Making Software

Is Redis still mandatory for scaling background workflows, or can modern database disks handle millions of jobs per day? In this episode of Making Software, Rosa Gutierrez (Principal Programmer at 37 Signals) breaks down the creation of Solid Queue: the default background job adapter shipping with Rails 8. We dive deep into the technical decisions behind moving away from memory stores, the reality...

In today's episode, we explore the intersection of human psychology and engineering. Our guest, Dennis Henry , a Productivity Architect at Okta , shares how his Master’s degree in human factors —the study of how humans interact with systems and why they fail—has transformed his approach to building internal tools. In this episode, we discuss: The Myth of Human Error: Why "failure" in...

In this episode of Making Software , Carla sits down with Matteo Ferrando who does Platform and Infrastructure at Fal.ai , to explore the complex world of infrastructure and platform engineering. Matteo shares his journey from backend engineering to architecting a leading generative media platform. The conversation dives deep into: The "Two-Way Door" Framework: How to decide between building a qui...

Is "Vibe Coding" a breakthrough for productivity or a security nightmare? In this episode of Making Software , Carla talks with Bobby Tiernay , Principal Architect at Auth0 , about the messy, exciting, and risky reality of building with AI. Bobby breaks down the evolution of "Vibe Coding"—using AI to prototype via intuition—and why the industry must shift toward Spec Coding to ensure long-term sta...

Building products for other engineers is a unique challenge. Unlike consumer apps, developer tools (SDKs, APIs, and Open Source) require a deep focus on Developer Experience (DX) , idiomatic code, and long-term maintenance. In this episode of Making Software , Raghd Hamzeh (Senior Software Engineer at Okta and OpenFGA maintainer) breaks down how to balance community requests with platform health....

In this episode, Carla sits down with Sam Bellen (Principal Developer Advocate) to discuss the world of Developer Relations (DevRel). Sam shares his unique journey from writing day-to-day code to advocating for developers globally, and why he believes authenticity is the most powerful tool in any engineer's toolkit. In this episode, we discuss why DevRel is a bridge between engineering, product, a...