High Leverage

Ep. #10, The Human Brain in Software Development with Steve Krouse

On episode 10 of High Leverage, Joe Ruscio sits down with Steve Krouse to discuss the rapidly evolving relationship between AI and programming. Steve shares lessons from building Val Town at the center of the AI tooling wave, why he believes better abstractions will define the future of software, and how engineers can avoid becoming passive operators in an increasingly agent-driven world.

Ep. #9, The AI Coding Paradigm Shift with Simon Willison

On episode 9 of High Leverage, Joe Ruscio sits down with Simon Willison to unpack the rapid evolution of AI coding tools and what they mean for software development. They explore the shift from vibe coding to agentic engineering, how coding agents are reshaping workflows, and why experience still matters. The conversation dives into trust, security, and what breaks when code becomes cheap.

Ep. #8, The AI Preceptorship Model with Scott Hanselman

On episode 8 of High Leverage, Joe Ruscio sits down with Scott Hanselman for a conversation that goes far beyond prompts and productivity gains. They talk about craftsmanship, learning by doing, the long-term talent pipeline for engineering teams, and how AI could either free people to do more meaningful work or simply accelerate existing inefficiencies. From pair programming to Star Trek economics, this episode examines the bigger human questions behind the current AI boom.

Ep. #7, The CTO’s AI Playbook with Peter Bell

On episode 7 of High Leverage, Joe Ruscio sits down with Peter Bell to explore how the CTO role evolves from early-stage founder to enterprise leader. They unpack what it really takes to scale AI adoption across an engineering organization, and why simply buying tools isn’t enough. The conversation dives into agentic software development, observability, context engineering, and what happens when production code is generated without direct human review.

Ep. #6, Async Runtime For Rust with Carl Lerche of Tokio

On episode 6 of High Leverage, Joe Ruscio sits down with Carl Lerche, Principal Engineer at AWS and creator of Tokio. Carl shares his journey from Ruby and Rails into Rust, and explains why memory safety, fearless concurrency, and async runtimes matter for modern infrastructure. The conversation dives deep into the origins of Tokio, lessons from building foundational open source software, and how Rust’s guarantees are shaping the future of systems engineering. Want 10% off your ticket to TokioConf [https://tokioconf.com/?utm_source=heavybit&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=promo]? Use the discount code: Heavybit10