The Peterman Pod

Ryan Peterman

Sharing software engineering career stories to help you accelerate your career. Hosted by ex-Staff engineer at Instagram

  1. AWS Distinguished Eng: Learning From 3000 Incidents And How Engineering Is Changing | Marc Brooker

    6H AGO

    AWS Distinguished Eng: Learning From 3000 Incidents And How Engineering Is Changing | Marc Brooker

    In this episode, I talked to Marc Brooker, a distinguished engineer at AWS who started there as a new grad and rose through the ranks. We discussed technical learnings from 3,000+ cloud system postmortems, how software engineering is changing with AI, how to find impactful problems and much more. ๐Ÿ”ถ My keyboard Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done ๐—ฃ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐˜€: โ€ข YouTube: https://youtu.be/u3GjIXP9N0s โ€ข Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1qX2GfpbzxzGpGvDZVINdO?si=wsDGZo9PTbCNalKVybFVnA โ€ข Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 โ€ข Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/aws-distinguished-eng-learnings-from ๐—˜๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐˜€: โ€ข Post we discussed on hobbies and apparent expertise: https://brooker.co.za/blog/2023/04/20/hobbies.html โ€ข Post on software engineering changing: https://brooker.co.za/blog/2026/02/07/you-are-here.html โ€ข Post about Senior engineers and AI: https://brooker.co.za/blog/2026/03/20/ic-leadership.html โ€ข Post on Junior engineers and AI: https://brooker.co.za/blog/2026/03/25/ic-junior.html ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐˜€: 0:00 - Intro 1:27 - Finding problems that matter 11:42 - Learnings from 3000 postmortems 23:58 - Why caches are bad 29:37 - How AI will change software engineering 36:49 - Advice for junior engineers given AI 44:02 - Thoughts for senior engineers 49:59 - Why engineers should write 57:51 - Visibility and apparent expertise 1:04:23 - AWS engineers he admires 1:06:53 - Technical book recommendations 1:09:06 - Advice for his younger self 1:10:37 - Outro ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐— ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฐ: โ€ข LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-brooker-b431772b/ โ€ข Twitter/X: https://x.com/MarcJBrooker โ€ข Personal Blog: https://brooker.co.za/blog/ ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฅ๐˜†๐—ฎ๐—ป: โ€ข Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ โ€ข X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ โ€ข Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman โ€ข Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

    1h 12m
  2. Ex-Head of Eng at Instagram: Career Regrets and Learnings | James Everingham

    APR 6

    Ex-Head of Eng at Instagram: Career Regrets and Learnings | James Everingham

    This is James Everingham, former head of engineering at Instagram and a veteran of the tech world with experience at Netscape. We talked about his unconventional start in the industry, learnings from every leg of his career, and regrets he has looking back. ๐—ฃ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐˜€: โ€ข YouTube: https://youtu.be/VIF5Fm8NdE8 โ€ข Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 โ€ข Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/ex-head-of-eng-at-instagram-career ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐˜€: 0:00 - Intro 0:57 - Kicked out of college 5:35 - FBI showed up at his house 7:43 - Pre-IPO Netscape experience 25:19 - Joining Instagram as head of eng 29:12 - Why shrinking teams improves velocity 32:59 - Working with Mike Krieger 37:16 - Leading Cryptocurrency project at Meta 42:30 - What he is working on now 54:29 - Career regrets 56:27 - Advice for his younger self 57:42 - Outro ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€: โ€ข LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jevering/ โ€ข Twitter/X: https://x.com/jevering โ€ข Threads: https://www.threads.com/@jevering ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฅ๐˜†๐—ฎ๐—ป: โ€ข Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ โ€ข X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ โ€ข Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman โ€ข Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

    59 min
  3. Amazon VP Reveals Everything He's Seen In Corporate Politics | Ethan Evans

    MAR 30

    Amazon VP Reveals Everything He's Seen In Corporate Politics | Ethan Evans

    Ethan Evans is a former VP at Amazon has seen pretty much every possible type of corporate politics. Now that he's retired, he could share everything he'd seen including stories about empire building, hidden politics, reorgs, senior promos and dealing with bad managers. ๐Ÿ”ธ The keyboard I'm building: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done ๐—ฃ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐˜€: โ€ข YouTube: https://youtu.be/6WaeGfLnRvc โ€ข Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 โ€ข Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/amazon-vp-reveals-everything-hes ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐˜€: 00:00 - Intro 2:33 - Empire Building 31:54 - Stealing scope 44:03 - Managing out via reorgs 51:01 - Bad managers and mutiny 01:01:43 - Political messaging 01:11:48 - Handling politically skilled operators 01:20:01 - Orgs trying to steal scope 01:30:26 - Handling difficult people from other orgs 01:36:19 - Handling weak managers 01:46:30 - Backchanneling 01:52:04 - Influence without authority 01:58:04 - Sexual harassment 02:00:49 - Skip overruling firing 02:05:39 - How to fire managers 02:11:31 - Leverage when people are getting fired 02:24:01 - How to grow past senior eng 02:43:01 - How to avoid politics 02:48:15 - Advice for younger self 02:49:51 - Outro ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—˜๐˜๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป: โ€ข LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/ โ€ข X/Twitter: https://x.com/EthanEvansVP โ€ข Newsletter: https://levelupwithethanevans.substack.com/ โ€ข YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-BAdkBGjOIlccGLZ3jbLiA ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฅ๐˜†๐—ฎ๐—ป: โ€ข Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ โ€ข X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ โ€ข Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman โ€ข Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

    2h 51m
  4. The Co-Creator of Kubernetes On Convincing Google, Building It, and Scaling for LLMs

    MAR 23

    The Co-Creator of Kubernetes On Convincing Google, Building It, and Scaling for LLMs

    This is a conversation with Brendan Burns, co-creator of Kubernetes and current technical fellow at Microsoft working on Azure. We discussed what it was like building it at Google, how he got buy-in, and what he learned along the way. ๐Ÿ”ธ My keyboard project: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal ๐—ฃ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐˜€: โ€ข YouTube: https://youtu.be/FKijpCEH9D8 โ€ข Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 โ€ข Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/the-creator-of-kubernetes-on-building ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐˜€: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:37 - How he convinced Google leaders 00:09:26 - Building the MVP 00:11:43 - How he made time for Kubernetes 00:25:28 - Technical details on building Kubernetes 00:38:46 - Rallying the open source community 00:50:01 - Scaling Kubernetes up for AI training workloads 00:55:31 - Reflections on getting a PhD 01:00:22 - The inevitable trajectory of software is death 01:04:16 - Top book recommendations 01:05:22 - Advice for his younger self 01:06:21 - Outro ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—•๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฎ๐—ป: โ€ข LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendan-burns-487aa590/ โ€ข Twitter/X: https://x.com/brendandburns โ€ข Github: https://github.com/brendandburns ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฅ๐˜†๐—ฎ๐—ป: โ€ข Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ โ€ข X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ โ€ข Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman โ€ข Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

    1h 7m
  5. Meta Hiring Lead On Behind The Scenes of Senior+ Eng Hiring

    MAR 16

    Meta Hiring Lead On Behind The Scenes of Senior+ Eng Hiring

    Austen McDonald is a former hiring committee member at Meta, where he led mobile hiring and conducted hundreds of interviews. In this episode, we talked about what happens behind the scenes in a hiring committee, unethical candidates, and the role referrals play. ๐Ÿ”ธ (Sponsor) Hello Interview's Website - https://www.hellointerview.com/ ๐—ฃ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐˜€: โ€ข YouTube: https://youtu.be/nOapM8i5jr0 โ€ข Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 โ€ข Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/meta-hiring-lead-on-behind-the-scenes ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐˜€: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:49 - What goes on in hiring committees 00:09:02 - Unethical candidates 00:12:50 - How leveling is determined 00:23:12 - Can you negotiate level mid-process 00:32:30 - How non-tech leads can signal scope 00:39:11 - Referrals and bias 00:45:28 - What the rubric looks like 00:50:00 - OpenAI and Anthropic specific discussion 00:52:22 - Most common mistakes senior candidates make 01:02:31 - How to prep depending on your level 01:08:34 - Subjectivity and bias 01:21:02 - The questions you ask at the end matter 01:23:59 - Storytelling tips 01:30:31 - How he got promoted to Senior Manager (M2) at Meta 01:33:32 - His biggest career regret 01:38:13 - The best advice he ever received 01:39:54 - Advice for younger self 01:41:46 - Outro ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—”๐˜‚๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ป: โ€ข LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/austenmc/ โ€ข His book - https://thebehavioral.tech/ ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฅ๐˜†๐—ฎ๐—ป: โ€ข Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ โ€ข X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ โ€ข Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman โ€ข Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

    1h 43m
  6. OpenAI Codex Tech Lead On How His Career Grew And How He Uses Codex | Michael Bolin

    MAR 9

    OpenAI Codex Tech Lead On How His Career Grew And How He Uses Codex | Michael Bolin

    This is Michael Bolin, the tech lead for the open source Codex repository and a former distinguished engineer at Meta. We talked about his career path, how OpenAI engineers use Codex and the difference between research-led vs engineering-led company cultures. ๐Ÿ”ธ My keyboard project: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal ๐—ฃ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐˜€: โ€ข YouTube: https://youtu.be/hN5ZFzWFhhg โ€ข Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 โ€ข Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/openai-codex-tech-lead-on-how-his ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐˜€: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:56 - Chickenfoot 00:02:45 - Working at Google 00:06:34 - Overhauling Facebook's build system 00:16:36 - Rewriting Facebook's IDE 00:26:01 - Struggles after Principal Eng (E8) promo 00:28:39 - Building a virtual filesystem for Facebook 00:35:47 - Delayed Distinguished promo (E9) and learnings 00:39:56 - Joining OpenAI 00:43:05 - Research-led vs engineering-led cultures 00:44:53 - The story behind Codex 00:51:00 - How he uses Codex 00:57:00 - Why Codex's harness is open source 00:59:50 - Top technical book recommendations 01:05:02 - Why deep technical skills are still valuable (for now) 01:11:07 - How to start projects well 01:14:27 - Advice on writing better and career planning 01:17:06 - Advice for his younger self 01:19:10 - Outro ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐— ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ฒ๐—น: โ€ข His personal blog - https://blog.bolinfest.com/ โ€ข Twitter/X - https://x.com/bolinfest โ€ข Threads - https://www.threads.com/@bolinfest โ€ข LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-bolin-7632712 ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฅ๐˜†๐—ฎ๐—ป: โ€ข Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ โ€ข X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ โ€ข Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman โ€ข Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

    1h 20m
  7. Distinguished Eng On Stack Ranking, Competing with Bezos, Regrets | Bryan Cantrill

    MAR 2

    Distinguished Eng On Stack Ranking, Competing with Bezos, Regrets | Bryan Cantrill

    Bryan Cantrill was a distinguished engineer at Sun Microsystems and has now founded his own company called Oxide Computer Company. We discussed his career experiences through boom/busts, what competing with Bezos was like, and career regrets. ๐—ฃ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐˜€: โ€ข YouTube: https://youtu.be/qhSL-5GtmQM โ€ข Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 โ€ข Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/distinguished-eng-on-stack-ranking ๐—˜๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐˜€: โ€ข Link to the part in the talk on Oracle/Sun we discussed - https://youtu.be/-zRN7XLCRhc?si=eExjIMZROGjJcDsw&t=1977 ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐˜€: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:42 - Working at Sun Microsystems 00:10:17 - His growth to distinguished eng 00:19:14 - Why goaling on promotion is bad 00:29:34 - Stack ranking and layoffs 00:36:00 - Why he hated the Oracle acquisition 00:44:19 - Why Bezos is the apex predator of capitalism 00:48:04 - Differences between CTO and VP 00:49:58 - Starting his own company 01:02:37 - Grilling him on his past 01:11:57 - AI boom and bust advice 01:14:41 - When he was happiest in his career 01:17:22 - Top career regret 01:19:21 - Advice for younger self 01:20:57 - Outro ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—•๐—ฟ๐˜†๐—ฎ๐—ป: โ€ข LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-cantrill-b6a1/ โ€ข Twitter/X - https://x.com/bcantrill โ€ข Personal Website - https://bcantrill.dtrace.org/ โ€ข His company - https://oxide.computer/ ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฅ๐˜†๐—ฎ๐—ป: โ€ข Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ โ€ข X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ โ€ข Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman โ€ข Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

    1h 22m
  8. Turing Award Winner On Thinking Clearly, Paxos vs Raft, Working With Dijkstra | Leslie Lamport

    FEB 23

    Turing Award Winner On Thinking Clearly, Paxos vs Raft, Working With Dijkstra | Leslie Lamport

    I interviewed Leslie Lamport, a Turing Award winner known for his contributions to distributed systems and the inventor of the Paxos algorithm. We walked through the major contributions of his career for the stories behind them and what he learned along the way. ๐Ÿ”ธ My keyboard project: https://read.compose.llc/p/our-keyboard-design-reveal ๐—ฃ๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐˜€: โ€ข YouTube: https://youtu.be/U719vQz-WFs โ€ข Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 โ€ข Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/turing-award-winner-on-working-with ๐—˜๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐˜€๐—ผ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ธ๐˜€: โ€ข Bakery Problem Paper: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/bakery.pdf โ€ข Time Clocks Paper (most cited): https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/time-clocks.pdf โ€ข The Byzantine Generals Problem Paper: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/byz.pdf โ€ข The Paxos Algorithm Paper: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/lamport-paxos.pdf ๐—ง๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ฝ๐˜€: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:25 - The Bakery Algorithm 00:08:28 - Experiences with Dijkstra 00:14:44 - His most cited paper 00:23:26 - The "Byzantine Generals" problem 00:38:05 - The Paxos Algorithm 00:46:57 - Paxos vs Raft Algorithm 00:51:26 - Building LaTeX 00:54:45 - Why writing improves your thinking 01:00:21 - Why he wasn't an academic 01:02:08 - Grand theory of concurrency 01:07:25 - Why he doesn't think he's smart 01:09:07 - Advice for his younger self 01:09:44 - Outro ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—Ÿ๐—ฒ๐˜€๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฒ: โ€ข His works: https://lamport.azurewebsites.net/pubs/pubs.html ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ฅ๐˜†๐—ฎ๐—ป: โ€ข Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ โ€ข X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ โ€ข Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman โ€ข Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman โ€ข TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

    1h 10m

Ratings & Reviews

4.9
out of 5
39 Ratings

About

Sharing software engineering career stories to help you accelerate your career. Hosted by ex-Staff engineer at Instagram

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