Diana Montalion teaches us about Systems Thinking and why it matters for those of us building software. Diana is founder of ⁠Mentrix⁠, which teaches "systems architecture skills for an increasingly complex world." Pre-Order Diana's book: Learning Systems Thinking: Essential Nonlinear Skills and Practices for Software Professionals Discuss this epis…

We chat with Trond Hjorteland about Agile and why it hasn't led to successful outcomes in many traditional organizations. Mentioned and related resources: Trond & João Rosa's training on Agile + DP2 Open Systems Theory LinkedIn Group for Open Systems Theory More material on Open Systems Theory Resource List from Trond Some of Trond's recorded talks…

We chat with Valentina Servile about her upcoming book on Continuous Deployment and reducing the risks to keeping HEAD not just always deployable, but automatically deployed to production. Book for preorder on Amazon: Continuous Deployment: Enable Faster Feedback, Safer Releases, and More Reliable Software Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠discord.gg/XVKD…

We chat with Philip Hölzenspies, one of the maintainers of the new Pkl configuration language (pkl-lang.org). Resources: James' Pkl for GitHub Actions: github.com/jamesward/pklgha Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠discord.gg/XVKD2uPKyF

We chat with April Wensel, founder of Compassionate Coding, about helping programmers bring more compassion to themselves and others. Resources: Confessions of a Recovering Jerk Programmer Marshall Rosenberg - Nonviolent Communication Kristin Neff - Self-Compassion Karen Armstrong - Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life UC Berkeley Greater Good Scie…

Shawn welcomes fellow podcaster Dan White to the show to discuss his podcasts, QUEER MAGNOLIAS and OUT WITH DAN, the importance of listening to diverse voices and points of view, finding your people, mutual friends, travel, eating and drinking, and Agatha Christie.

Shawn chats with Lynn Painter about her new novel, writing for adults and younger readers, weddings, blowing up weddings, writing rom-com male characters, the need for joy, and classic rom-com movies.

We chat with Gwen Shapira, co-founder of Nile, about her journey to creating a virtualized, serverless Postgres database service. We also dive into the challenges with traditional data architectures and approaches like ORMs. Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠discord.gg/XVKD2uPKyF

Shawn and Cindy chat about her debut novel, OBEY ALL LAWS, life as a parole officer, dogs, second chances, making mistakes, organic writing, and writing drunk and editing sober.

Shawn and Jackie chat about cozy mysteries, writing multiple series, flowers and what they mean to us, garden clubs, secret Pinterest boards, Texas, and how we want no sadness in some mysteries.

Shawn chats with NYT Bestselling Author C.J. Box about his 24th Joe Picket novel, THREE-INCH TEETH, writing a long-running and much-loved series, predator attack teams, Mama Bears, animal emotions, Mark Twain, and finding your own unique lane as a writer.

Shawn and Lynn chat about writing multiple series, finding a new publishing home, being from the South, True Crime, small town newspapers, breaking up with our characters, and French Bulldog puppies.

Shawn and Bruce chat about Bruce's new series, coauthored with LynDee Walker, the Byron series, his new series out next year, taking chances as a writer, Stephen King, non-writing spouses, the need for therapy, British television, and support from other writers in the community.

Shawn and Darlene chat about dogs, Bouchercon, meeting your people, support from librarians, indie vs. traditional publishing, Sisters in Crime, and connecting with readers.

We chat with Trisha Gee about Test Driven Development (TDD), flaky tests, ops & observability for builds, and developer productivity. Mentioned TDD Article: The beautiful theory of TDD and the reality check of practice Discuss this episode: ⁠discord.gg/XVKD2uPKyF

Shawn and Leah chat about Leah's new novel, Alfred Hitchcock, STRANGERS ON A TRAIN, making friends as adults, women shouldering family responsibilities, and how new friends might not always be what they appear to be.

Shawn and Wendy chat about writing culinary mysteries, research through cooking, moms who read, finding your reading groove again, Wendy's brush with the law at a young age, connecting with readers, and how art is important to the human condition.

Shawn and Nick chat about his long-running Peter Ash series, how Nick's career began, grocery store conversations, PTSD, writing by hand, cool techniques for writers who get stuck, many drinks with friends at conferences, author rock stars, and finding your people.

Shawn and Erica chat about playing the violin, creepy opera houses, being keynote speakers, concert masters, sexism in both music and writing, and Agatha Christie.

Shawn and Dr. Frank chat about his fiction and nonfiction writing career, a medical career and how it influences his writing, walking around as your character for a week, leaving good reviews, Stephen King, and Frank's great advice for writers and for life in general.

Shawn and Marty chat about her new historical mystery series, The London Ladies' Murder Club, the Society of Useful Women, useful women, gardening, writing multiple series, the value of a critique group, and releasing two full-length books at one time.

Shawn and Paul chat about his cookbook for expectant mothers, writing cookbooks, testing recipes, nutrition and where we all go wrong, the beauty of women and childbirth, and helping others.

When Gunnar Morling announced the 1 Billion Row Challenge a few weeks ago, he had no idea it'd go crazy viral. Resources: Challenge details: www.morling.dev/blog/one-billion-row-challenge Rust 1BRC Blog: aminediro.com/posts/billion_row/ Cliff Click's implementation walkthrough: www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJNIbgV6j-Y James' very slow Scala ZIO implemen…

Shawn and Sharon chat about her new novel set in Bath in the UK, Sharon's love of England, teaching and writing, following your own lessons, brains of nineteen year olds, a chastity belt for your developing brain that keeps you from making big decisions, how warm is your oven, and the art of not giving up.…

We chat with Adam Warski about Loom, Virtual Threads, and his Loom-based Scala library, Ox, for structured concurrency & Go-Like Channels. Referenced articles & code: Ox EasyRacer Client Go statement considered harmful Go-like selects using jox channels in Java Limits of Loom's performance Fast and Scalable Channels in Kotlin Coroutines Discuss thi…

Shawn and Peter chat about his debut novel BLUE RIDGE, being inspired by your surroundings, twin brothers, pancakes, how acting can help writers, Sam Shepherd, and fun dinner guests.

Shawn and Edwin chat about his new novel, RASHOMON, writing from multiple POVs, birthday cakes, story structure, teaching, and walking the dog.

Announcing Graboo, a collection of experiments to reduce friction with Gradle. Repo: https://github.com/jamesward/graboo Buy your Happy Path Programming Shirt: https://happy-path.printify.me/products Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

Most of us have managers but they aren't always great. We chat with James' best manager, Sushila Sahay, about what makes her such a great manager. We also dive a bit into open source business models since Sushila has deep experience in that realm. Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠⁠https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

Shawn and Tom chat about the first book in The Divine Trilogy, living in New York, police in New York, SERPICO, why NYC is a great place for stories, and writing fiction inspired by true events.

We learn about Algebraic Effects with the Scala library Kyo ( getkyo.io) from the creator, Flavio Brasil. Discuss this episode: ⁠⁠https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

Shawn and Lane chat about the second book in Lane's Big Picture Trilogy, art and antiquity theft, the importance of art in the world, art and religion, sudden cold air, likeable and unlikeable characters, and the strategy behind writing a trilogy.

Shawn and Linda chat about the newest book in her HOA Mystery series, deep fakes, the state of the world, how AI is everywhere, writers and actors dealing with AI, book store events, and writing multiple series.

Shawn and Virginia chat about her new book, which is a reimagining of THE WIZARD OF OZ, the male gaze, love and the darker side of love, if there really is no place like home, why Virginia writes the kinds of books she does, and life during lockdown.

Shawn and Gregory chat about the newest novel in the Jackson Gamble PI series set in Nashville, how Nashville is a great place to visit and set a series in, winning the Shamus Award then judging the Shamus Award, having enough time to read, hate mail, and never giving up.

Shawn and Clementine chat about her debut novel, the feeling of excited dread, coming-of-age love stories, writing stories we want to read, why everyone is so raw, and their fascination with both poetry and apples.

Shawn and Marlie chat about fires, old New York, the richer and poorer classes living together in the city, how people react in emergencies, and how there can be several truths true at the same time.

Shawn and Mary chat about East and West Coast living, keeping a series fresh, building characters, cozy vs. detective fiction and related body counts, being busy women, and collaborating on a short story together.

Arty Starr is a PhD student and entrepreneur focused on helping developers thrive. We chat about her research on developer momentum and ways that developers can find joy through more time in the flow state. Referenced resources: SpringOne Talk Arty's Idea Flow Book FlowInsight Discuss this episode: ⁠https://discord.gg/nPa76qF…

Shawn and Joe chat about perseverance in writing, getting through the hard times, living with no regrets, Ted Baxter, making up stories about strangers on the street, putting words in the bank, meeting Julia Child and having a child in Hollywood, dealing with the writers' strike and oddball projects.…

Shawn and Alan chat about his new novel SANCTUARY MOTEL, life in Florida, police ride-alongs, Fish Kitchen, off-brand motels, upcoming anthology projects, and their mutual love of Stephen King.

Zalim Bashorov (@bashorov) works on Kotlin/Wasm at JetBrains and answers our many questions about Wasm, GC, the Component Model, and other future proposals. Discuss this episode: https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

Shawn and Rachel chat about uncovering our origins, library borrowing limits, spending time with writers, MFA programs, and being a teacher of creative writing.

Sabine went from acedemia and a PhD in formal methods, to Python, Elm, Haskell, and now OCaml. We chat about this journey and some of the reasons why OCaml is an awesome modern language. Discuss this episode: https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

Shawn and Matt discuss Siskel and Ebert and Matt's new book about the legendary film critics and their impact on movie watching through the years.

Shawn and Edward chat about books and art, finding inspiration during the pandemic, Edward creating a drawing a day, theater and politics. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Edward Carey is a novelist, visual artist, and playwright. His previous novels include The Swallowed Man, Little, Alva & Irva, and Observatory Mansions, and an acclaimed series for young adults…

Our chat with John De Goes starts with his Scala & Rust journeys, then goes into Golem Cloud, a serverless durable computing platform underpinned by Wasm, and ends with a discussion about whether business applications really need parallelism. Discuss this episode: https://discord.gg/nPa76qF

Shawn and Dale talk about traditional vs. indie publishing, writing inspirations, Stephen King, their mutual appreciation for the Writing Life, and finding your community in the world of writing. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dale T Phillips is a New England writer and actor who spent his formative years in Maine, and has lived and worked in a number of differ…

Shawn and Lauren discuss her new novel MEDUSA'S SISTERS, how no one is born evil, shaping young minds, the allure of myths and mythical stories, the roles of siblings, sisters, and birth order, the unfortunate timelessness of blaming the victim, feminism, and the importance of compassion in all things.…

We chat with Dormain Drewitz about failure and reliability. Ironically our recording software crashed near the end of the episode but we recovered and wrapped things up. Referenced Article: 10 Years of Failure Friday at PagerDuty: Fostering Resilience, Learning and Reliability Discuss this episode: https://discord.gg/nPa76qF…