Lead Prompt Podcast

John Collins

Welcome to leadprompt.sh // executing leadership from the root. This is a weekly podcast unpacking the principles, ideas, and approaches needed to successfully lead large teams in the tech industry. We skip the fluff and get straight to the code: actionable leadership lessons you can deploy to your team immediately. Hosted by John Collins, a seasoned tech leader with decades of experience managing large software engineering teams. Expect episodes that are short, sharp, and grounded in stoic philosophy. Hit subscribe to execute the latest episode every week. #techleadership #softwareengineering #stoicism #management #podcast #tech

  1. 8 Sept

    Devs have pivoted from frameworks to AI models [2026w22]

    Remember when we used to spend our weekends arguing over the "right" routing syntax or which JavaScript framework was going to take over the world? Those days are rapidly ending. In this episode of Lead Prompt, I break down why the developer ecosystem has completely pivoted away from frameworks and toward AI models. From my early days releasing the Alpha Framework for PHP to today's frontier of running open-weight models locally on Linux hardware, the landscape of software engineering has fundamentally shifted. We dive into the hard data, including the latest GitHub Octoverse and State of JS reports, to see exactly why Python dethroned JavaScript, why boilerplate is now virtually free, and why our core jobs are shifting from "code authorship" to AI orchestration. Are we losing the shared guardrails of the developer community, or are we finally returning to First Principles engineering where we control the system down to the root? Let's get into it. Show notes are here: https://leadprompt.sh/a/744-Devs-have-pivoted-from-frameworks-to-AI-models-2026w22 Keywords: Lead Prompt, John Collins, software engineering, systems architecture, technical leadership, artificial intelligence, local AI, Ollama, open weight models, software frameworks, JavaScript frameworks, Python, AI orchestration, developer trends 2026, GitHub Octoverse, Ruby on Rails, microservices, open source AI, First Principles thinking, agentic software development, tech podcast

  2. 1 Sept

    Why Your Enterprise Hates Software [2026w21]

    Why do large enterprises treat their engineering teams like a massive liability? In this episode, I break down the painful reality of the "build vs. buy" vendor trap, and how generative AI is giving software leaders the ultimate leverage to fight back. Learn how to transform your department from a resented cost center into a lean, AI-augmented strike team capable of building bespoke internal software for a fraction of a vendor license, all while maintaining strict security over your proprietary data. Show notes are here: https://leadprompt.sh/a/743-Why-Your-Enterprise-Hates-Software-2026w21 Keywords: software engineering, technical leadership, enterprise software, build vs buy, vendor lock in, generative ai, ai coding tools, platform engineering, software architecture, engineering management, cto advice, tech leadership, developer productivity, ai agents, software development, lead prompt, john collins

  3. 25 Aug

    Humans are terrible programmers [2026w20]

    We panic about AI writing bad code, but are human programmers actually any better? In this episode of Lead Prompt, I draw on over twenty years of software engineering experience to expose an uncomfortable truth: humans are objectively terrible at programming. Beyond the weekly headaches of deployment regressions and the false security of human-written unit tests, I break down five of the most catastrophic software failures in history, including the tragic Therac-25 accidents, the Ariane 5 rocket explosion, and Knight Capital's $440 million glitch. Tune in to explore why placing blind faith in human developers has historically been a recipe for disaster, and why our industry's fear of artificial intelligence might be completely misplaced. Show notes are here: https://leadprompt.sh/a/742-Humans-are-terrible-programmers-2026w20 Keywords: Lead Prompt, John Collins, leadprompt.sh, Tech Leader Pro, software engineering, programming, software bugs, coding, tech history, AI vs humans, software development, tech leadership, software regressions, unit testing, worst software failures, Therac-25, Ariane 5, Mars Climate Orbiter, Knight Capital glitch, Patriot missile failure, software architecture, technical debt, artificial intelligence, AI programming

  4. 14 Aug

    The Science Fiction Book Every Systems Architect Should Read [2026w19]

    In this episode of Lead Prompt, I dive into Ben Smith's bleak science fiction novel Doggerland to explore the psychological toll of extreme technical debt and absentee leadership. Through the story of two isolated men trapped in an infinite loop of repairing a decaying offshore wind farm, we unpack the stark realities of maintaining "zombie infrastructure," the dangers of losing strategic vision to the daily grind of survival, and why inheriting undocumented legacy architecture is a unique professional nightmare. If you want to understand the cultural rot that sets in when tech teams stop asking why they are building and only focus on what is broken, throw away your management books and step into Doggerland. Show notes are here: https://leadprompt.sh/a/741-The-Science-Fiction-Book-Every-Systems-Architect-Should-Read-2026w19 Keywords: Technical Debt, Software Engineering, Tech Leadership, Systems Architecture, Legacy Code, Zombie Infrastructure, Engineering Management, Doggerland, Ben Smith, Sci-Fi Book Review, Lead Prompt, Tech Culture, DevOps, CTO, Software Developer, Legacy Systems, IT Infrastructure, Developer Productivity, Tech Podcast

  5. 5 Aug

    Whiteboards are better than PowerPoint [2026w18]

    In this episode of Lead Prompt, I break down why whiteboards are infinitely superior to PowerPoint decks for effective leadership and problem-solving. While slide decks typically function as rigid, one-way briefing tools that can allow presenters to hide behind carefully curated scripts, whiteboards demand real-time confidence and foster genuine collaboration. Because all ideas must evolve to survive in a constantly changing business environment, I challenge you to ditch the static bullet points and embrace the messy, tactile process of building solutions out in the open. Tune in to learn why grabbing a marker and a blank canvas is the ultimate way to cultivate resilient, team-driven outcomes. Show notes are here: https://leadprompt.sh/a/740-Whiteboards-are-better-than-PowerPoint-2026w18 Keywords: Lead Prompt, tech leadership, whiteboard session, software engineering, systems architecture, effective leadership, PowerPoint alternatives, team collaboration, problem solving, tech podcast, engineering management

  6. 26 Jul

    Lessons from crawling the web at scale [2026w17]

    In this episode of Lead Prompt, I dive into the engineering realities of scaling Greppr.org past 41 million indexed documents and 0.5TB of data. Moving past management theory, I break down the engineering optimizations required to survive the chaos of crawling the web at scale. Discover how I bypassed geo-location redirects using proxies, defeated crawler tar pits with custom fail-fast timeouts, implemented rapid early-stage filters for NSFW content and non-text rich media, and eliminated index bloat through automated canonical URL deduplication. Show notes are here: https://leadprompt.sh/a/737-Lessons-from-crawling-the-web-at-scale-2026w17 Keywords: greppr, web crawling, systems engineering, solo founder, apache solr, web scraping, backend development, data indexing, web crawler at scale, canonical urls, crawler tar pits, proxy routing, geo ip redirection, nsfw filtering, rich media filtering, solr architecture, software engineering podcast, lead prompt, tech infrastructure

  7. 22 Jun

    AI as a Factor of Production [2026w16]

    Is Artificial Intelligence just another tool, or is it fundamentally changing the laws of economics? In this episode of Lead Prompt, host John Collins argues that AI or specifically commoditized super intelligence, has emerged as the new, fifth factor of production. Moving beyond the classical pillars of Land, Labor, Capital, and Entrepreneurship, John revisits his 2004 theories on the knowledge economy to explain how AI is shifting from a passive asset to an active participant in problem-solving. For technical leaders, this marks a massive shift: the primary bottleneck of production is no longer human cognition, but the architectural and organizational design required to orchestrate digital intellect. Tune in to explore what this means for the future of engineering, the new premium placed on human vision, and why executing from the root now requires building AI-first structures. Show notes are here: https://leadprompt.sh/a/736-AI-as-a-Factor-of-Production-2026w16 Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, AI, Economics, Factors of Production, Super Intelligence, Tech Leadership, Lead Prompt, Leadership, Knowledge Economy, AI First Architecture, Engineering Management, Organizational Design, Future of Work, Tech Podcast, Commoditized Intelligence, Tech Strategy, Software Engineering, Knowledge Based Economy

  8. 13 Jun

    AI Cures Organizational Dementia [2026w15]

    In this episode of Lead Prompt // executing leadership from the root, host John Collins breaks down the concept of "organizational dementia", the costly reality of how companies unintentionally lose critical institutional knowledge at scale. Grounded in academic research on knowledge depreciation, John shares a raw, behind-the-scenes look at a daunting engineering challenge: successfully migrating an undocumented, 25-year-old Classic ASP and VB6 application from Windows 2003 to Windows 2019 without touching the core code. Discover how his team leveraged advanced LLMs (Claude and Gemini) as a synthetic memory layer to parse legacy syntax, resolve complex infrastructure conflicts, and bridge a quarter-century technical gap. Finally, explore the critical takeaway for technical leaders: why AI must be treated as an elite technical advisor rather than a blind substitute for foundational human systems thinking. Show notes are here: https://leadprompt.sh/a/735-AI-Cures-Organizational-Dementia-2026w15 Keywords: Lead Prompt, technical leadership, organizational dementia, organizational forgetting, institutional knowledge, corporate memory, legacy systems, software migration, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2019, Classic ASP, VB6, Visual Basic 6, technical debt, AI in software engineering, Claude AI, Google Gemini, code modernization, systems thinking, engineering management, software archeology, IT infrastructure migration

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About

Welcome to leadprompt.sh // executing leadership from the root. This is a weekly podcast unpacking the principles, ideas, and approaches needed to successfully lead large teams in the tech industry. We skip the fluff and get straight to the code: actionable leadership lessons you can deploy to your team immediately. Hosted by John Collins, a seasoned tech leader with decades of experience managing large software engineering teams. Expect episodes that are short, sharp, and grounded in stoic philosophy. Hit subscribe to execute the latest episode every week. #techleadership #softwareengineering #stoicism #management #podcast #tech

Information

  • Creator
    John Collins
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    156
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    Lead Prompt Podcast