Category: podcast

How can you determine the mertis of consolidating or diversifying your tech stack? In this episode we discuss the how consolidation and diversification impact the business, engineering efficiency, and cross-team dynamics.

If you've been wondering how to go about debating your tech stack, this is the episode for you!

Watch on YouTube or listen to it at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app, and let us know if you have ever been involved in a rewrite. We would love to have you on the show to discuss your experience!

This week, Isaac and I dive deep into an Allen Holub suggestion that developers should 'rebuild' instead of 'rewrite' software. Are we all saying the same thing? Is there some neuance between rebuilding, rewriting, and refactoring?

If you've been wondering if you should even bother updating your legacy system, this is the episode for you!

Watch on YouTube or listen to it at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app, and let us know if you have ever been involved in a rewrite. We would love to have you on the show to discuss your experience!

It is all well and good to say "Never Rewrite", but what do you do if you find yourself part of one?
In this episode Isaac and discuss the steps and thinking that will help you stop a rewrite faster and safer than waiting for it fail.

If you're working on a rewrite and don't know what to do, this is the episode for you!

Watch on YouTube or listen to it at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app, and let us know if you have ever been involved in a rewrite. We would love to have you on the show to discuss your experience!

Guest Nick Gerace discusses how he backed into a rewrite of the core engine at System Initiatives. Nick walks us through how and why his work to add plugins and package management ended with a new core engine that still lacks package management.

If you want to hear about the philosophy and tradeoffs behind a successful rewrite, this episode is for you!

Watch on YouTube or listen to it at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app, and let us know if you have ever been involved in a rewrite. We would love to have you on the show to discuss your experience!

Paul Stack shares his experiences transforming his company from individual server based logs, to a unified log stream searchable with Grafana. Paul walks us through the stepwise iterations: going from single machine logs to aggregated, how aggregating the logs overwhelmed the service so they brought in kafka, how kafka made it difficult to restart, and so on. This story is pre-cloud and years before the concept of Open Telemetry; Paul's deep dive sheds light on some of the very difficult problems that modern observability stacks make easy.

If you've ever wondered about how aggregated logging systems evolved, this is the episode for you!

Watch on YouTube or listen to it at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app, and let us know if you have ever been involved in a rewrite. We would love to have you on the show to discuss your experience!

What are the signs of a failing rewrite? This week Isaac and I discuss the signs to watch for when you're on a team doing a rewrite.

If you're on a rewrite and wondering if the project is in trouble, this is the episode for you!

Watch on YouTube or listen to it at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app, and let us know if you have ever been involved in a rewrite. We would love to have you on the show to discuss your experience!

Nick Stinemates from System Initiative joins us to discuss his experiences with software rewrites. We cover a lot of ground in the episode, from the difference between rewrites and refactors, the importance of incremental changes, and team dynamics during rewrites.

If we've been confusing you about the difference between a rewrite, and iteratively replacing all of the code over time, this is the episode for you!

Watch on YouTube or listen to it at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app, and let us know if you have ever been involved in a rewrite. We would love to have you on the show to discuss your experience!

Fix the problem, or mitigate the issue?

This week Isaac and I explore the complex trade-off between providing immediate relief versus investing time and resources into finding and fixing the underlying bug. Sometimes, fixing the bug is the wrong choice!

If you've ever agonized between fixing a bug, or just mitigating and moving on, this is the episode for you!

Watch on YouTube or listen to it at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app, and let us know if you have ever been involved in a rewrite. We would love to have you on the show to discuss your experience!

"I'm not technical, but I think the developers I've hired are BSing me. How can I tell?"

This is often the first question Dustin and Isaac get when talking to potential clients. In this episode we work through issues with trust, communication, and how iterative development encourages both. Dustin reveals his framework for keeping communication open and identifing red flags in developer behavior.

If you've ever wondered what developers were doing, but were afraid to ask, this is the episode for you!

Watch on YouTube or listen to it at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app, and let us know if you have ever been involved in a rewrite. We would love to have you on the show to discuss your experience!

Guest Dan Hon joins us to discusses the complexities of rewriting government software. Dan discusses the importance of understanding legacy systems, the role of ideology in software development, and the need for transparency and user-centered design. We also touch on government specific challenges that come with modernization of government services.

Watch on YouTube or listen to it at Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast app, and let us know if you have ever been involved in a rewrite. We would love to have you on the show to discuss your experience!