Tech Lead Journal

Andrew Richard Brown, author of "Taming Your Dragon: Addressing Your Technical Debt," explores how technical debt stems from trade-off decisions influenced by human biases rather than being purely technical issues. He introduces the Technical Debt Onion Model, illustrating the layers of impact from cognitive biases to systemic problems. Brown emphasizes that emotions often drive decisions, complicating technical debt further. He advocates for using storytelling and strategic commitments to combat detrimental choices and discusses the dual impact of AI on technical debt.

Emmanuel Maggiori, an AI expert and author, dives into the pitfalls of AI in this insightful discussion. He explains why large language models (LLMs) can excel yet fail dramatically, particularly when handling basic tasks. Emmanuel details the common reasons behind AI project failures, emphasizing the importance of realistic AI adoption in businesses. He also highlights the concept of hallucinations in AI and shares advice for engineers to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving landscape. His perspective helps demystify the tech while grounding expectations.

John Willis, an influential DevOps expert and co-author of The DevOps Handbook, delves into applying Deming's System of Profound Knowledge to today's challenges, especially in AI. He explores Deming's four lenses—knowledge theory, systems thinking, variation understanding, and psychology—in managing complexity. The conversation addresses the dangers of polymorphic AI, the importance of treating AI as 'alien cognition,' and how historical incidents highlight the cost of ignored alerts. John also emphasizes fostering a learning culture in organizations as they navigate AI adoption.

Honey Mittal, CEO and co-founder of Locofy.ai, dives into the exciting intersection of design and engineering powered by AI. He discusses how Locofy transforms Figma designs into front-end code, addressing why traditional AI struggles with visual design. With a focus on the emergence of 'design engineers,' Honey reveals key insights on automating UI code and the significance of design structure. He shares lessons from Locofy’s pivots, challenges in AI for design, and career advice for professionals navigating the ever-evolving tech landscape.

Join Simon Wardley, the mind behind Wardley Mapping, as he unpacks the chaos brought by AI disruption. He reveals why most business strategies rely on flawed narratives instead of effective maps, leaving leaders vulnerable. Simon emphasizes the critical distinctions between maps and graphs, shares insights into the pitfalls of vibe coding, and explains Jevons Paradox, highlighting how AI will expand, not eliminate, codebases. Discover the importance of situational awareness in decision-making and the need for robust critical thinking in the age of AI.

In an insightful discussion, Preeti Somal, Senior VP of Engineering at Temporal and former leader at Yahoo and HashiCorp, explores the revolutionary concept of durable execution. She emphasizes how this model alleviates reliability issues, allowing developers to focus solely on business logic. Preeti also shares key findings from Temporal's State of Development Report, highlighting reliability as a primary concern for engineering teams. Additionally, she underscores the importance of nurturing a strong incident response culture and the challenges of adapting to new developer tools.

Laura Tacho, CTO of DX and expert in developer productivity, dives deep into the impact of AI adoption in engineering. She reveals the 'disappointment gap' between AI hype and reality, and why traditional metrics like acceptance rates can mislead leaders. Tacho introduces the AI Measurement Framework™, emphasizing utilization, impact, and cost. The discussion also highlights practical AI use cases that save time, the importance of treating AI agents as team extensions, and the biggest challenges AI has yet to solve beyond coding.

Gavin King, the creator of Hibernate and a key contributor to Jakarta EE, dives into the complexities of Object-Relational Mapping and why so many developers harbor mixed feelings about it. He shares the origin story of Hibernate, discussing early Java EE frustrations that sparked its creation. The podcast explores the importance of type safety, the evolution of Jakarta specifications, and critiques industry dogmas like DDD aggregates. Gavin emphasizes that architecture should organically develop from the code and highlights the value of healthy debate within engineering teams.

Greg Foster, CTO and co-founder of Graphite, shares insights on transforming code reviews for faster development. He reveals how small pull requests enhance feedback and how stacked PRs eliminate waiting times, improving team velocity. The conversation delves into the rise of AI in code reviews, advocating for automated checks in CI workflows. Foster highlights Graphite's unique strategies to achieve top-tier productivity and discusses the evolving landscape of hiring engineers with the advent of AI-assisted coding.

Emily Bache, an independent consultant and technical coach, shares insights on elevating software engineering through coaching. She discusses the Samman Method and ensemble programming, emphasizing their roles in enhancing team collaboration and code quality. Emily explains how AI can reinforce, rather than replace, fundamental engineering practices. She advocates for structured learning within work hours and cautions against common pitfalls in mentoring, showcasing the need for hands-on, collaborative coding as essential for modern development.