Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

Will returns to the thoughtbot couch this week to chat with Aaron Patterson, Software Engineer at Rails and Shopify. In this episode, Will and Aaron discuss how Shopify has a huge impact in the coding side of development, why ZGit is the new Git compiler, tracepoints in Ruby, the As-If Rule in coding and how AI fits within the principle, and how just reading your code will help you avoid the dreaded Slop Grenade - lest you want to be messaged on your days off! — Mentioned in this episode: Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers ‘Pairin' with Aaron: ZJIT Internals’ on Youtube Our guest for this episode has been Aaron Patterson. If you'd like to get in touch with Aaron, you can connect with him on LinkedIn. Your host for this episode has been Will Larry, you can find and connect with Will over on LinkedIn. Don't forget you can now also watch the show over on our YouTube channel! If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: [email protected] This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast

Chad and Sami are both on the thoughtbot couch this week (sporting various levels of thoughtbot representation), ready and raring to reminisce about their previous work experience to determine - what, exactly, is an ‘engineering culture’, and what does that even mean?! From former bosses that liked to scream, to trusting each other's best judgement, the boys dive deep for the sake of their latest project to try and untangle both the true definition of the phrase, and how to measure the metrics of its success. — You can now check out thoughtbot’s new app ReadSetGo which is currently in open beta! You can find Chad all over social media as @cpytel and Sami through his website. You can also connect with the duo via their LinkedIn pages - Chad - Sami. Don't forget you can now also watch the show over on our YouTube channel! If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: [email protected] This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast

Sami is joined this week by Bruce Tate, founder and President of grox.io, a small company of educators, language geeks and authors who want to change the way people teach and learn programming languages. In this episode, Sami and Bruce chat about junior developers and how, possibly for the first time ever, they are writing more code than senior developers. But what is that doing to the quality of the codebase? Listen to the full conversation to find out more! — Articles mentioned in this episode: The Sludge on the Wall How Better Tools Can Make Things Worse The Trainable Things How Juniors Become Seniors Our guest for this episode has been Bruce Tate. If you'd like to get in touch with Bruce, you can do so through his LinkedIn or through the grox.io website. Your host for this episode has been Sami Birnbaum. Sami can be found through his website or via LinkedIn. Don't forget you can now also watch the show over on our YouTube channel! If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: [email protected] This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast

Chad talks with Eric Ries, Co-Founder and Director at Virgil, about his recent book “Incorruptible”, why good companies go bad, and how great companies stay great. Eric flips business on it’s head as he examines why best practices could actually be harmful to your business’ longevity, how the motivations of corporations have changed over the last century, why employee ownership is often more beneficial than you might think, and Chad talks about his own experience with thoughtbot’s ownership. — If you’re interested in learning more from today’s episode or want to keep up to date with Eric’s work, check out incorruptible.co where you can purchase his latest book, “Incorruptible”, and sign up to his newsletter. Alternatively, you can always connect with him on LinkedIn. Your host for this episode has been Chad Pytel. You can find Chad all over social media as @cpytel, or over on LinkedIn. Don't forget you can now also watch the show over on our YouTube channel! If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: [email protected] This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast

Will is back in the host seat this week to chat with Mike Perham, the creator of Sidekiq - a full-featured background job framework for all Ruby applications. In this episode, Will and Mike discuss, amongst many things; the sustainability of open source projects, synchronous vs asynchronous execution models, the concept of killing your dependencies, before diving into the ethical implications of AI and its impact on the world’s carbon footprint. — Our guest for this episode has been Mike Perham. If you'd like to get in touch with Mike, or learn more about Sidekiq, you can visit his website. Your host for this episode has been Will Larry, you can find and connect with Will over on LinkedIn. Don't forget you can now also watch the show over on our YouTube channel! If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: [email protected] This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast

This guest has been a long time coming, Sami is joined on the thoughtbot couch this week by the one and only Lord Tim Clement-Jones, LibDeb Lord Spokesperson for AI and Digital. Following on from the conversation Sami started with Lord Holmes around AI regulation; Lord Clement-Jones discusses how the AI landscape has changed since the founding of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence, the widening gap between where the government and technology is, and the fundamental aspect of building trust in this technology. — As mentioned in this episode: Giant Robots 605: AI, It Doesn't Have To Be This Way with Lord Chris Holmes Giant Robots 616: What’s Really Going On with AI Data Centres with Dr. Victoria Plutshack Our guest for this episode has been Lord Tim Clement-Jones. If you'd like to get in touch with Lord Clement-Jones you can do so through the Artificial Intelligent APPG website, or connect via LinkedIn. Your host for this episode has been Sami Birnbaum. Sami can be found through his website or via LinkedIn. Don't forget you can now also watch the show over on our YouTube channel! If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: [email protected] This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast

Chad is joined on the thoughbot couch this week by Brandon Swalve, CEO of AppSignal (when Chad is a big fan, you know it’s an app you’ve got to check out). In this episode, they discuss what the application performance monitoring business market is like, more is always better vs simple is always better, joining AppSignal as the CEO and the surprises and shifts over the last year and a half that Brandon has experienced in the role. — As mentioned in the episode: Catch up with all the Railsworld 2026 conference talks Our guest for this episode has been Brandon Swalve. Connect with Brandon through LinkedIn, or get in touch through the AppSignal website. Your host for this episode has been Chad Pytel. You can find Chad all over social media as @cpytel, or over on LinkedIn. Don't forget you can now also watch the show over on our YouTube channel! If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: [email protected] This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast

Sami is joined on the thoughbot couch this week by Ed Woodcock, Director and Consultant Developer at Bannermedia Ltd. They discuss lowdown.today, an AI-Driven Open Intelligence platform that Ed originally developed to break down the day’s news, having now expanded to include topics from across the world. They also explore how Ed’s programmes are designed to empower people with the intelligence that AI brings, the Wigan House Fiasco, spending money to use Claude vs the ROI, and how AI programmes can be used to help with genealogy research. — As mentioned in this episode: AI’s effects on climate change - 616: What’s Really Going On with AI Data Centres with Dr.Victoria Plutshack Plotbeacon - https://plotbeacon.com/ Our guest for this episode has been Ed Woodcock. If you'd like to get in touch with Ed you can do so through his website, or connecting via LinkedIn. Your host for this episode has been Sami Birnbaum. Sami can be found through his website or via LinkedIn. Don't forget you can now also watch the show over on our YouTube channel! If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: [email protected] This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast

Sami talks with Nate Berkopec, owner of Speedshop, about a recent post he made on X and how his business manages to stay ahead of AI and LLMs. Nate stresses the importance of prioritising quality in code in the age of AI, why your knowledge still matters if you want to get the best results from your LLM, how code review has drastically changed over the last three years, and the pair discuss why it’s so tough for junior developers to stand out in the industry at the moment and the lengths they have to go to to be noticed. — If you want more out of your project why not get in touch with Nate through his business Speedshop. You can also check out his X post that inspired this episode or connect with him via Linkedin. Your host for this episode has been Sami Birnbaum. Sami can be found through his website or via LinkedIn. If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: [email protected] This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast

Will is back in the host seat this week to chat to the one and only Kelli Lucas, Co-Founder & Chief Design Officer at LunarLab. In this episode, Will and Kelli discuss, amongst many things; the push and pull relationship between designers and developers, alignment in the workplace, the love/hate relationship with Figma, how AI has affected the process of design projects, and why you shouldn’t rely on AI to build your business plan. — Our guest for this episode has been Kelli Lucas. If you'd like to get in touch with Kelli, or chat about working together on your next UX/UI Design project, you can visit the Lunar Lab website. or connect with them via LinkedIn. Your host for this episode has been Will Larry, you can find and connect with Will over on LinkedIn. Don't forget you can now also watch the show over on our YouTube channel! If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: [email protected] This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast