Overcommitted | Software Engineering and Programming Insights

overcommitted.dev | Women in Tech and Tech Mentorship

Join Overcommitted for insightful conversations with women in tech, software engineers, and programming experts focused on advancing software engineering careers. Explore topics such as software ethics, system reliability, infrastructure resilience, programming best practices, and agentic AI development. Our hosts share career insights and tech mentorship to boost developer productivity and code quality for passionate programmers and software engineers alike.

  1. 5d ago

    Starting a Software Engineering Career | Beating Imposter Syndrome in the AI Era with Sreya Sarathy

    SummaryWhat does it look like to start a software engineering career right now, when AI has erased the "grunt work" that used to be how new grads learned? Brittany and Bethany sit down with Sreya Sarathy, a software engineer at Northwestern Mutual and 2025 UW–Madison grad (double major in computer science and data science), who spent her first year out of school running a free virtual panel series that drew 1,500+ registrations across speakers from Apple, Amazon, IBM, Starbucks, Ford, Deloitte, and GitHub.Sreya shares the Stack Overflow moment that broke her imposter syndrome spiral in college, why adding more to her plate cured her burnout instead of making it worse, how she built the early-career community she wished existed, and what it's like being handed advanced work as a new grad because AI now does the tasks juniors used to cut their teeth on. Plus: her product teardowns on Substack, what senior engineers can actually do to support early-career folks, and her dream of a low-pressure "optimize your life" hackathon.Links- Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sreya.sarathy/- LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sreyasarathy/ - Substack - https://substack.com/@sreyasarathy- Website - https://sreyasarathy.com/- Designing Data-Intensive Applications - https://bookshop.org/p/books/designing-data-intensive-applications-the-big-ideas-behind-reliable-scalable-and-maintainable-systems-chris-riccomini/7dfa8afce8f3816e?ean=9781098119065&bkshp-astro=t- Don’t Make Me Think -https://bookshop.org/p/books/don-t-make-me-think-revisited-a-common-sense-approach-to-web-usability-steve-krug/d30340ad4751d00d?ean=9780321965516&bkshp-astro=tHosts:- Overcommitted: https://overcommitted.dev- Bethany Janos: https://www.trustyduck.dev/⁠⁠ ⁠- Brittany Ellich: https://brittanyellich.com

    Starting a Software Engineering Career | Beating Imposter Syndrome in the AI Era with Sreya Sarathy

  2. Aug 4

    Closed That Tab: Agentic Identity, AI Security Incidents, and Loop Engineering

    This week we're trying something new: Closed That Tab, a segment where each host shares one thing they finally read that was worth the time. Erika brings a post on agentic AI identity and delegation - covering why OAuth isn't quite enough for agents that accumulate permissions across a request lifecycle, and what transaction tokens (an IETF draft proposal) offer as a solution. Bethany covers Simon Willison's breakdown of the OpenAI security incident, where an eval harness escaped its sandbox by chaining zero-day vulnerabilities - and what responsible sandboxing and observability should have caught earlier. Brittany shares how she accidentally built a loop engineering system before knowing the term existed: a continuously running agent harness using git worktrees, sub-agents, and a memory file to close around 20 PRs a day, including self-healing flaky tests. Links: Erika’s Agentic AI Identity Read: https://khaledzaky.com/blog/delegation-is-the-real-identity-problem-in-agentic-ai Bethany’s OpenAI CyberAttack Read: https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/22/openai-cyberattack Empire of AI: https://bookshop.org/p/books/empire-of-ai-dreams-and-nightmares-in-sam-altman-s-openai-karen-hao Brittany’s Loop Engineering Read: https://addyosmani.com/blog/loop-engineering/  Superpowers: https://github.com/obra/superpowers  Brittany’s Loop Engineering Blog post: https://brittany-ellich.offprint.app/a/3mrjj34puva23-108-prs-in-eight-days-accidentally-discovering-loop-engineering Hosts: Overcommitted: ⁠https://overcommitted.dev ⁠Bethany Janos: ⁠https://www.trustyduck.dev/⁠ Brittany Ellich: ⁠https://brittanyellich.com ⁠Erika Eggemeyer: ⁠https://github.com/eggyhead

    Closed That Tab: Agentic Identity, AI Security Incidents, and Loop Engineering

  3. Jul 28

    Open and Async Work | Remote Engineering Culture with Ben Balter

    Learn how async-first communication transforms remote engineering culture and developer productivity. Ben Balter, open source governance expert, shares practical strategies for building transparent, documented workflows that help distributed teams collaborate without synchronous bottlenecks—and why this matters for engineers navigating complex project ownership. Links https://ben.balter.com/contact/ https://bsky.app/profile/ben.balter.com https://open-and-async.com/ Hosts Overcommitted: ⁠⁠https://overcommitted.dev⁠ ⁠Bethany Janos: ⁠⁠https://www.trustyduck.dev/⁠⁠ ⁠ Erika Eggemeyer: ⁠⁠https://github.com/eggyhead

    Open and Async Work | Remote Engineering Culture with Ben Balter

  4. Jul 21

    Building Terminal Graph, a Spatial Development Environment, with Caidan Williams

    Caidan Williams put your terminals, browsers, editors, and AI agents on one infinite canvas. He joins Erika and Brittany to talk about Terminal Graph, the spatial development environment for macOS he built for himself first, and the self-taught path that took him from Minecraft mods at 13 to partner at a Seattle dev studio. We get into the dataflow model that sets Terminal Graph apart, like piping a git diff straight into Claude Code or grepping a dev server's logs into a browser node. Caidan explains Blueprints, his approach to sharing a whole team workflow as a single file, and what it's like to run a product inside a holacracy with no bosses and no venture money. Then he tells his career story. No college degree. A gap year spent applying to around 500 companies. Computer vision on dental and MRI images. Burnout, a layoff, and a cross-country move to Seattle with one duffel bag. His honest takeaway is that persistence, not raw talent, is what got him here. If you build your own tools, wire agents into your workflow, or you're finding a non-traditional way into engineering, this one is for you. Links Terminal Graph: https://terminalgraph.com/ Caidan Williams: https://caidan.dev/ Tools mentioned LazyGit: https://lazygit.dev/ Neovim: https://neovim.io/ Hosts Overcommitted: ⁠⁠https://overcommitted.dev⁠ ⁠ Erika Eggemeyer: ⁠⁠https://github.com/eggyhead Brittany Ellich: https://brittanyellich.com/ Follow Overcommitted so you don't miss next week's episode, and share it with an engineer who'd like it.

    Building Terminal Graph, a Spatial Development Environment, with Caidan Williams

  5. Jul 14

    What VCs Want from Tech Talent | Engineering Careers with Melanie Nabar

    What do investors actually look for in software engineers and tech founders? Melanie Nabar pulls back the curtain on what VCs see when evaluating engineering talent, sharing insider insights on career growth, technical credibility, and the skills that matter most when funding is on the line. Perfect for engineers ready to level up their career strategy. Links Melanie Nabar on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniejordannabar/ Volition Capital: https://www.volitioncapital.com/ Hosts Overcommitted: ⁠https://overcommitted.dev ⁠Bethany Janos: ⁠https://www.trustyduck.dev/⁠ ⁠Erika Eggemeyer: ⁠https://github.com/eggyhead

    What VCs Want from Tech Talent | Engineering Careers with Melanie Nabar

  6. Jul 7

    Safety-Critical Software | System Reliability for Live Events with Lars Olson

    Summary What happens when a software bug stops a concert—or endangers a performer flying above the stage? System reliability takes on new meaning in live event tech. This week, Brittany and Erika talk with Lars Olson, full stack engineer at TAIT, about building safety-critical systems that power the world's biggest tours and theme parks. Lars shares how React and Rust meet real-world consequences, why error boundaries matter more than you think, and what production safety teaches us about code quality and engineering culture. Links My Hometown Recipes - ⁠https://myhometownrecipes.com/⁠ Erik Lars Olson - LinkedIn - ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/eriklarsolson/⁠ Bluesky - ⁠https://bsky.app/profile/eriklars.bsky.social⁠ X - ⁠https://x.com/energyblazer⁠  Hosts Overcommitted: ⁠https://overcommitted.dev⁠Brittany Ellich: ⁠https://brittanyellich.com⁠Erika "Eggyhead" Eggemeyer: ⁠https://github.com/eggyhead⁠

    Safety-Critical Software | System Reliability for Live Events with Lars Olson

  7. Jun 30

    Keeping Skills Sharp in the AI Age | Developer Productivity Essentials

    As AI code intelligence tools reshape daily programming work, developer productivity and career growth depend less on speed and more on judgment. In this episode, we explore what skills actually matter when AI writes code—and why engineers need a new mindset about staying sharp. From code quality ownership to learning tactics, discover the practical skills that keep your value rising in an AI-native engineering world. Links: Math books: https://www.bravernewmath.com/ Crystal Bepis: https://crystalbepis.com/ GitHub Copilot App: https://github.com/features/ai/github-app Hosts: Overcommitted: ⁠https://overcommitted.dev ⁠Bethany Janos: ⁠https://www.trustyduck.dev/⁠ Brittany Ellich: ⁠https://brittanyellich.com ⁠Erika Eggemeyer: ⁠https://github.com/eggyhead

  8. Jun 23

    Software Engineering in Production With Cameron Etezadi

    What happens when coding becomes nearly free - but everything else in the software delivery process doesn't? Cameron Etezadi, CTO at LaunchDarkly, joins Erika, Brittany, and Bethany to talk about the gap between code that compiles and code that actually works in production. They cover vibe coding pitfalls, the release-observe-iterate loop, how AI is shifting engineers toward frontline manager behaviors, and why speed without control is a liability - not an asset. Cameron also shares how LaunchDarkly changed their intern interview process to reflect the AI era, what EU regulations mean for human accountability in AI-generated code, and why the classic two-pizza team is giving way to something much smaller. Cameron Etezadi is the CTO at LaunchDarkly and brings experience scaling engineering organizations at Google, HashiCorp, and SAP. He's also a licensed flight instructor with ratings in fixed-wing, seaplane, helicopter, and gyroplane - and has logged over 400 skydives. Show notes: Cameron on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronetezadiLaunchDarkly: https://launchdarkly.comLaunchDarkly leadership page: https://launchdarkly.com/leadership/Rainier Flight Service bio: https://www.rainierflightservice.com/rainier-flight-staff/cameron-etezadi

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4.3
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6 Ratings

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Join Overcommitted for insightful conversations with women in tech, software engineers, and programming experts focused on advancing software engineering careers. Explore topics such as software ethics, system reliability, infrastructure resilience, programming best practices, and agentic AI development. Our hosts share career insights and tech mentorship to boost developer productivity and code quality for passionate programmers and software engineers alike.

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