The Pragmatic Engineer
By Gergely Orosz
Big Tech and startups, from the inside. Highly relevant for software engineers, AI engineers and engineering leaders, useful for those working in tech.
22 episodes
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How Personal Agency Shapes Technological Impact
Kelsey Hightower didn’t climb the tech ladder--he rewired it. By aligning small, consistent bets on learning and visibility with seismic industry shifts, he turned technical work into lasting influence. Real impact isn’t shipped in code--it’s built in trust, visibility, and the courage to solve problems no one sees.
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AI's Paradox: Faster Code Obscures Engineering Challenges
AI accelerates code, but can obscure engineering challenges, leading to degraded quality and a false sense of progress. Build robust software by embracing friction and focusing on cohesion.
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Rust's Compiler-Driven Design Ensures Long-Term Software Reliability
Rust's "difficulty" is a feature, forcing patterns that yield extraordinary long-term reliability and security by preempting common programming pitfalls.
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Anders Hejlsberg's Career: Enduring Language Design and Developer Productivity
Enduring software tools require a holistic developer experience, not just code. Building them is a decades-long game focused on human productivity and integrated ecosystems.
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AI Agents Undermine Software Quality, Create Engineering Challenges
AI agents promise efficiency but subtly undermine software quality, creating more work. Understand these hidden consequences to retain a competitive edge in AI-driven development.
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Foundational System Design Decisions: Hidden Costs and Durable Advantages
Understand how subtle engineering choices create hidden costs and durable advantages, revealing the deeper dynamics that shape systems and the industry.
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AI Agents Amplify Judgment and Craft in Software Development
AI agents amplify senior engineers' judgment and craft, not diminish them. Master AI to unlock unprecedented productivity while maintaining essential human oversight.
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Necessity Forged Uber's Hyper-Growth Microservice Architecture
Necessity, not strategy, forged Uber's hyper-growth architecture. Radical innovation born from crisis created thousands of microservices and bespoke tools, yielding enduring competitive advantage.
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WhatsApp's Lean Blueprint: Ruthless Focus Built Global Giant
WhatsApp built a global giant by rejecting complexity and prioritizing ruthless focus, proving that deliberate simplicity and engineer trust create an unreplicable competitive advantage.
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AI Accelerates Software Engineering From Craft to Orchestration
AI is accelerating software engineering beyond manual coding to orchestrating agents, demanding a rapid redefinition of engineering skills and team structures.
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AI Rewrites Software Creation: From Autonomous Agents to Generalist Skills
AI is fundamentally rebuilding software creation, shifting engineering skills from deep expertise to rapid, iterative prototyping and broad adaptability.
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Mitchell Hashimoto Reimagines Software Development Architecture
AI redefines software development by automating code writing, review, and debugging, fundamentally changing how we build and deploy applications.
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Kotlin's Pragmatic Design and AI-Driven Intent Communication
Kotlin emerged from Java's stagnation to address developer pain points, achieving widespread adoption. Now, AI offers a new paradigm to communicate intent, potentially shrinking coding effort tenfold.
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AI Revolution Ushers Third Golden Age of Software Engineering
AI is not automating software engineering, but ushering in a new golden age by raising abstraction levels. Engineers will manage complex systems, not just write code.
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AI Agents Redefine Software Creation Through Architectural Vision
AI agents redefine software creation, shifting focus from code writing to architectural vision and prompt engineering. Developers now architect systems, directing AI collaborators to build at unprecedented speed.
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S3's Evolution: Strong Consistency, Durability, and Expanded Data Capabilities
S3 evolves beyond object storage, offering strong consistency without cost increases and introducing native support for structured data and AI embeddings.
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Innovation Thrives on Constraint, Not Complacency
Innovation thrives on desperation, not complacency. Discover how constraints drive true breakthroughs and the first-principles approach Oxide Computer uses to build modern hardware.
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Founding Engineer's Journey: From Startup Risks to AI Innovation
Discover how to thrive as a founding engineer, take on unglamorous tasks, and leverage AI to build autonomous websites that redefine the internet.
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Developers Own Code Security: Fix Flaws Before Exploitation
Developers must own code security, proactively preventing vulnerabilities beyond known exploits by rigorously validating all inputs and managing secrets, making security an integral part of creation.
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AI Shifts Software Engineering from Deterministic to Non-Deterministic
AI transforms software from deterministic to non-deterministic, demanding new engineering approaches and rigorous testing, while core human skills remain paramount for navigating this profound shift.
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Netflix Engineering: Scale, Studio Tech, and Pitch-to-Play
Netflix engineers build the future of entertainment, handling trillions of events daily with unparalleled autonomy and a culture of "unusual responsibility" driving innovation.
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Lattner: Compilers, Swift, and Democratizing AI
Chris Lattner reveals how LLVM, Swift, and Mojo democratize programming, from compilers to AI, by prioritizing modularity, accessibility, and developer control over hardware.
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