Rails with Jason

In this episode I talk with Lio Lunesu, CTO of Defang, about infrastructure as code, Docker, and Docker Compose. Defang compiles Docker Compose files into cloud infrastructure code.Links:DefangLio Lunesu on LinkedInSaturnCINonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Chris Gaffney about Dead Man's Snitch, a cron job monitoring service he's run full-time for six years after Collective Idea acquired it at a very early stage. We discuss the five-year path to profitability, SaaS being harder today, and dopaminergic personalities in tech.Links:Dead Man's SnitchNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Kate Holterhoff, senior analyst at RedMonk, about her PhD research on Darwin's methods, speculation in science, and how 19th century evolutionary thinking influenced literature. We discuss epistemology, conjecture and criticism, and how these ideas connect to programming.Links:RedMonkSpeculation and the Darwinian Method in British Romance Fiction, 1859-1914Nonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Jeff Casimir, founder of Turing School, about why AI is far down his list of reasons for the tech job market downturn—he points instead to macroeconomic policy, copycat layoff culture, and companies using layoffs to suppress worker organizing. We also discuss aptitude vs. belief, why school is mostly daycare, and his prompt injection resume experiment.Links:Jeff Casimir on LinkedInNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Ryan Frisch and Brendan Buckingham from the Rails Business Podcast about whether info products are viable in the Rails community, how business ideas emerge from personal pain points rather than brainstorming, and I give an update on SaturnCI sales.Links:Rails Business PodcastLocableSaturnCINonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Jarrett Yew about his 10-year programming journey, early freelancing failures, working with difficult clients, and we go deep on AGI, neuroscience, spatial reasoning in language, and David Deutsch's theories on perception.Links:Jarrett Yew on LinkedInjarrettyew.comNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Tom Akehurst, CTO and Co-founder at WireMock, about API mocking, testing philosophy (verification vs specification, contracts, the testing pyramid), inner vs outer loop development, and MCP (Model Context Protocol) for integrating AI coding tools with external services.Links:WireMockWireMock on YouTubeTom Akehurst on LinkedInNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Josef Strzibny about his books Deployment from Scratch and Kamal Handbook, the economics of info products in the Ruby space, his new project Lake AI, and his road trip through the Balkans. We also compare driving cultures across Europe and the US.Links:Kamal HandbookDeployment from ScratchNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Michael Ferranti from Unleash about feature flags, trunk-based development, and why DevOps metrics alone aren't sufficient. We discuss FeatureOps—focusing on customer outcomes rather than just code delivery—plus the "three voices" (engineering, business, customer) and AI's role in accelerating feedback loops.Links:UnleashNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Mike Mroczka about his book Beyond Cracking the Coding Interview. We discuss why algorithmic interviews persist, how AI has disrupted hiring, and why personal branding matters more than ever. Mike shares strategies for bypassing flooded job applications by contacting hiring managers directly.mikemroczka.comBeyond Cracking the Coding Interview on AmazonCracking the Coding Interview by Gayle McDowell

In this episode I talk with Mike Bowers, Chief Architect at Faircom, about ISAM—the bare-metal database layer that predates SQL and powers stock trading systems. We cover Faircom's pivot into industrial IoT, their JSON/SQL hybrid approach, and discuss AI, consciousness, and the symbol grounding problem.Links:FairComNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Raphael Masson, CTO of Missive, and Craig Kerstiens from Crunchy Data. We cover bootstrapping Missive from a side project (Conference Badge), growing from 3 to 15 employees, migrating off Heroku, and why most developers underutilize Postgres.Links:MissiveCrunchy DataNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Austin Chadwick and Chris Lucian about AI and machine learning. We discuss why LLMs may not lead to AGI, the history of AI funding, the philosophy of induction versus explanation, and my robot project idea for building intelligence from sensory experience up.Links:Mob Mentality ShowNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Gregory Kapfhammer about flaky tests. We cover their five main causes, why fixing individual flaky tests isn't enough, and how test suite health connects to broader engineering practices, team culture, and the overall quality mindset of an organization.Links:https://www.gregorykapfhammer.com/http://www.linkedin.com/in/GregKapfhammerhttps://fosstodon.org/@gkapfhamhttps://scholar.google.com/citations?user=g0eDPjYAAAAJhttps://github.com/gkapfhamThe Beginning of InfinityGödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas HofstadterZen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert PirsigNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Todd Kaufman about founding Test Double, focusing on hiring senior consultants who excel at communication and empathy. We discuss how consulting is 90% psychology, the importance of seeking to understand before being understood, and why most software projects still fail due to organizational rather than technical issues.Links:Test Doubletodd@testdouble.comNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Irina Nazarova about the San Francisco Ruby Conference happening November 19-21. She explains why SF needs a Ruby conference, the focus on connecting Ruby startup founders with engineers, showcasing new companies building with Rails, and fostering a pragmatic community centered on growth and innovation.Links:San Francisco Ruby ConferenceSF Ruby Cloud CardsEvil MartiansNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Matthew Ford about AI-assisted coding at BitZesty. We discuss how AI speeds up development while requiring human oversight, the risks of "vibe coding," why automated testing remains critical, and how AI changes but doesn't replace fundamental software development practices like version control and architecture decisions.Links:Bit ZestyMatthew Ford on TwitterMatthew Ford on BlueskyNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Steve Ruiz about creating TLDraw, an open-source canvas SDK. We discuss the intersection of design and engineering, managing complexity through abstractions, state machines, and how multiple rewrites helped him discover the core problems. Steve shares insights on building developer tools and solving difficult UI challenges.Links:tldrawSteve Ruiz's personal websiteNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Anthony Eden about building DNSimple, a DNS provider and domain registrar. We discuss his 25 years in the domain industry, technical challenges, and why specialized niches create natural competitive moats.DNSimpleAnthony Eden on LinkedInanthony@dnsimple.comNonsense Monthly

In this episode I talk with Radan Skorić about his book Master Hotwire, the challenges of Hotwire documentation, blogging in the AI age, how AI affects content creation, the Chinese room thought experiment, consciousness and computation, trust versus critical thinking, and why quality content that goes deeper than AI can produce still matters.Master Hotwireradanskoric.comRadan's Rails World talkJason's stuff:Nonsense MonthlySaturnCI