Nicole and Jared advocate for a values-driven approach to technology, urging developers to critically evaluate the tools they use and the broader implications of their choices. Links: Mastodon: nicole@tietz.social Nicole’s Bandcamp Can I Ethically Use LLMs? Talon Voice Software Recurse Center Deconstruct Conf AMP Project Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Dead Code

1
Frozen to Death (with Kevlin Henney) 54:47

11 weeks ago54:47

54:47

In this episode of Dead Code, Jared talks with Kevlin Henney about the importance of immutability in software development, particularly as a strategy for reducing bugs related to state and concurrency. Kevlin explains that while many programming languages default to mutable state, treating state change as a privilege—not a right—can lead to more maintainable, less error-prone code. He discusses how immutability strengthens encapsulation, simplifies reasoning about systems, and avoids issues like race conditions and deadlocks, especially in multi-threaded environments. Kevlin also emphasizes that these design choices are architectural, not just implementation details, and that teams benefit from shared philosophies around state management. The conversation ties into broader programming culture and offers practical insights for developers, especially those working in languages like Ruby, where mutability is common but evolving. Links: Kevlin Henney’s article – “Restrict Mutability of State” Book – 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know Open source repo with contributions Overflow collection curated by Shirish Padalkar (includes the “Restrict Mutability of State” essay) RubyConf Mini Providence Talk – Immutable Data Structures RailsConf Talk – Immutable Objects in Practice @Kevlin on Bluesky @Kevlin@mastodon.social Kevlin Henney on LinkedIn Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Dead Code

1
Pattern Imprisonment (with Joan Westenberg) 40:50

12 weeks ago40:50

40:50

In this episode of Dead Code, journalist Joan Westenberg joins host Jared to explore the political and ethical consequences of our tech choices, advocating for decentralized, open-source platforms over corporate-controlled ecosystems like Google and Meta. Joan shares her path from tech journalism to founding The Index, a reader-supported publication free from ads and investor influence, driven by a DIY punk ethos inspired by bands like Fugazi. She critiques the monopolization of the internet, the erosion of data privacy (especially for EU users), and the complicity of tech giants in supporting authoritarian politics. Emphasizing the power of small, intentional decisions, Joan urges listeners to resist cynicism, adopt “pragmatic meliorism,” and choose tools and platforms that align with their values—even if it’s harder—because incremental change still matters. Links: The Index Joan Westenberg’s Website Ghost Mastodon Pixelfed Lemmy Fairphone Murena / /e/OS Vivaldi Qwant Ecosia Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Dead Code

1
Ordinary Corrupt Memory Love (with Jean Boussier (byroot)) 33:25

13 weeks ago33:25

33:25

In this episode of Dead Code, host Jared Norman speaks with Jean Boussier, a key contributor to the Ruby community and Shopify engineer, about the challenges of concurrency in Ruby, particularly the Global VM Lock (GVL). Jean explains that while the GVL was originally implemented to simplify Ruby’s design, it now limits parallel execution, sparking debate on whether it should be removed. He argues that many Ruby applications are more CPU-bound than previously thought and suggests improving Ruby’s thread scheduler as a more practical short-term solution rather than eliminating the GVL entirely. The discussion also explores Ractors, Ruby’s experimental approach to parallelism, which remains unstable and impractical for most applications. Jean envisions a future where Ractors become more viable, gradually leading to broader concurrency improvements. The episode wraps up with insights on profiling tools and the evolving landscape of Ruby performance optimization. Links: Jean Boussier’s Blog Jean’s GitHub Ivo Anjo’s GVL Profiling Talk (RubyConf) Ivo Anjo’s GVL Profiling Tool Jean’s Blog Post: “So, You Want to Remove the GVL?” Jean’s Blog Post: “The Mythical IO-Bound Rails App” Ruby Ractors Documentation Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Dead Code

1
All Models Are Wrong (with James Gayfer) 26:23

14 weeks ago26:23

26:23

In this episode of Dead Code, Jared interviews James Gayfer about data modeling and the challenges of structuring databases effectively. James, who prefers raw SQL over ORMs, explains how many database models merely mirror table structures, leading to inefficient APIs and excessive data fetching. He discusses the concept of complete versus incomplete data models, emphasizing that completeness depends on an application’s needs at a given time. They explore trade-offs between overly simplistic models that require frequent queries and overly complex ones that attempt to replicate real-world relationships in unnecessary detail. James advocates for designing domain models thoughtfully, using patterns like repositories to maintain consistency while keeping data retrieval manageable. Ultimately, he encourages developers to embrace iteration, rethink their models as needed, and accept that all models are wrong, but some are useful. Links: James Gayfer’s Blog James Gayfer’s Mastodon profile SQLx library for Rust Repository Pattern Hanami Framework Phoenix Framework Ecto Hotwire All models are wrong, but some are useful Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Dead Code

1
Permadeath (with Roguelike Radio) 50:44

15 weeks ago50:44

50:44

In this episode of Dead Code, Jared explores the world of roguelike game development with guests Mark R. Johnson and Darren Grey from Roguelike Radio, discussing the history, appeal, and technical challenges of the genre. They dive into the upcoming Seven-Day Roguelike Challenge, where developers create a game in a week, emphasizing the importance of procedural generation, permadeath, and strategic mastery. The conversation covers how roguelikes have evolved from classic ASCII-based dungeon crawlers to modern iterations like FTL and The Binding of Isaac, attracting both players and programmers due to their complexity and emergent gameplay. Darren and Mark share advice for aspiring developers, urging them to keep their projects small and focused while embracing the creative possibilities of procedural content. Links: Seven-Day Roguelike Challenge (7DRL) on itch.io Roguelike Radio Podcast Roguelike Dev Community on Reddit Roguelikes Community on Reddit Mark R. Johnson’s Game (Ultima Ratio Regum) Mark R. Johnson’s Twitter (X) Mark R. Johnson’s Bluesky Darren Grey’s Bluesky Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

Dead Code

1
Lethal Dependency Injection (with Tim Riley) 45:50

16 weeks ago45:50