The 50th episode of the Dead Code Podcast brought Karl Weber, Jared Norman, Benjamin Wil, Sofia Besenski, and Noah Silveira together to mark the milestone with sharp, funny, and critical takes on the state of tech. They skewered CEOs bragging about AI-driven layoffs as short-sighted profiteering, questioned the hype fueling the AI bubble, and praised Ruby and Rails for extending developers’ “rage quit stamina” despite flaws in error reporting and dependency management. The group emphasized the importance of empathetic, fast code reviews and smaller PRs, arguing that culture and collaboration matter more than mythical “10x developers.” They also critiqued DHH’s claim that executives should be the least busy, framing it as privilege disguised as wisdom, while pointing out that rest and balance benefit everyone. The episode captured their signature mix of humor, industry critique, and camaraderie, closing with gratitude for 50 episodes and excitement for what’s next.

Links:

Giveaway: Anarchy Agile hats — enter at jardo.dev/anarchyagile

“CEOs Are Publicly Boasting About Reducing Their Workforces With AI” – Futurism

The Pragmatic Engineer 2025 Survey: What’s in your tech stack? Part 1

“Two Simple Rules to Fix Code Reviews” – The Pragmatic Engineer

“In Praise of Normal Engineers” – Charity Majors, Honeycomb

“Executives Should Be the Least Busy People” – David Heinemeier Hansson

Dead Code Podcast Links:

Mastodon

X

Jared’s Links:

Mastodon

X

twitch.tv/jardonamron

Jared’s Newsletter & Website

Episode Transcript

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.