The Unfiltered Engineer

Vishakha Motwani
  • 5.0 (1)
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Everything out there feels AI-generated — the advice, the posts, the career tips, half the internet. This show is the opposite. The Unfiltered Engineer is honest conversations with experienced software engineers, for engineers trying to navigate this industry right now. Real people with real mileage — decades at big companies, leaps into startups, pivots into AI, climbs into leadership — talking about how this career actually works. Every episode asks what engineers are actually wondering: How did you get there? What did it cost? What's changed? What would you tell someone in the middle of it right now? No scripts. No rehearsed answers. No LinkedIn polish. Hosted by Vishakha — a frontend engineer with 10+ years in the industry, currently navigating it herself. She started this show because the conversations she needed weren't happening anywhere public. So she's having them here.

Episodes

  1. 4h ago

    Ep 2: Your Brain Is Lying to You feat. Kate Astrid

    It took Kate Astrid eight months to ask what "entity" meant at her job. Not because she didn't know how to ask. Because she was afraid of being misunderstood and considered stupid for not already knowing. Kate is a Senior Product Engineer at Cogram, and she's spent time studying cognitive bias, the mental shortcuts our brains use to feel confident instead of correct. In this episode, we get into how that shows up at work, in code review pushback, in meetings where everyone agrees a little too fast, in the terms nobody explains because everyone's afraid to be the one who asks. We talk about: Confirmation bias, and why "I found evidence" doesn't mean you're rightWhat to do when a whole room agrees too quicklyClosing the "inferential distance" between people who know something and people who don'tWhy the scariest bugs are the ones we don't know what we don't knowMicroservices vs. monolith, and why understanding a decision's history matters more than judging itBeing kind to yourself and to others, especially in the moments you don't know something yetKate's recommendations: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality and Rationality: From AI to Zombies, both by Eliezer Yudkowsky If you've ever sat in a meeting nodding along to a word you didn't understand, this one's for you. I'm Vish, a frontend engineer with 10+ years in the industry, currently navigating it myself. I started this show because the conversations I needed weren't happening anywhere public. #softwareengineer #techcareers #cognitivebias #frontend #engineeringcareers

  2. Aug 13

    Ep 1: Can AI Take This? feat. Eduardo Aparicio Cardenes

    Not advice. Not a script. Just engineers talking honestly about how this career goes. In episode one, I sit down with Eduardo Aparicio Cardenes — the first person I asked to be on this show, and someone who's been mentoring me through my own job search. He's spent 18+ years in frontend development, currently shaping frontend architecture across the Transactions Tribe at Super, where the platform handles €300M+ in monthly deposits. He's also founder of DreamMakerFactory, co-founder of InnerVirtuoso, and one of ADPList's top 10 frontend mentors among 30,000+. We talk about how the software engineer's role has changed — and what it's becoming: - The two skills that haven't changed in two decades - What AI actually did to code review workload - Who's accountable when AI writes the code - Technical debt in the AI era - What's replacing the ticket-taker role - What interviews measure vs. what the job actually is - How the next generation of engineers will learn - Eduardo's book recommendations for engineers Eduardo's recommendations: Never Split the Difference (Chris Voss) · The Staff Engineer's Path · The Elegant Puzzle · The 80/20 Principle Newsletter & podcast: thisweekinreact.com & Dan Neciu's podcast I'm Vish — a frontend engineer with 10+ years in the industry, currently navigating it myself. I started this show because the conversations I needed weren't happening anywhere public. #softwareengineer #techcareers #AI #frontend #engineeringcareers

  3. Season 1 Trailer

    Trailer: The Unfiltered Engineer

    Everything out there feels AI-generated — the advice, the tips, half the internet. This show is the opposite. I'm Vishakha, a frontend engineer ten years in, currently between jobs and asking the questions myself: What actually changed in this industry? What did it cost? What would you tell someone standing in the middle of it right now? Honest conversations with engineers who've lived it. First episode drops August 13, 2026. Come join us with a coffee. ☕

Trailer

About

Everything out there feels AI-generated — the advice, the posts, the career tips, half the internet. This show is the opposite. The Unfiltered Engineer is honest conversations with experienced software engineers, for engineers trying to navigate this industry right now. Real people with real mileage — decades at big companies, leaps into startups, pivots into AI, climbs into leadership — talking about how this career actually works. Every episode asks what engineers are actually wondering: How did you get there? What did it cost? What's changed? What would you tell someone in the middle of it right now? No scripts. No rehearsed answers. No LinkedIn polish. Hosted by Vishakha — a frontend engineer with 10+ years in the industry, currently navigating it herself. She started this show because the conversations she needed weren't happening anywhere public. So she's having them here.

Information

  • Creator
    Vishakha Motwani
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    3
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Vishakha Motwani
  • Show Website
    The Unfiltered Engineer