Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots

thoughtbot

4.8 (89)
Technology
Updated Weekly

A podcast about the design, development, and business of great software. Each week thoughtbot is joined by the people who build and nurture the products we love.

23h ago

622: Six Opinions Wrapped in Code with Kelli Lucas

Will is back in the host seat this week to chat to the one and only Kelli Lucas, Co-Founder & Chief Design Officer at LunarLab. In this episode, Will and Kelli discuss, amongst many things; the push and pull relationship between designers and developers, alignment in the workplace, the love/hate relationship with Figma, how AI has affected the process of design projects, and why you shouldn’t rely on AI to build your business plan. — Our guest for this episode has been Kelli Lucas. If you'd like to get in touch with Kelli, or chat about working together on your next UX/UI Design project, you can visit the Lunar Lab website. or connect with them via LinkedIn. Your host for this episode has been Will Larry, you can find and connect with Will over on LinkedIn. Don't forget you can now also watch the show over on our YouTube channel! If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@giantrobots.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast
Sep 3

621: My twin brother responds… with Doron Birnbaum

Would you ever go into business with your family? As a follow up to last week’s episode, we’ve brought on the one and only Doron Birnbaum (twin brother of our dear Sami) to get both sides of the story about their latest business venture. Doron takes Will and Chad through how the idea to build a tech platform that helps charities understand their data better to improve fundraising campaigns came to be, where the Birnbaum’s are currently at in terms of getting it into the hands of their target audience, and the roadblocks they’ve hit along the way. Have our hosts now been hired as the software’s new advisory board? Which brother will Chad and Will side with? And who is technically the oldest twin?! — Our guest for this episode has been Doron Birnbaum. If you'd like to get in touch with Doron you can do so through his website, or by email. You can find Chad all over social media as @cpytel and Sami through his website. You can also connect with the trio via their LinkedIn pages - Chad - Will - Sami. Don't forget you can now also watch the show over on our YouTube channel! If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@giantrobots.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast
Aug 27

620: My Twin Brother Forced Me To Be His CTO

Would you ever go into business with your family? In this week’s episode, our hosts take on Sami’s tale of becoming the CTO of his brother’s business venture. After the trio get into some excellent running advice, Sami reminds us of the importance of validating the product to make sure the market will actually use what you’ve built. Will reflects on the importance of a Document of Expectations to weed out potential clients that aren’t going to put effort into the development of their ideas (especially if you’re doing the work for free), and Chad explains why an idea fizzling out before completion isn’t necessarily a bad thing. And make sure to tune in next week, as the team brings in Sami’s brother, Doron, to answer some of the questions brought up this episode. — You can find Chad all over social media as @cpytel and Sami through his website. You can also connect with the trio via their LinkedIn pages - Chad - Will - Sami. Don't forget you can now also watch the show over on our YouTube channel! If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@giantrobots.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast
Aug 20

619: Inside Modern Software Engineering with Homebrew’s Mike McQuaid

Sami is back this week with Mike McQuaid, CTPO and Homebrew Project Leader, as they take a deep dive into the importance of open source maintainers in modern software engineering. With 18 years of experience reducing developer friction and scaling open source software, Mike discusses the commonalities and differences between open source and proprietary software audiences, impact of large data centres on both the environment and women in the workplace, revealing what drove him to create Homebrew and where they are now, before taking Sami through burnout and why it’s important to not be rude to your open source maintainers - you’ll be surprised which national entities would fall apart if it weren’t for their hard work and time. — Our guest for this episode has been Mike McQuaid. If you'd like to get in touch with Mike, or to keep up to date with his work, you can do so through his website. Also mentioned in today’s episode: ‘Open Source Maintainers Owe You Nothing’ blog post. Your host for this episode has been Sami Birnbaum. Sami can be found through his website or via LinkedIn. If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@giantrobots.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast
Aug 13

618: 22 Years of Bootstrapping with Jesse Mecham

Will is joined this week by personal finance expert, speaker, business leader Jesse Mecham, founder of You Need A Budget (or YNAB if you are very busy and important). In this episode, to celebrate the release of his new book ‘Never Worry About Money Again’, Jesse dives into how YNAB came to be, from spreadsheet to the interface it is today, the trials and tribulations the business went through over the years, before going into depth about why people are so scared of money. — Mentioned in the episode: Jesse’s brand new book, 'Never Worry About Money Again' out now! Visit the YNAB website Jason Fried’s ‘Getting Real’ Richard A. Lanham’s ‘Revising Prose’ Eugene Schwartz’s ‘Breakthrough Advertising’ Donald A. Norman’s ‘The Design of Everyday Things’ Clayton Christiansen’s ‘Jobs to be Done’ Framework Our guest for this episode has been Jesse Mecham. If you'd like to get in touch with Jesse, or to keep up to date with his work, you can visit his website. Your host for this episode has been Will Larry, you can find and connect with Will over on LinkedIn. If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@giantrobots.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast
Aug 6

617: Lexxy, Basecamp, and the Joy of Building with Jorge Marubia

Will is back in the host seat this week to chat to Jorge Marubia, Principal Programmer at 37signals, about his previous experience using Lexxy and Basecamp. In this episode, Jorge goes into depth about BaseCamp 5, how his team got through a memory leaking situation after its launch, and Lexxy being open source, before diving into the question on everyone’s lips recently - what his thoughts are on AI and how it will affect Junior Developers. — Our guest for this episode has been Jorge Marubia. If you'd like to get in touch with Jorge, or to keep up to date with his work, you can find him via LinkedIn - X - or through his website. Your host for this episode has been Will Larry, you can find and connect with Will over on LinkedIn. If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@giantrobots.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast
Jul 30

616: What’s Really Going On with AI Data Centres with Dr. Victoria Plutshack

Sami is back this week with Gender, Climate and Energy Specialist Dr. Victoria Plutshack, as they dive into what’s really going on with AI Data Centres in Scotland and the UK. Make sure you’ve popped your kettles on as Victoria discusses the impact of large data centres on both the environment and women in the workplace, whether it’s possible to use AI and have the data centres source their energy responsibly, before taking Sami through how they are going to cause problems with the National Grid. — Our guest for this episode has been Dr. Victoria Plutshack. If you'd like to get in touch with Victoria, or to keep up to date with her work, you can do so through LinkedIn or through her website Also mentioned in today’s episode: APRS Data Centres Campaign Opinionated thoughtbotter episode ‘AI Does More Harm Than Good’ Giant Robots Episode 605 with Lord Chris Holmes Your host for this episode has been Sami Birnbaum. Sami can be found through his website or via LinkedIn. If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@giantrobots.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast
Jul 23

615: Harvey AI and the Future of Law

Our host Sami is joined this week by Joe Cohen, Legal Innovation Partner at Harvey AI, to discuss the use of AI within the legal and professional services, and how it could impact the speed, quality and efficiency of lawyers doing legal work. Joe dives into his career journey, Harvey AI’s adoption rate success within law firms, what the future career growth could look like for Junior Partners being taught by AI, and the comparison between AI use in the modern age vs the introduction of email in the 80’s. — Our guest for this episode has been Joe Cohen. If you'd like to get in touch with Joe, or to keep up to date with his work, you can do so through LinkedIn Your host for this episode has been Sami Birnbaum. Sami can be found through his website or via LinkedIn. If you would like to support the show, head over to our GitHub page, or check out our website. Got a question or comment about the show? Why not write to our hosts: hosts@giantrobots.fm This has been a thoughtbot podcast. Stay up to date by following us on social media - LinkedIn - Mastodon - YouTube - Bluesky © 2026 Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast

See All (634)

4.8

out of 5

89 Ratings

The human side

03/24/2020

Anuj Adhiya

Lindsey is a great host. She keeps the entire conversation moving and ensures that the discussions lead to thought starters for listeners, even when the topics being discussed might be highly technical. You're guaranteed to get something out of every interview. Lindsey's also wickedly funny so you'll never be bored. Give this show a go.
Hit or miss, trending towards miss.

09/29/2023

Nick8090908

This dude really just claimed that his company has artificial general intelligence. Ok.
Worse over time

04/12/2020

Travel Adventurers

I can’t say I’m a fan of the more recent podcast episodes. It’s gone from discussing interesting technical problems to business to solely interviews with clients who hired ThoughtBot. High quality audio, low quality filler content.
Entertaining, insightful and actionable! 🔥

03/13/2020

obacker19

Whether you’re well established as someone who can translate creative energy into the impact you want to have on the world, or just getting started as a catalyst for change - this is a must-listen podcast for you! Chad and Lindsey do an incredible job leading conversations that cover a huge breadth of topics related to the ins and outs of building a thriving career and life you can be proud of as a creator - from leaders who’ve actually walked the path. Highly recommend listening and subscribing!

A podcast about the design, development, and business of great software. Each week thoughtbot is joined by the people who build and nurture the products we love.