Overcommitted | Software Engineering and Programming Insights

Summary In this episode of the Overcommitted Podcast, host Jonathan Tamsut and co-hosts Brittany Ellich and Bethany engage in a deep conversation with Jennifer Harris, founder and CEO of Technology Management Concepts. They explore Jennifer's journey into entrepreneurship, the evolution of her role as a CEO, and the unique challenges faced by women in tech. The discussion touches on imposter s...

Summary In this episode of the Overcommitted Podcast, Brittany Ellich and her co-hosts engage with Ross Brodbeck, a software engineer at GitHub, to explore the critical topic of software availability. They discuss the definitions of availability, reliability, and uptime, and delve into frameworks for improving availability in software systems. The conversation covers proactive versus reactive appr...

Summary In this episode of the Overcommitted Podcast, hosts Bethany, Jonathan, Brittany, and Erika reflect on their goals for the second quarter, sharing successes and challenges. They discuss lessons learned, personal growth, and strategies for improvement. The conversation also touches on their personal interests and hobbies, culminating in an exciting announcement about the launch of the new te...

Summary In this episode of the Overcommitted Podcast, the hosts discuss the intricacies of pull requests, focusing on the reviewer mindset, crafting effective pull requests, and managing the review workflow. They share insights from Brittany's recent conference experience and delve into best practices for both reviewing and creating pull requests. The conversation highlights the importance of...

Summary In this episode of the Overcommitted Podcast, hosts Jonathan Tamsut, Brittany Ellich, Bethany, and Erika delve into the predictions made by the AI Futures Project regarding the future of artificial intelligence by 2027. They discuss the potential for AI to self-improve, the implications of an AI arms race, and the importance of regulation in ensuring safe AI development. The conversation a...

Summary In this episode of the Overcommitted Podcast, hosts Brittany Ellich, Jonathan Tamsut, Bethany Janos, and Erika discuss their experiences with tech events, including how to choose which events to attend, strategies for networking, maximizing time at conferences, and the value of speaking and volunteering. They share personal anecdotes and tips for making the most out of these opportunities...

Summary In this episode of the Overcommitted Podcast, hosts Bethany, Brittany, and Erika discuss their experiences with the book 'Thinking in Systems' by Donella Meadows. They explore the concepts of systems thinking and its applications in software engineering, team dynamics, and societal issues. The conversation delves into the importance of feedback loops, user experience, and the impac...

This week the crew chats with Hirsch Singhal, Staff Product Manager at GitHub, about effective collaboration between product and engineering. Links Hirsch Singhal's Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/hpsin.net Hirsch Singhal's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hirsch-singhal/ Domain-Driven Design: https://www.amazon.com/Domain-Driven-Design-Tackling-Complexity-Software/dp/0321125215 Hosts ⁠⁠⁠⁠O...

The crew chat about what we're learning right now and how we learn. Links PARA: https://fortelabs.com/blog/para/ The Art of Visual Design: https://www.artofvisualdesign.com/ Math Academy: https://www.mathacademy.com/ Deep Learning from scratch: https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/deep-learning-from/9781492041405/ Kaggle competitions: https://www.kaggle.com/ A Philosophy of Software Design: ht...

The crew chat about what tech debt is and how we have prioritized it in the past. Hosts ⁠⁠⁠Overcommitted.dev⁠⁠⁠ Bethany Janos: ⁠⁠⁠https://github.com/bethanyj28⁠⁠⁠ Brittany Ellich: ⁠⁠⁠https://brittanyellich.com⁠⁠⁠ Eggyhead: ⁠⁠⁠https://github.com/eggyhead⁠⁠

The crew chat about how we make decisions and prioritize things as software engineers. Links ⁠Clean Architecture One-way vs. Two-way door decisions Sam Altman: "The most important thing is deciding what to work on" Architecture Decision Records MoSCoW Prioritization Hosts ⁠⁠Overcommitted.dev⁠⁠ Bethany Janos: ⁠⁠https://github.com/bethanyj28⁠⁠ Brittany Ellich: ⁠⁠https://brittanyellich.com⁠...

The crew chat about our current toolset for building things as software engineers. Tips and tricks for staying on track and building things with our teams! Links Jaeger Visual Studio Live Share ⁠Overcommitted on Bluesky⁠ Hosts ⁠Overcommitted.dev⁠ Bethany Janos: ⁠https://github.com/bethanyj28⁠ Brittany Ellich: ⁠https://brittanyellich.com⁠ Eggyhead: ⁠https://github.com/eggyhead⁠

The crew gets philosophical about the ethics of building Artificial Intelligence systems. Are software engineers going to be replaced? Is it ethical to build AI systems? Links ⁠Superintelligence Blog: Less Wrong Zizian cult Thinking in Systems Dwarkesh Patel pod ChatGPT Medical Diagnosis Study MCP Server Claude Desktop Tutorial MCP Podcast ⁠Overcommitted on Bluesky⁠ Hosts ⁠Overcommitted.dev⁠ Britt...

The crew chat about our experience using AI right now as software engineers (which is subject to change even by the time this episode airs). Including an overview of our current thoughts on the AI landscape, what tools we use for which tasks, and our thoughts on what we are excited about for the future! Links The S in MCP Stands for Security Book: The Scaling Era Overcommitted on Bluesky Hosts Ove...

Join Erika, Bethany, Jonathan, and Brittany for a deep dive into one of every developer's most common challenges: learning a new codebase. Based on Brittany's popular GitHub blog post, this episode shares battle-tested strategies for getting up to speed quickly—whether you're joining a new team, switching projects, or contributing to open source. Working on large-scale systems at GitHu...

Join Bethany, Brittany, and Jonathan as they reflect on their first quarter using the 12 Week Year goal-setting framework. This candid retrospective reveals what actually works (and what doesn't) when trying to balance ambitious career goals with the demanding life of a software engineer. Inspired by Brian Moran's "The 12 Week Year" and Ali Abdaal's productivity strategies, t...

Join GitHub software engineers Jonathan Tamsut, Brittany Ellich, Erika Egemeyer, and Bethany Janos as they break down one of tech's most common yet rarely discussed challenges: imposter syndrome. In this inaugural episode, four career-changers share their personal experiences with feeling like frauds despite proven success. Drawing from the foundational 1978 research by Pauline Clance and Suza...