Episodes

  • Programming in English

    Programming in English
    Jun 14 2026
    Ben sets out to learn Rust by only reading it, while Matt wonders if you can learn to land a plane from a book. Also: is snark a portmanteau?
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    32 mins
  • The Rabbit Was Always There

    The Rabbit Was Always There
    May 25 2026
    Ben asks what happens when you curl google.com, and Matt peels back HTTP until the rabbit turns out to have been in the hat all along. Then a USB hub stages a dramatic intervention.
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    44 mins
  • Speed of Thought

    Speed of Thought
    Apr 11 2026
    Ben has stopped talking to Claude directly. Matt hasn't opened his editor in days. They try to work out whether this is fun, programming, or a very expensive slot machine.
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    49 mins
  • Measure Twice, Optimize Once

    Measure Twice, Optimize Once
    Mar 9 2026
    Ben asks a simple question about performance and Matt talks for 46 minutes. The one true use case for linked lists is revealed, and a part three is threatened.
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    46 mins
  • How Fast Is Fast?

    How Fast Is Fast?
    Feb 14 2026
    Ben interviews Matt with a deceptively simple question: make my program go fast. 44 minutes later, robot dogs are falling over, Grace Hopper's wire makes an appearance, and Matt still hasn't gotten the job.
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    45 mins
  • Gaming on Linux

    Gaming on Linux
    Jan 10 2026
    Ben wipes his PC over Thanksgiving and installs Ubuntu for gaming. Matt recalls the dark days of himem.sys and IRQ conflicts. The universe was created last Thursday, and someone gets a hangover.
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    27 mins
  • Factorio

    Factorio
    Dec 6 2025
    Ben's new TCP backpressure explanation: conveyor belts full. Matt zooms out and mistakes his factory for a Pentium 2. Ben plans to switch to Linux gaming; Matt's start bar keeps popping up and he's had it.
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    24 mins
  • Vibe Coding and Robot Teammates

    Vibe Coding and Robot Teammates
    Nov 13 2025
    Ben worries replacing juniors with LLMs creates a future hiring crisis - who'll train the robot-wranglers? Matt blames COVID brain fog, then proves it by botching NP-completeness. Capitalism is bad at escaping local minima.
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    43 mins