From building a data platform and Parquet at Twitter to using AI to make biology easier to engineer at Ginkgo Bioworks, Dmitriy joins the show to chat about the early days of big data, the conversation that made him jump into SynBio, LLMs for proteins and more.

Segments:
(00:03:18) Data engineering roots
(00:05:40) Early influences at Lawrence Berkeley Lab
(00:09:46) Value of a "gentleman's education in computer science"
(00:14:34) The end of junior software engineers
(00:20:10) Deciding to go back to school
(00:21:36) Early experiments with distributed systems
(00:23:33) The early days of big data
(00:29:16) "The thing we used to call big data is now ai"
(00:31:02) The maturation of data engineering
(00:35:05) From consumer tech to biotech
(00:37:42) "The 21st century is the century of biology"
(00:40:54) The science of lab automation
(00:47:22) Software development in biotech vs. consumer tech
(00:50:34) Swes make more $$ than scientists?
(00:54:27) Llms for language is boring. Llms for proteins? that's cool
(01:02:52) Protein engineering 101
(01:06:01) Model explainability in biology

Show Notes:

• The Death of the Junior Developer: https://sourcegraph.com/blog/the-death-of-the-junior-developer
• Dmitriy on twitter: https://x.com/squarecog?lang=en
• Tech and Bio slack community: https://www.bitsinbio.org/

Stay in touch:
- Make Ronak’s day by signing up for our newsletter to get our favorites parts of the convo straight to your inbox every week :D https://softwaremisadventures.com/

Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Forest License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Having quit Google in 2018 to bootstrap indie software businesses, Michael is known for writing very transparently about the ups and downs of his journey. After recently selling his hardware business TinyPilot for $600K, Michael returns to the show to chat about the misconceptions about running an indie business, the hardest part of selling a company, and why “hardware is definitely out” for his next move 😂

Segments:
(00:04:22) The complexity of selling a hardware business
(00:08:49) Why "hardware is definitely out" for Michael's next venture
(00:11:57) The evolution of TinyPilot
(00:16:29) Inherent risks of a hardware business
(00:20:53) The most terrifying 10 minutes of 2023
(00:24:52) The pricing strategy
(00:31:48) Building the team
(00:35:32) Recognizing the limits of solo founders
(00:37:22) What and how to outsource?
(00:42:45) Tracking hours and managing expectations
(00:46:50) High-level math and profit projections
(00:52:17) Working with contract manufacturers
(00:54:12) How to know when to delegate?
(00:58:16) Misconceptions about running an indie business
(01:03:56) The importance of value capture
(01:09:26) Identity and purpose after selling a business
(01:13:40) How Michael arrived at the decision to sell the business
(01:17:53) The process of figuring out the price
(01:20:36) Negotiation and the final sale
(01:25:09) Why due diligence was so stressful
(01:30:09) The importance of buyer fit
(01:34:16) Michael's new course "Hit the Front Page of Hacker News"
(01:35:17) The power of "Show, don't tell"
(01:38:14) Sneak peek of the course

Show Notes:
- Michael’s blog post on the process of selling TinyPilot: https://mtlynch.io/i-sold-tinypilot/
- Michael’s excellent monthly retrospectives on building TinyPilot and beyond: https://mtlynch.io/retrospectives/
- Hit the front page of hacker news: https://mtlynch.io/notes/htfp-live/

Stay in Touch:

👋 Make Ronak’s day by leaving us a review and let us know who we should talk to next! hello@softwaremisadventures.com

Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Forest License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Well-known for his insightful and meticulous write-ups on testing distributed systems, Kyle (aka Aphyr) joins the show to chat about the origins of Jepsen, how he built a business around testing distributed systems, his writing process, favorite databases, and more.

Segments:

(00:03:29) From Physics to Software Engineering

(00:07:47) The origins of Jepsen

(00:09:41) Turning Jepsen into a full-time venture

(00:13:14) Jepsen's testing philosophy

(00:16:30) The consulting journey

(00:19:16) Structuring a consultancy

(00:22:32) Setting boundaries

(00:24:32) Pricing misadventures

(00:29:17) Pros and cons of being an independent consultant

(00:32:08) Managing your time when working for yourself

(00:38:23) Best part of the job

(00:41:13) Early writing influences

(00:45:25) LLMs and AI-generated content

(00:48:17) “The period where you can trust what you read is actually very recent”

(00:51:33) How to become a better writer

(00:54:25) Developing a formal understanding of distributed systems

(00:59:30) Common faults in distributed systems

(01:01:17) The complexity of testing distributed systems

(01:07:32) Communicating criticism effectively

(01:10:26) Advice for distributed systems engineers

(01:13:46) “Anybody trying to sell you a distributed lock is selling you sawdust and lies”

(01:16:31) Failure mode documentation

(01:18:52) The pitfalls of containerization

(01:20:17) Lightning round - favorite databases

Show Notes:

“Anybody who is trying to sell you a distributed lock is trying to sell you sawdust and Lies”: https://martin.kleppmann.com/2016/02/08/how-to-do-distributed-locking.html

Kyle’s excellent write-ups on testing distributed systems: https://jepsen.io/analyses

Kyle’s blog: https://aphyr.com/posts

Training courses that Kyle runs: https://jepsen.io/services/training

Stay in touch:

👋 Make Ronak’s day by leaving us a review and let us know who we should talk to next! hello@softwaremisadventures.com

Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Forest License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

From creating one of the Python’s most influential libraries to co-founding Voltron Data, Wes joins the show to chat about why the book cover of the pandas book doesn’t feature a panda, open source pitfalls to avoid, the pros and cons of hiring engineers at a non-profit, and more.

Segments:

(00:02:50) Guang’s complaint about the pandas book cover

(00:04:38) Quarto and Open Access Publishing

(00:12:00) Convincing Wall Street to Open Source

(00:15:31) Publishing the first python package over Christmas

(00:18:01) Doubling Down on Building pandas

(00:23:23) Personal sacrifices for the sake of impact

(00:26:28) The Evolution of Open-Source

(00:29:19) “Open source development started out as a very privileged activity”

(00:32:40) The Consulting Trap

(00:35:17) The Startup Trap

(00:39:29) The Corporate User Trap

(00:44:21) Avoiding the Startup Trap

(00:46:54) Non-Profit vs. For-Profit

(00:48:09) The Challenges of Hiring Engineers in a Non-Profit Setting

(00:50:08) The Benefits of Remote Work for Open Source Development

(00:52:15) Balancing Open Source and Enterprise Interests

(00:57:25) New Funding Models for Open Source?

(01:00:01) Getting into VC

(01:06:19) The Future of Composable Data Systems

Show Notes:

- online edition of pandas book: https://wesmckinney.com/book/

- the new digital publishing tool that Wes recommends: https://quarto.org/

Stay in touch:

👋 Make Ronak’s day by leaving us a review and let us know who we should talk to next! hello@softwaremisadventures.com

Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Forest License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

From creating Envoy to co-founding bitdrift to reimagine mobile observability, Matt joins the show to chat about being told to simply “write some proxy in Python” in the early days of building Envoy, early influences from building “shrink wrap” software at Microsoft, the process of spinning bitdrift out of Lyft, and much more.

(00:03:10) Being a plumber on LinkedIn

(00:05:00) Early influences from building “shrink wrap” software at Microsoft

(00:10:44) Getting diverse work experiences

(00:16:36) Setting high standards for the team

(00:20:42) Lessons from failure of the first startup

(00:22:02) Building a successful open source project vs. running a startup

(00:25:25) Why not start a company around Envoy?

(00:29:54) Why not open source bitdrift?

(00:36:01) Mitigating the risk of big companies building in-house solutions

(00:38:16) Co-founding bitdrift to tackle mobile observability

(00:40:37) Applying lessons from the first startup failure

(00:44:14) Why mobile observability is so hard

(00:50:06) Open source vs source available

(00:53:33) The software licensing strugglebus

(00:58:03) How bitdrift was spinned out of Lyft

(01:03:36) Achieving work-life balance through leverage

(01:06:13) The early days of Envoy

(01:09:20) Impact driven development

(01:13:43) The crazy decision to build Envoy in retrospect

• Matt’s blog posts on why mobile observability is a hard problem: https://mattklein123.dev/2024/04/24/no-one-talks-about-mobile-observability/

• The new company Matt is building: https://bitdrift.io/

👋 Make Ronak’s day by leaving us a review and let us know who we should talk to next! hello@softwaremisadventures.com

Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Forest License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

From being a distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems to co-founding Oxide Computer Company to build a new kind of server, Bryan joins the show to chat about being told that he’s on a suicide mission when starting Oxide, the moment he felt “I’m actually living HBO Silicon Valley”, and lessons from Sun. And much more.

Chapters:

(00:02:24) The Origin of Bryan's Nom-de-Guerre: "Colonel of Data Corruption"
(00:04:02) What Debugging Performance Issues at Twitter in the Early Days Revealed About Silicon Valley
(00:13:37) Value of Formal Education and the Experience That Everyone Should Have
(00:16:02) Balancing Following One's Passion vs. Having Stability
(00:21:14) What Shaped Bryan's Sense of Integrity
(00:25:39) The Moments When Values Are Instilled
(00:30:25) The Dark Side of Tech
(00:35:12) "Economic Opportunities Attract Economic Opportunists"
(00:40:35) The Origins of Oxide Computers
(00:50:20) Building the A-Team
(00:52:18) "Compaq Was the Most Successful Startup"
(00:55:51) The Venture Capitalist's Dilemma
(01:03:04) Being Told "You're on a Suicide Mission"
(01:07:12) The Lifestyle of the "Lifestyle Business"
(01:09:30) The Harsh Reality of Raising Venture Capital
(01:13:12) The Challenges of Building Hardware
(01:16:36) Why You Should Think About Not Only Gross Margin but Net Margin
(01:19:14) Hardware and Software Co-Design
(01:22:06) The Frustrations of Infrastructure Deployment
(01:26:46) Finding the Right VCs
(01:28:16) "Oh My God, I'm Actually Living HBO Silicon Valley"
(01:33:12) Oxide's Principles and Lessons from Sun Microsystems
(01:39:51) Sun's Unspoken Values
(01:45:03) Sun's Legacy of Empowering Employees
(01:48:53) Sun's Missed Opportunities
(01:53:04) The Reason Why Sun Survived the Dot-Com Crash
(01:56:21) "God Bless the Early Adopters"
(01:57:39) A Tweet from Shopify's CEO
(02:01:24) The Hard Thing About Hard Things
(02:12:55) The Hardest Moment in Oxide's History

Show Notes:

- Oxide’s principles: https://oxide.computer/principles

- Requests for Discussion (RFDs): https://rfd.shared.oxide.computer/

- Toby’s tweet: https://x.com/tobi/status/1793798092212367669

- Bryan on twitter: https://x.com/bcantrill

Stay in touch:

👋 Make Ronak’s day by leaving us a review and let us know who we should talk to next! hello@softwaremisadventures.com

Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Forest License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

From writing the first lines of Kafka over a Christmas break as a LinkedIn engineer to running a public company as the CEO of Confluent, Jay joins the show to chat about how he and his co-founders convinced investors to take a chance on their vision, what many engineers get wrong about communication, and why engineers can make great CEOs - even when coding is not in the job description. And much more.

Segments:

(00:01:16) The Shaved Head Bet
(00:04:07) Fundraising
(00:12:16) The Role of Technical Background in VCs
(00:15:48) The power of believing in the possibility of important changes
(00:18:29) The Journey to starting Confluent
(00:27:11) Kafka's Controversial Beginnings
(00:34:30) Effective Communication in Engineering
(00:44:20) The Early Days of Kafka
(00:48:31) The Power of Storytelling
(00:57:19) Early days of Confluent
(01:03:06) Do Engineers Make Good CEOs?
(01:07:59) A Typical Day in the Life of a CEO
(01:12:24) The Evolution of Data Streaming

Show Notes:
- “The log” blog post that solidified Jay and his co-founders' conviction to found Confluent: https://engineering.linkedin.com/distributed-systems/log-what-every-software-engineer-should-know-about-real-time-datas-unifying

- Jay on twitter: https://x.com/jaykreps

Stay in touch:
👋 Make Ronak’s day by leaving us a review and let us know who we should talk to next! hello@softwaremisadventures.com

Music: Vlad Gluschenko — Forest License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

If you’ve worked on data problems, you probably have heard of Airflow and Superset, two powerful tools that have cemented their place in the data ecosystem. Building successful open-source software is no easy feat, and even fewer engineers have done this back to back. In part 2 of the conversation, we talk about Max’s journey in open source.

Segments:

(00:03:27) “Project-Community Fit” in Open Source
(00:08:31) Fostering Relationships in Open Source
(00:10:58) Dealing with Trolls
(00:13:40) Attributes of Good Open Source Contributors
(00:20:01) How to Get Started with Contributing
(00:27:58) Origin Stories of Airflow and Superset
(00:33:27) Biggest Surprise since Founding a VC-backed Company?
(00:38:47) Picking What to Work On
(00:41:46) Advice to Engineers for Building the Next Airflow/Superset?
(00:42:35) The 2 New Open Source Projects that Max is Starting
(00:52:10) Challenges of Being a Founder
(00:57:38) Open Sourcing Ideas

Show Notes:

Part 1 of our conversation: https://softwaremisadventures.com/p/maxime-beauchemin-llm-ready
Max on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maximebeauchemin/
SQL All Stars: https://github.com/preset-io/allstars
Governator: https://github.com/mistercrunch/governator

Stay in touch:

👋 Make Ronak’s day by leaving us a review and let us know who we should talk to next! hello@softwaremisadventures.com