Working Code

It's that time of year—each host reaches into Santa's sack of topics to see who's been naughty and who's been nice. Ben returns from visiting his employer's manufacturing headquarters in Georgia with some philosophical musings. Carol is on a mission to slash CI/CD build times. Adam has cautiously optimistic news about passkeys finally working (sometimes). And Tim reflects on a TLDR article suggesting that the management skills you've built—knowing what to build and what not to build—might be exactly what AI-era coding demands. Plus: December blues, mushroom tea for focus, and jQuery as peak imperative JavaScript. Links mentioned: Owning A Lucid Has Been Super Disappointing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WiQAOmESH0 Driving Xiaomi's Electric Car: Are we Cooked? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb6H7trzMfI Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/242-all-i-want-for-christmas-is-faster-builds/

How do you teach an LLM to write code you can actually trust? Carol's federal government team has been tasked with exploring unattended AI code generation, so she came to Adam and Tim for advice. Their first piece of guidance: whatever tools you pick today will be obsolete by the time you're done evaluating them. The real goal isn't adopting a specific workflow—it's building the skills to ride the wave. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/241-welcoming-our-new-robot-overlords/

Remember that you will die. That's the meaning behind "Memento Mori," and it's the theme of this week's episode. Guest Shawn Oden, joins Adam, Ben, and Tim to discuss digital death preparedness for geeks. Inspired by clearing out his grandmother's house and buying his late best friend's computers to protect his digital legacy (and potentially lost Bitcoin), Shawn advocates for documenting passwords, creating wills, setting up power of attorney, and having honest conversations with loved ones. The hosts explore practical steps like using 1Password with shared family vaults, the importance of organ donation documentation, and the philosophical tension between honoring a deceased person's wishes versus meeting the needs of those left behind. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Links & Resources In Case You Get Hit by a Bus (book) eol-dr - End of Life Digital Resources on GitHub EOL-RalphHightower - Another digital estate planning resource NOLO - Get Your Affairs in Order - Legal self-help resources Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/240-memento-mori-with-shawn-oden/

How do you stay motivated when you're stuck building features you don't understand? Carol brings a conversation she's been having with her team about feeling like a "feature factory"—churning out work without clarity on what problem they're solving or what value it adds. When every standup is "is this done?" instead of "have we made anything better?", burnout follows fast. The hosts explore the tension between customer-driven features, competitive pressure, arbitrary boss decisions, and the human need to feel connected to meaningful work. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/239-welcome-to-the-feature-factory/

What happens when your passion project becomes so successful that you have to shut it down? Advent of Code creator Eric Wastl announced he was scaling back from 25 days to 12 and removing the global leaderboard. The reason? People were feeling bad at their jobs because they couldn't solve puzzles in 45 seconds like the leaderboard speedrunners. Quiet UI launched with excitement, garnered incredible buzz, and shut down three weeks later when the demands became overwhelming. This week, the hosts explore how good intentions collide with bad behavior—where success becomes punishment, communities ruin what was made for them, and the people who just wanted to share something cool are forced to walk away. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/238-this-is-why-we-cant-have-nice-things/

When you use ChatGPT instead of Google, you're not just getting a faster answer—you're cutting out the content creators who made that knowledge possible. In this week's episode, we explore the economics of AI search, the death of Stack Overflow, the junior developer problem writ large, and why capitalism keeps pushing moral responsibility onto individuals who have the least power to change anything. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/237-the-internet-is-eating-itself-and-were-just-watching/

In this week's episode the gather round and share what they've been up to for trunk or treat. Adam shares his waning motivation for his Jump Run side project, we explore sustainable motivation, the rewrite temptation, and whether it's okay to just... do the fun thing sometimes. Meanwhile, Tim provides a reality check on AI coding tools—he spent real hours comparing GitHub Copilot and Codex on actual work, and the results are messier than the hype suggests. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/236-trunk-or-treat/

How do you keep millions of people safe on 40 different dating sites while simultaneously figuring out what drives them to buy memberships? Sean Corfield joins Adam and Ben to discuss the surprisingly complex engineering and business challenges of observing user behavior at massive scale. Sean runs us through fraud detection and prevention (including devastating "pig butchering" romance scams), database architecture at enormous scale (700GB databases with 250M+ row tables), custom domain-specific languages for writing business rules without touching SQL, real-time scoring systems with hundreds of rules, zero-downtime deployments and schema migrations, and the constant cat-and-mouse game between scammers and detection systems. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/235-when-romance-becomes-a-database-problem/

Can you really multitask, or are you just rapidly switching between contexts and hoping your brain doesn't lose track? This week, we dig into the cognitive load of deep work, the impossibility of maintaining multiple large projects in your head simultaneously, and the ADHD patterns that shape how many of us think and work. Carol returns from the chaos of federal government planning meetings with renewed energy and alignment. Adam finds flow in his Jump Run project while navigating compliance season. Ben discovers the exhausting reality of writing actual specification documents for the first time in his career—and realizes just how taxing deep thinking can be. reCAPTCHA Migration: https://privatecaptcha.com/blog/recaptcha-migration-to-google-cloud-2025/ Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/234-the-multitasking-mind

How do you resist the siren call of shiny new features when you're months into a project that really matters? Adam finds himself six weeks into a 12-week build when his boss floats a couple of juicy AI integration ideas. Ben relates this to his own tendency to get distracted by massive refactors mid-feature. They dig into strategies for staying disciplined—like using future work as motivation, finding small wins along the way, or accepting that sometimes work just has to feel like work.. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/233-cheating-on-work-with-work/

In this week's episode the crew is back to discuss the never-ending journey of self-improvement in the tech industry, are we idiots to ignore it or maniacs to go along with it? Ben and Tim are back from CF Summit to recount there experiences where a big topic of discussion was... you guessed it, AI. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/232-are-we-idiots-or-maniacs/

In this week's episode the whole crew is back, and Ben brings our attention to "good" friction. It's all too common in business to hear about reducing and eliminating friction, but some forms of friction can be positive in ways we take for granted. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/231-good-friction/

Common sense isn't so common, or maybe it's a myth entirely? On this week's episode, Adam, Ben, and Carol discuss common sense in programming. What may be common sense to a programmer may not be so simple to a user, and it's important, in these contexts, to deploy empathy and understanding rather than frustration. The hosts discuss this and more. A Hermeneutic of Generosity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovrzKCQ2JTM Ten Thousand https://xkcd.com/1053/ Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/230-the-myth-of-common-sense/

In this week's episode, Adam, Ben, and Carol dive into the nuanced world of software development as they explore the subjectivity inherent in coding. How do personal preferences, team cultures, and individual experiences shape the way code is written, reviewed, and maintained. From debates over naming conventions to the art of code reviews, we unpack the many ways that subjectivity influences technical decisions and the collaborative process. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/229-our-correct-opinions-subjectivity-in-coding/

In this week's episode, Adam, Ben, and Tim discuss the never ending rabbit hole that is implementing soft deletes in a database. What starts as a simple solution cascades into countless challenges and pitfalls, such as referential integrity, data consistency and compliance. This and other coding crimes in this week's episode. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/228-soft-deletes-and-other-crimes/

In this week's episode, Ben, Carol, and Tim are back to discuss picking the right tool for the right job. More specifically, the value of proportionality in effort and resource allocation, questioning when it's appropriate to cut corners versus maintaining high standards, when you should stick to what you know versus learning something new, and when you should pay more attention to context when making decisions. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/227-stop-commensurate-and-listen/

In this week's episode, Adam asks the question: To sync or not to sync? Sparked by an exploration of a competitor's API approach, the team share their thoughts on handling long-running tasks efficiently. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/226-to-sync-or-not-to-sync/

In this week's episode, the crew discuss the relevance and significance of open-source software in the age of AI. The open source community offers domain expertise, rigorous testing, responsive bug fixing, and community support. But when AI can generate code with proficiency, how does the value calculus change when deciding to install a new package, generate code with an AI, or simply do it yourself? Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/225-the-value-of-open-source-in-the-age-of-ai/

To be a good producer you have to be a good consumer. In this week's podcast, the whole team is back to delve into the concept of 'skin in the game' in product development and how consuming your own product, known as “dogfooding”, and empathizing with users can influence the development process. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/224-skin-in-the-game/

In this week's episode, Adam and Ben discuss the notion of “If I'm still telling you what to do in six months, then something went wrong”, a take heard in a recent episode of Lenny's Podcast. How can a company orientate itself to encourage autonomy throughout the career of an engineer? What are reasonable expectations of a junior engineer? These questions and more are discussed in today's episode. Follow the show and be sure to join the discussion on Discord! Our website is workingcode.dev and we're @workingcode.dev on Bluesky. New episodes drop weekly on Wednesday. And, if you're feeling the love, support us on Patreon. With audio editing and engineering by ZCross Media. Full show notes and transcript here: https://workingcode.dev/episodes/223-the-six-month-autonomy-rule/