Redefining Ambition After Burnout | Zapier’s Kelly Vaughn
What happens when the person trained to spot burnout becomes its next victim?Kelly Vaughn is a Senior Engineering Manager at Zapier, the author of the After Burnout Substack, and a trained therapist. She joins hosts Ben and Andrew to share her incredibly candid journey of discovering burnout in herself. Kelly reveals how she (despite her professional understanding of burnout's mechanisms) found herself deep in its grip, recounting the slow realizations like dwindling passion, increasing cynicism, and distinct physical tolls like disrupted sleep and a loss of hunger cues.This raw conversation offers vital lessons for anyone in a high-pressure career (and let’s face it: that’s all of us!). As the tech landscape accelerates with AI, Kelly shares insights on managing its pressures and opportunities. She redefines ambitions for herself alongside the non-negotiables she established for her own well-being when seeking her new role. Listeners will gain powerful insights into identifying their own limits, the courage for pivotal changes, and integrating new demands without self-sacrifice.Check out:AI Code Reviews: Automate AI code reviews for every PRSurvey: Discover Your AI Collaboration StyleFollow the hosts:Follow BenFollow AndrewFollow today's guest(s):Personal Website: kvlly.com"After Burnout" Newsletter: afterburnout.co"The Modern Leader" Newsletter: modernleader.isKelly’s Article: On burnout, quitting, and redefining what mattersReferenced in today's show:The FAA has resorted to buying parts on eBay because its equipment is so old, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says 2025-05-11 air traffic controlDOGE Is in Its AI EraIRS hopes to replace fired enforcement workers with AI Microsoft lays off about 3% of its workforce in what one executive calls a ‘day with a loSupport the show: Subscribe to our Substack Leave us a review Subscribe on YouTube Follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn Offers: Learn about Continuous Merge with gitStream Get your DORA Metrics free forever
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Foresight Over Firefighting: Being Proactive in a Reactive World
Still stuck in a reactive loop with incident response, only fixing problems after they happen? JJ Tang, Co-founder and CEO of Rootly, joins host Andrew Zigler to reveal how to shift beyond reactive, leveraging powerful AI and an often-underestimated skill in engineering: genuine customer empathy. Discover how these elements are crucial for navigating the complexities of modern infrastructure and shaping the future of incident management.JJ explores the forefront of incident response automation, discussing how to integrate shiny new tech like AI safely and why deep customer understanding is key to building trust and reliability. Learn about the common pitfalls leaders face, the cultural shifts needed for proactive reliability, and how teams can make our digital world safer.Check out:Beyond Copilot: What’s Next for AI in Software DevelopmentSurvey: Discover Your AI Collaboration StyleFollow the hosts:Follow BenFollow AndrewFollow today's guest(s):LinkedIn: JJ TangWebsite: rootly.comReferenced in today's show:OpenAI agrees to buy Windsurf for about $3 billion, Bloomberg News reportsAmazon launches first Kuiper internet satellites, taking on StarlinkAvoiding Skill Atrophy in the Age of AIWhy developers and their bosses disagree over generative AISupport the show: Subscribe to our Substack Leave us a review Subscribe on YouTube Follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn Offers: Learn about Continuous Merge with gitStream Get your DORA Metrics free forever
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The End of Specialization? How AI Shapes Modern Dev Teams | Vercel’s Lee Robinson
Is front-end vs. back-end an antiquated way to structure engineering teams? With AI augmenting skills, a new model is emerging: the product engineer.This week, Andrew sits down with Lee Robinson, VP of Product at Vercel to crack open the future of the web. As a respected educator and voice in the webdev community (check out his YouTube!), Lee shares his unique perspective on building both cutting-edge tools and high-performing teams.As the VP of Product, Lee charts the evolution of developer roles and illustrates for us the rise of "product engineers" who own features end-to-end. Learn how AI tools are not just augmenting specialists but enabling designers, PMs, and founders to build "personal software." We also cover changing team dynamics and get Lee's advice on navigating the hiring process in the AI era, including: why personalization is key for candidates, how managers can spot authenticity (hint: AI-generated cover letters are obvious!), and why building in public is critical for career growth today.Check out:Beyond Copilot: What’s Next for AI in Software DevelopmentSurvey: Discover Your AI Collaboration StyleFollow the hosts:Follow BenFollow AndrewFollow today's guest(s):Website: leerob.comYouTube: @leerobLinkedIn: Lee RobinsonVercel: vercel.comNext.js: nextjs.orgv0 by Vercel: v0.dev Referenced in today's show:This week in social, we noticed: AIDuolingo has an AI mandate tooGoogle Just Launched an AI-Powered Duolingo AlternativeIntel CEO announces layoffs, restructuring, $1.5 billion in cost reductions, expanded return to office mandate | Tom's HardwareSupport the show: Subscribe to our Substack Leave us a review Subscribe on YouTube Follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn Offers: Learn about Continuous Merge with gitStream Get your DORA Metrics free forever
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AI Gets Eyes and Ears | LiveKit’s Russ d’Sa
We've spent decades teaching ourselves to communicate with computers via text and clicks. Now, computers are learning to perceive the world like us: through sight and sound. What happens when software needs to sense, interpret, and act in real-time using voice and vision?This week, Andrew sits down with Russ d'Sa, Co-founder and CEO of LiveKit, whose technology acts as the crucial infrastructure enabling machines to interact using real-time voice and vision, impacting everything from ChatGPT to critical 911 responses.Explore the transition from text-based protocols to rich, real-time data streams. Russ discusses LiveKit's role in this evolution, the profound implications of AI gaining sensory input, the trajectory from co-pilots to agents, and the unique hurdles engineers face when building for a world beyond simple text transfers.Check out:AI Code Reviews: An Engineering Leader’s Survival GuideSurvey: Discover Your AI Collaboration StyleFollow the hosts:Follow BenFollow AndrewFollow today's guest(s):Website: livekit.ioGitHub: github.com/livekitX: x.com/livekitRuss: x.com/dsaReferenced in today's show:The Rise of Slopsquatting: How AI Hallucinations Are Fueling a New Class of Supply Chain AttacksHas the VSCode C/C++ Extension been blocked?OpenAI tells judge it would buy Chrome from GoogleChain-of-Vibes | Pete Hodgson Seattle crosswalk signals with deepfake Bezos audio may have been hacked with just a cellphone Support the show: Subscribe to our Substack Leave us a review Subscribe on YouTube Follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn Offers: Learn about Continuous Merge with gitStream Get your DORA Metrics free forever
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The Shift to Agent-Driven API Consumption | Speakeasy’s Sagar Batchu
Think building killer APIs like Stripe or Twilio is purely a technical feat? Think again.This week, we dive into why crafting successful APIs is fundamentally an organizational challenge, demanding internal excellence long before code is deployed. Sagar Batchu, co-founder and CEO of Speakeasy, joins us to unpack the crucial role of ownership, design principles, and why even internal APIs benefit from treating them like first-class products. Discover how Conway's Law dictates your API's fate and why achieving that coveted developer experience starts with your company's structure.Getting these foundations right is more critical than ever, as the landscape now faces a dramatic shift with the rise of LLMs and agentic AI. This potentially multiplies API usage and introduces the concept of "Agent Experience" (AX), demanding even greater rigor around clear standards, documentation, and metrics like "Time to First 200." Sagar also explores the emerging Model Context Protocol (MCP) and explains why focusing on developer productivity today prepares you for the AI-driven future of tomorrow.Check out:AI Features Demo: The Future of Productivity Is AI-DrivenSurvey: Discover Your AI Collaboration StyleFollow the hosts:Follow BenFollow AndrewFollow today's guest(s):Website: speakeasy.comLinkedIn: SpeakeasyX: @speakeasydevReferenced in today's show:It costs nothing to be polite unless you're talking to ChatGPT - then it costs tens of millionsAnnouncing the Agent2Agent Protocol (A2A) - Google Developers Blog A Deep Dive Into MCP and the Future of AI ToolingSupport the show: Subscribe to our Substack Leave us a review Subscribe on YouTube Follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn Offers: Learn about Continuous Merge with gitStream Get your DORA Metrics free forever
The Dev Interrupted Podcast is the premier podcast for software engineering leaders. Hosts Dan Lines, Ben Lloyd Pearson, and Andrew Zigler invite expert guests from around the world to explore strategy and day-to-day topics ranging from dev team metrics to accelerating delivery. Join us weekly for new episodes.
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