I'm a software engineer - what next?

From KC-10 refuellers to centaur coding with Peter Marreck

Welcome back to I'm a Software Engineer, What Next? The podcast for devs figuring out their next move. Hosted by James Wilson and Matt Sinclair, we talk honestly about what it takes to build a meaningful career in tech.This week we're joined by Peter Marreck, who's currently consulting on AI for legal workflows. Peter's route in was not the standard one. Four years in the US Air Force as an electrical specialist on a KC-10 refueller (actively trying to avoid anything to do with computers, it didn't take), then Cornell, then web software since 2000: FactSet, Deloitte, ThredUp, Desk, a decade running his own contracting shop, then Director of Engineering at Adgenes. The Commodore Pet got him at age eight and he's been spitting ever since.In this episode, we cover:- Why he wanted to be a doctor until he touched a Commodore Pet, and why being into computers in the 80s was "social suicide"- Trust your gut, including the time someone told him not to buy Apple stock- The centaur coder: five months of collaborating with an LLM and what changed in how he thinks about design- The thin coordinator pattern: a pure Zig functional core wrapped in a CFFI so any front end can hang off it- Why LLMs are unusually good at Zig (similar to C, simple enough to grok)- Pushback on Dario Amodei: the people who'll survive are the ones who grab the surfboard, not the ones who get washed out- Dunning-Kruger as a service, and what to make of Gary Tan's G-Stack prompts- "Don't fire your engineers. Attack the backlog instead." Why this is the moment for the work that's been sitting around for two years- Cognitive surrender as a third category of thinking, and the cost of handing too much off to the model- "Idiocracy is a documentary from the future." Peter on the incompetence failure mode being scarier than the malicious one Guest:Peter Marreckhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/petermarreck/ HostsMatt: https://matthewsinclair.com James: linkedin.com/in/james-wilson-92170656More from us:https://whatnext.dev/https://quantumfaxmachine.com/

If you bend it, you have to mend it: Ben Moag on tanks, trading floors, and the AI quality cliff

Welcome back to I'm a Software Engineer, What Next? The podcast for devs figuring out their next move. Hosted by James Wilson and Matt Sinclair, we talk honestly about what it takes to build a meaningful career in tech.This week we're joined by Ben Moog, Head of Engineering at InsurX. Ben's path is not the usual one. Computer science at Bristol, then Sandhurst and a stint as a tank commander in the British cavalry, then a decade in finance (central risk trading at Citi, quant portfolio management at a hedge fund), then the standard quant PM ending of burnout and a divorce, and now his sixth greenfield build, this time rebuilding the Insurex platform live while the business is still running on it.In this episode, we cover:- Ben's "if you bend it, you have to mend it" philosophy and why a chaotic childhood is good career preparation- Why a quant trading floor is more stressful than commanding a tank- The Citigroup coffee story and what high-trust teams actually look like- Managers care about outcomes, leaders care about repeatable outcomes- Why Ben lets his team veto his hires before he ever sees a CV- The AI quality cliff in March and April, what's causing it, and what to do about it- "Only ask AI a question you know the answer to" and other rules for surviving agentic coding- Advice for engineers a year or two into their career, and why this is the most exciting time to be building tech since the 80s🗒️ Show Notes"Everyone Lies to Leaders" (2021 article Matt referenced): http://rubick.com/everyone-lies-to-le... [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa01JUDhrWTluN2ZlNzYwWFY4YmViVDhXdldjd3xBQ3Jtc0tudXNTMHZYdjF3c240MzFhOWdYdGxYcUowMlp3cHV1bERhWXh6SjZGeHNDb0VRTFJSS1NyYUdjZW0xazFGOFNmMFNNU1pYWkxGclRKYkNBUk1QU3pEQ2dJOXVCMWVZUnY0UEdTTUlDQm9ucmxOQXFVWQ&q=http%3A%2F%2Frubick.com%2Feveryone-lies-to-leaders%2F&v=z_4tv4Ezve0]🗣️ GuestBen Moog — Head of Engineering, InsurXLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/benmoag/ [linkedin.com/in/benmoag/]🎙 HostsMatt: https://matthewsinclair.com [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbTNBbENPY2F1LW9EVE1BX21OSnZrYmFtMl9ud3xBQ3Jtc0tuSk83ajkzaFlONlNJV0FqXzdtQXYtV3IwN3NsUGVaSmNOVHBlYmdCbUJnYklJYkFsWmxqdWhYR1FwMkgyYkg0Y3NiZkhMR3h4endld2hxLUxsMFhmdXBtYmt6T29xcXdjRjR5Y3I5ajFTaUNtMGlvVQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fmatthewsinclair.com%2F&v=z_4tv4Ezve0]Matt: linkedin.com/in/matthewsinclair [linkedin.com/in/matthewsinclair]James:   / james-wilson-92170656   [https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-wilson-92170656/]🌐 More from us:https://whatnext.dev/ [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbEpDeGM2WHExRVVDOGkyVnkyemZjSXpEc1dRd3xBQ3Jtc0ttdGZUN3VmYmg3NkozY3l2X0xRWFZXLTRRbmFwRERrc1VNMUl1Q3R4WnpUQ1F0QWdTMzBPY19rU256UWhOX2FoQ0F0VTJvek1wSEJTaWNWQzBtdTh5bHB5c1pVNVZtcWotYmdLR2psVkIwMVVSN0xRTQ&q=https%3A%2F%2Fwhatnext.dev%2F&v=z_4tv4Ezve0]https://quantumfaxmachine.com/ [https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa3pfbkxId3huWU9NV1dERGg3aXpOVlA2V3Rkd3xBQ3Jtc0ttTFUxaWRsSjYwUk8wcGhlUEhlY0pINXJDeHJ2TUs1R20tRlZXTElvdk9KN1RaOTlXdHFvNEpodkF1MVRmaS1kNFZETndMR0N5Q0ItMUZWeXp0MW1oemtEeEMtdmpOTHR6OHlmdVVUNzBLNWhOVjQ0cw&q=https%3A%2F%2Fquantumfaxmachine.com%2F&v=z_4tv4Ezve0]

From the Joburg Stock Exchange to CTO of Zilch: Sean Hederman on why being right doesn't scale

Welcome back to I'm a Software Engineer, What Next? The podcast for devs figuring out their next move. Hosted by James Wilson and Matt Sinclair, we talk honestly about what it takes to build a meaningful career in tech. This week we're joined by Sean Hederman, CTO of Zilch, one of the UK's biggest fintechs. Sean was the second hire at Zilch. Before that he built bi-temporal reference data systems at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, transformed DevOps at Stanlib and Direct Line, and somewhere along the way worked out that being the best individual engineer in the room is a ceiling, not a career. In this episode, we cover: -Why "being right doesn't scale" and what to engineer instead -The multiplier effect: lifting a team by 20% beats doubling your own output -Conway's law and the reverse Conway manoeuvre at Zilch -Queuing theory applied to engineering teams (and why Sean mandates 20 to 30% tech debt work) -Humans as chaos monkeys, and why half of software engineering practice exists because we're unreliable -Hiring engineers in the agentic era and the AI usage patterns Sean actually looks for -Adversarial agentic coding, spec-driven development, and getting the model to review its own work -The myth of the 10x programmer and what real force multipliers look like on a team Guest: Sean Hederman https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-hederman/ 🎙 Hosts Matt: https://matthewsinclair.com James: linkedin.com/in/james-wilson-92170656 🌐 More from us: https://whatnext.dev/ https://quantumfaxmachine.com/

From DevOps to Novels: Richard Bown on Engineering with Empathy

This week on I'm a Software Engineer ~ What Next? James and Matt are joined by Richard Bown, DevOps engineer and author of Human Software, a novel that captures the messy, human side of engineering work.We get into:Richard’s winding journey from IC to manager and back again — and why that detour made him a better engineerWhy burnout, bad management, and “culture fit” aren’t bugs — they’re design flawsHow writing a novel helped Richard reflect on decades in tech — and why fiction can be a powerful tool for changeYou might enoy this if:-You're a senior engineer debating the jump to management-You’ve felt stuck in your tech career and wondered: is this it?-You’re curious how AI, team structure, and empathy are reshaping how we build software🎧 Listen now on Spotify | iTunes | YouTube📘 Check out Richard’s book: Human Software [https://richardwbown.com/human-software/]

From engineering bootcamps, founding startups to GitHub: Kate’s PM Journey

Welcome back to I’m a Software Engineer: What Next? This week we are joined by Kate Catlin, Senior Product Manager at GitHub, where she works on Copilot and the future of AI-powered developer experience. In this episode, we cover: • How Kate reinvented her career multiple times on the path to GitHub • What “good product intuition” really means for PMs and engineers • How AI is reshaping product work, and why evals matter for building trustworthy AI features 🗒️ Show Notes • Venture For America • Le Wagon Bootcamp • CircleCI • GitHub Copilot • Find My Flock (Kate’s former startup) • Joseph Campbell – The Hero’s Journey • Philosophy of Technology (from Kate’s studies) 🎙 Guest Kate Catlin, Senior PM, GitHub Copilot LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-catlin/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-catlin/] 🎙 Hosts Matt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewsinclair [https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewsinclair] James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-wilson-92170656 [https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-wilson-92170656] 🌐 More from us https://whatnext.dev/ [https://whatnext.dev/] https://quantumfaxmachine.com/ [https://quantumfaxmachine.com/]