YAGNI
YAGNI (You Ain't Gonna Need It) is a podcast about software practices and tools. Host Matt Swanson examines common development approaches and technologies to ask whether they are actually necessary. Each episode explores the trade-offs of adopting or skipping certain tools and techniques in software engineering.
Episodes
I need a software foreman w/ Stephen Margheim
🔗 Impatient Programming: an invite for YAGNI listeners. This is a free guide to how Stephen’s team at Zar builds software with coding agents. It reworks Extreme Programming’s rules for working with agents and includes case studies, essays and tools. Nothing is for sale; signing up gives you access to everything.Stephen Margheim leads product engineering at Zar, a stablecoin neobank for de
Retiring from programming w/ Justin Searls
Matt just got back from Rails World, where DHH's keynote left a lot of people thinking Rails was over. Justin Searls of Breaking Change, who gave his own retirement talk at Rails World two years ago, joins him to sort it out. They cover why the keynote hit people's fears so hard, whether "the one-person framework" still means anything when agents skip the coding step, and why Justin think
Irrefutable proof w/ Thorsten Ball
Thorsten Ball, who works on Amp, doesn't like the term "software factory." He'd rather be in a workshop, a garden or a "primordial soup" of throwaway tools. He and Matt talk about custom tools you build in minutes and throw away, why the huge jumps in AI tooling make it hard to bring people along gradually, and which old coding rules still matter now that agents write the code. Along the
Camping chair development w/ John Nunemaker
John Nunemaker runs Fireside, Flipper and Box Out. He used to think of himself as a craftsman, until last December, when he found out that what he really loves is shipping. Now he reads the data models and queries but not the JavaScript. He's also dropping plugins and rewrote 80% of Fireside's infrastructure in three days while driving a camper. He and Matt talk about when you're the brai
LLM junk food w/ Justin Duke
Justin Duke, who runs Buttondown, calls himself a "radical LLM centrist." About two-thirds of Buttondown's merged code comes from LLMs, but he still pushes back on the most extreme software factory takes. He and Matt talk about why most "factories" are only tuned for throughput and why so much agent work is snacking: low effort and low value. They also get into the rise of fake third-part
Infinite plausible PRs w/ Nate Berkopec
Back in February, Nate said that coding workflows built around adding more human-in-the-loop steps were a dead end, and that the end state is the "dark factory," where humans aren't allowed on the floor. Six months later, Matt asks him where he stands now. They cover why agents that produce endless plausible PRs haven't made anyone much faster, and why the real bottleneck is deciding what
What would you say...you do here?
Software used to be something you sat down and wrote.Line by line. Decision by decision.The work lived in the hands of the person at the keyboard.That world doesn’t really exist anymore. Everything is changing: who does the work, how fast it moves, what counts as “writing,” what still needs a human in the loopInstincts and best practices are built on ideas that are getting invalidated fas
Programming Books w/ Aaron Francis
Matt and Aaron talk about programming books and try to answer the question "do we need them?"This season of YAGNI was made possible by our friends at Flipper Cloud - Are big launches stressing you out? Then you need feature flags!Flipper Cloud helps your team deploy the code now and then roll out features when you’re good and ready. Get started for free atflippercloud.ioAaron Francis on T
Redis w/ Nate Berkopec
Matt and Nate talk about Redis and try to answer the question "do we need it?"This season of YAGNI was made possible by our friends at Flipper Cloud - Are big launches stressing you out? Then you need feature flags!Flipper Cloud helps your team deploy the code now and then roll out features when you’re good and ready. Get started for free atflippercloud.ioNate Berkopec on Twitter // Speed
Service Objects w/ Jason Swett
Matt and Jason talk about Service Objects and try to answer the question "do we need them?"This season of YAGNI was made possible by our friends at Flipper Cloud - Are big launches stressing you out? Then you need feature flags!Flipper Cloud helps your team deploy the code now and then roll out features when you’re good and ready. Get started for free atflippercloud.ioJason Swett on Twitt
Testing w/ Josh Pigford
Matt and Josh talk about automated testing and try to answer the question "do we need them?"This season of YAGNI was made possible by our friends at Flipper Cloud - Are big launches stressing you out? Then you need feature flags!Flipper Cloud helps your team deploy the code now and then roll out features when you’re good and ready. Get started for free atflippercloud.ioJosh Pigford on Twi
GraphQL w/ Trevor Turk (Bonus: VCR)
Matt and Trevor talk about GraphQL and try to answer the question "do we need it?" (Bonus hot takes on VCR snapshot testing)This season of YAGNI was made possible by our friends at Flipper Cloud - Are big launches stressing you out? Then you need feature flags!Flipper Cloud helps your team deploy the code now and then roll out features when you’re good and ready. Get started for free atfl
Friday Deploys w/ Charity Majors
Matt and Charity talk about Friday Deploys and try to answer the question "do we need them?"This season of YAGNI was made possible by our friends at Flipper Cloud - Are big launches stressing you out? Then you need feature flags! Flipper Cloud helps your team deploy the code now and then roll out features when you’re good and ready. Get started for free at flippercloud.ioCharity Majors on
Do we still need this podcast?
RSpec w/ Justin Searls
Justin Searls on TwitterMatt Swanson on TwitterArrowsTest DoubleJustin's "What do you like about RSpec" thread (2016)Dan North BDDNate Berkopec "Reading rspec documentation like..." tweetCorey Haines: Fast Rails TestsKent Beck: "I get paid for code that works, not for tests..."Nick Quaranto's minitest CLI wrapperMocktail gemtest_data gem
Small user stories w/ Dave Copeland
Dave Copeland on TwitterMatt Swanson on TwitterArrowsMood HealthTaylorism / Scientific managementGoogle DORA Report"Agile" on TikTokThe Joel Test“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” George Carlin
Staging servers w/ Justin Duke
Justin Duke on TwitterMatt Swanson on TwitterArrowsButtondownAccidental AirBnB "test" notificationThe Pragmatic Programmer"SICP" book"We dont use a staging server" HN threadChecklist ManifestoIQ Bell Curve / Midwit - Know Your Meme
Detailed commit messages w/ Chris Toomey
Chris Toomey on TwitterMatt Swanson on TwitterArrowsSagewell FinancialWrite Good Commit Messages by Blaming OthersThe seven rules of a good git commit messageDavid Hemphill - WIPHot OnesRussian Roulette and expected value
WTF is YAGNI?
Everything has to start somewhere. Why not here?
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