Changelog Interviews

Join Kendall Miller, a vibrant tech advisor also known for selling whiskey & gin, as he shares his insights on navigating the tech industry. He emphasizes the importance of personality in sales, debunks tech founders' misconceptions, and advocates for understanding market needs. Dive into discussions about his innovative whiskey venture and how Notion aids collaboration. Kendall also explores the rise of celebrity spirits and the creative integration of AI in branding, blending humor with valuable entrepreneurial wisdom.

Anthony Eden, Founder and CEO of DNSimple, shares his insights from over 15 years in the domain industry. He discusses the complexities of top-level domains, including the challenges of launching and marketing them. Eden highlights the critical evolution of DNS management and its impact on internet security, while also exploring the role of AI in enhancing user experience. The conversation touches on sustainable business growth, the balance of simplicity and client demands, and the vital importance of customer support in the tech landscape.

Stephan Ewen, Founder and CEO of Restate.dev, dives into the cutting-edge world of resilient applications. He discusses idempotency, stressing its role in preventing data duplication, especially in sensitive transactions like banking. The conversation also explores durable execution in distributed systems and the importance of maintaining state during failures. Ewen shares insights on modern cloud platforms and their impact on operational efficiency, while addressing challenges in chatbot development with asynchronous interactions. Perfect for tech enthusiasts!

Joran Dirk Greef, the mastermind behind TigerBeetle, a revolutionary distributed database optimized for financial transactions, shares his journey from identifying flaws in traditional databases to developing a solution that achieves astonishing speed. He delves into the architecture that allows for significant improvements over MySQL and Postgres, touches on the advantages of the Zig programming language, and discusses the importance of open-source practices in a competitive landscape. Joran also illuminates the need for tailored solutions in fintech, enhancing transaction efficiency for underserved markets.

Lara Hogan, a management coach and author of 'Resilient Management,' shares her expertise on leading engineers. She discusses the essential roles of leaders, such as mentoring, coaching, and giving feedback. Lara emphasizes the power of sponsorship in professional development, especially for underrepresented groups. The importance of adaptability in leadership is highlighted, along with the psychological dynamics of workplace relationships. She also addresses the challenges engineers face in transitioning to management roles, reinforcing that effective leadership skills can be learned.

Ilya Grigorik, a distinguished engineer at Shopify, dives deep into the complexities of securing e-commerce checkouts from threats like digital skimming. He highlights the importance of PCI compliance, particularly the transition to version 4, and shares insights on managing scripts safely during checkout. Ilya also discusses innovative techniques like sandboxing and Content Security Policies to enhance security without sacrificing performance. Tune in to discover how technology is evolving to keep online shopping safe and efficient!

Beyang Liu discusses how AI is revolutionizing software development, with Sourcegraph's tools like Cody enhancing team efficiency. The conversation dives into challenges of managing large codebases and the psychological impact of AI on productivity. From automating code reviews to streamlining repetitive tasks, AI is making coding more enjoyable. They also explore the complexities of scaling teams, stressing the importance of balancing size with efficiency. Join the discussion about the future of coding in a rapidly evolving tech landscape!

Antirez has returned to Redis! Yes, Salvatore Sanfilippo (aka Antirez), the creator of Redis has returned to Redis and he joined us to share the backstory on Redis, what’s going on with the tech and the company, the possible (likely) move back to open source via the AGPL license, the new possibilities of AI and vector embeddings in Redis, and some good ’ol LLM inference discussions. Join the discussionChangelog++ members get a bonus 5 minutes at the end of this episode and zero ads. Join today!Sponsors:Augment Code – Developer AI that uses deep understanding of your large codebase and how you build software to deliver personalized code suggestions and insights. Augment provides relevant, contextualized code right in your IDE or Slack. It transforms scattered knowledge into code or answers, eliminating time spent searching docs or interrupting teammates. Retool – The low-code platform for developers to build internal tools — Some of the best teams out there trust Retool…Brex, Coinbase, Plaid, Doordash, LegalGenius, Amazon, Allbirds, Peloton, and so many more – the developers at these teams trust Retool as the platform to build their internal tools. Try it free at retool.com/changelog Temporal – Build invincible applications. Manage failures, network outages, flaky endpoints, long-running processes and more, ensuring your workflows never fail. Register for Replay in London, March 3-5 to break free from the status quo. Fly.io – The home of Changelog.com — Deploy your apps close to your users — global Anycast load-balancing, zero-configuration private networking, hardware isolation, and instant WireGuard VPN connections. Push-button deployments that scale to thousands of instances. Check out the speedrun to get started in minutes. Featuring:Salvatore Sanfilippo – Website, GitHub, XAdam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, XJerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, XShow Notes: Deep Seek on Ollama Claude Sonnet 3.7 is out! <antirez> - We are destroying software Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Anurag Goel, Founder/CEO of Render and former Stripe engineer, dives into the challenges and triumphs of building a cloud platform for application developers. He shares insights on their impressive $80M funding without need and their mission to streamline cloud complexities. The conversation touches on Render's growth, the idea of 'two pizza teams' for collaboration, and the critical role of resilience in application development. Anurag also discusses the future of cloud infrastructure, embracing AI, and how to adapt to evolving developer needs.

David Crawshaw, co-founder of Tailscale and expert in large language models, shares his year-long journey integrating LLMs into programming. He discusses their productivity boosts and practical benefits, reflecting on the evolving role of AI tools in development workflows. The conversation also touches on challenges in customizing LLMs for user needs, the synergy between Go and LLMs, and the psychological nuances of engaging with AI. Crawshaw offers valuable insights into the broader implications of adopting this technology in programming.