The Peterman Pod

This is Michael Bolin, the tech lead for the open source Codex repository and a former distinguished engineer at Meta. We talked about his career path, how OpenAI engineers use Codex and the difference between research-led vs engineering-led company cultures.

🔸 My keyboard project: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal

𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/hN5ZFzWFhhg
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835
• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/openai-codex-tech-lead-on-how-his

𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀:

00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:56 - Chickenfoot
00:02:45 - Working at Google
00:06:34 - Overhauling Facebook's build system
00:16:36 - Rewriting Facebook's IDE
00:26:01 - Struggles after Principal Eng (E8) promo
00:28:39 - Building a virtual filesystem for Facebook
00:35:47 - Delayed Distinguished promo (E9) and learnings
00:39:56 - Joining OpenAI
00:43:05 - Research-led vs engineering-led cultures
00:44:53 - The story behind Codex
00:51:00 - How he uses Codex
00:57:00 - Why Codex's harness is open source
00:59:50 - Top technical book recommendations
01:05:02 - Why deep technical skills are still valuable (for now)
01:11:07 - How to start projects well
01:14:27 - Advice on writing better and career planning
01:17:06 - Advice for his younger self
01:19:10 - Outro

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗲𝗹:

• His personal blog - https://blog.bolinfest.com/
• Twitter/X - https://x.com/bolinfest
• Threads - https://www.threads.com/@bolinfest
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-bolin-7632712

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻:

• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/
• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/
• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

Bryan Cantrill was a distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems and has now founded his own company called Oxide Computer Company. We discussed his career experiences through boom/busts, what competing with Bezos was like, and career regrets.

𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/qhSL-5GtmQM
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835
• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/distinguished-eng-on-stack-ranking

𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:

• Link to the part in the talk on Oracle/Sun we discussed - https://youtu.be/-zRN7XLCRhc?si=eExjIMZROGjJcDsw&t=1977

𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀:

00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:42 - Working at Sun Microsystems
00:10:17 - His growth to distinguished eng
00:19:14 - Why goaling on promotion is bad
00:29:34 - Stack ranking and layoffs
00:36:00 - Why he hated the Oracle acquisition
00:44:19 - Why Bezos is the apex predator of capitalism
00:48:04 - Differences between CTO and VP
00:49:58 - Starting his own company
01:02:37 - Grilling him on his past
01:11:57 - AI boom and bust advice
01:14:41 - When he was happiest in his career
01:17:22 - Top career regret
01:19:21 - Advice for younger self
01:20:57 - Outro

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗿𝘆𝗮𝗻:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-cantrill-b6a1/
• Twitter/X - https://x.com/bcantrill
• Personal Website - https://bcantrill.dtrace.org/
• His company - https://oxide.computer/

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻:

• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/
• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/
• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

I interviewed Leslie Lamport, a Turing Award winner known for his contributions to distributed systems and the inventor of the Paxos algorithm. We walked through the major contributions of his career for the stories behind them and what he learned along the way.

🔸 My keyboard project: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal

𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/U719vQz-WFs
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835
• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-on-working-with

𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:

• Bakery Problem Paper: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/bakery.pdf
• Time Clocks Paper (most cited): https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/time-clocks.pdf
• The Byzantine Generals Problem Paper: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/byz.pdf
• The Paxos Algorithm Paper: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/lamport-paxos.pdf

𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:25 - The Bakery Algorithm
00:08:28 - Experiences with Dijkstra
00:14:44 - His most cited paper
00:23:26 - The "Byzantine Generals" problem
00:38:05 - The Paxos Algorithm
00:46:57 - Paxos vs Raft Algorithm
00:51:26 - Building LaTeX
00:54:45 - Why writing improves your thinking
01:00:21 - Why he wasn't an academic
01:02:08 - Grand theory of concurrency
01:07:25 - Why he doesn't think he's smart
01:09:07 - Advice for his younger self
01:09:44 - Outro

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗲:

• His works: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻:

• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/
• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/
• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

David Ronca joined Netflix in 2007 and grew to an engineering director there. Later he joined Meta as a Director and transitioned to a Principal engineer working on video technologies. Now he's retired and was graciously willing to share his career story with us. I asked him for everything he learned in his 36 year career.

𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:
• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/retired-netflix-engineering-director
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/ApG9vjbHDCk
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:

• Netflix culture memo (2009) - https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/culture-1798664/1798664

𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:40 - How Netflix was different
00:08:01 - The legendary Netflix culture memo
00:18:54 - How to hire engineers well
00:30:52 - The strongest engineer he's ever met
00:33:02 - Joining Meta
00:50:52 - Near death experience
00:59:04 - Where he learned the most
01:04:09 - Book that impacted his career most
01:11:33 - Advice for his younger self
01:18:32 - Outro

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗗𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗱:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidronca/
• Personal Website: https://www.roncatech.com/

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻:

• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/
• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/
• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

This is Adam Ernst, a Distinguished Engineer at Meta (IC9) who’s built iOS infrastructure that has impacted the entire company. We talked about how his career grew, a major failed project of his, and everything he learned growing to that level.

🔸 My keyboard project link: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal

𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/YA_OYJF3Mmw
• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835
• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/meta-distinguished-eng-ic9-on-influencing

𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:47 - His middle school company
00:03:50 - His first project and promo at Meta
00:10:03 - Why code review is undervalued
00:12:42 - Senior Staff (IC7) promo story and project
00:19:26 - His major failed project
00:26:35 - How to handle a failed project
00:29:04 - Thoughts on management
00:31:35 - Technical depth vs breadth
00:33:32 - IC9 expectations
00:34:46 - Senior engineers he admires
00:37:39 - Advice for his younger self
00:39:52 - Outro

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗺:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamjernst/

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻:

• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/
• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/
• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman