Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots
A podcast about the design, development, and business of great software. Each week thoughtbot is joined by the people who build and nurture the products we love.
Episodes
Our hosts Chad and Sami team up this week to discuss AI code bases and whether they can be built to be developer friendly and with best practices in mind.
After a brief chat about the World Cup (and how it may affect the June thoughtbot event in London!) Sami dives into a recent code audit he did on a base that was built with AI using Spec Driven Development. Chad covers security concerns and why it’s important to have human...
Chad talks with guest Andy Budd, Design Leadership Coach & Venture Partner at Seedcamp, as they look back over Andy’s time at Clearleft, the company he co-founded back in 2005.
Andy discusses employee trust ownership, how it both benefits and protects your employees, and has the potential to keep your business going for generations to come rather than living and dying by the founders interest. Chad also announces that th...
Chad shares a recent pivot in ReadySetGo’s development, where they see the app entering a founder’s development and what they’re doing to ensure a wide set of features for all users.
Our hosts also pick apart the impact of AI on developers, how valuable is speed when working with AI, is it still a good measure of success when coding, and Sami takes a moment to ask the all knowing ChadGPT about his excessive runn...
Chad talks with a returning guest from the early days of the show, Brennan Dunn, founder of RightMessage. Featuring nearly 600 episodes ago on episode 18 of Giant Robots, Brennan is back to talk about how things have changed for him since his first appearance in 2012.
Brennan reflects on working as a contractor and growing to become a company of one, why the scaling size of a business doesn’t always equate to more productivi...
Sami swims against the tide of AI with Emma Barnes, CEO of Consonance, as they examine the more controversial idea of being anti-AI.
Emma explains why her publishing business is anti-AI and the benefits of coding for yourself, how AI is having a negative impact on different aspects of our daily lives, why big corporations are hyping it up so much, and Sami asks what is it about AI that keeps drawing people in.
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Sami talks with Quentin de Metz, Co-Founder and CTO of Pennylane, about the journey of building a startup into an established company.
Quentin provides his unique perspective of what it’s like to be a founder with an engineering background, the rapid growth he experienced with Pennylane and the lessons that shape how he now runs the company, and their cautious approach to incorporating AI.
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Our hosts provide a peek behind the scenes as they discuss their work on recent thoughtbot projects.
Chad covers the progress being made on thoughtbot’s new “Ready Set Go” app, the hurdles they’ve encountered so far in development, and the things it needs to achieve in order to compete in it’s field effectively.
Will reflects on a week long project with a non-technical founder and examines how clien...
Chad talks with Raja Rajamannar about how he reimagined marketing and strategy at Mastercard.
Raja explains how he connected the dots between credit cards and healthcare, convincing the board to take a risk on something new in the process, how Mastercard leverages AI with their clients and marketing to stay on top of their brand and competitors, as well as highlighting the mistakes big companies make when it comes to AI.
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Chad, Sami and Will bring a growing issue to the forefront as they discuss whether AI really is to blame for recent industry layoffs.
Our trio examine how AI is being used as a smokescreen for layoffs, how larger companies view AI and their increasing over reliance on it, and Sami provides a real world example of vibe coding to highlight the issues and unreliability of AI code.
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Sami talks with Lord Chris Holmes, Peer of the UK House of Lords, about the increasing need for AI legislation in the UK.
Lord Holmes discusses his efforts to pass his AI Regulation Bill, why it’s taking longer than expected, what we could expect to see happen if we continue to leave AI unchecked, and what differences we can expect to see in AI moving forward.
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Sami talks with Taylor Spencer, Investment Delivery Director, Change & Innovation for British Business Bank, about driving change within a business.
Taylor breaks down the best ways of handling change fatigue and resistance within a business, how and why it impacts his work with British Business Bank, the unique challenges of growth and development they face as a result and the solutions in place to overcome them.
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Sami makes his triumphant return to the Giant Robots Smashing into other Giant Robots Podcast as he and his fellow hosts discuss a brand new tool currently in pre-production at thoughtbot.
Chad lays out his idea for the tool, how he thinks it will differ from other similar products currently available, who it’s for and the considerations needed going in to make it as accessible as possible, and Sami plays devil’s advoc...
Chad talks with Jason Stadther, director of engineering at TrueCar, about striking the right balance with AI in programming and its overall impact on the industry now and in the future.
Together they discuss the impact AI is currently having on junior developers and the potential impact it’s having on their career prospects, what happens to AI when it doesn’t have a reference for newly developed tools, how the inter...
Chad and Will examine the ever expanding AI bubble and ponder on what we can expect it to see evolve in the coming years.
Our hosts discuss how they strike a balance with AI as they break down their current stacks and workflows, what will be left in the wake of the bubble’s collapse, and just where do Chad and Will draw the line with AI as they debate the ethics around it’s use.
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Celebrate Giant Robots’ 600th episode in style as Sami pulls together thoughtbot staff old and new to celebrate this monumental milestone.
Sami shines a light on his colleagues at thoughtbot and the history of the show, reflecting on how far they’ve all come and what makes thoughtbot feel so special, before putting his guests in the hot seat with some hard hitting trivia that only another thoughtbotter could know.
...Chad and Will start the new year off right by discussing their aspirations for 2026.
Chad discusses this year’s theme for the company of being bold and how having a clear vision keeps thoughtbot on track, the pair discuss how they plan to rise up to the challenge of being bold in their work, and Will seeks some advice on a project he’s been looking to pursue.
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Sami talks with Sam Landsberg, head of sales at Light, about the wide world of fintech and how they’re working to simplify accounting software for businesses big and small.
Sam lays out his journey into the world of fintech and how he came to work with Light, the way they utilise AI with clients to condense the human element of accounting, and Sami challenges Sam’s knowledge of animals with a surprise pop quiz.
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Chad talks with developer and guitarist Nick Merwin about the challenges of balancing his career in development with his life as a musician.
Nick tells of his time delivering code on the road as a guitarist with the band Capital Cities, the pros and cons of working as a solo programmer, what he’s learnt from saying yes for so many years, and Chad asks whether AI is diluting the art of coding.
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Sami revisits his time on a recent project for Sheer as he talks with it’s CTO and founder Mads Ulrik Svendsen about the ever evolving and creative world of influencers.
Mads talks about the story of Sheer, how they’re helping influencers maximise their potential and creativity, where they expect to see change in the industry over the coming years, the desire for authenticity in a world of AI content, and Sami is deter...
Sami, Chad and Will share the projects they’ve been working on at thoughtbot recently and how they adapt to new systems they’re unfamiliar with.
Sami shares his recent horror at the animal kingdom and how he might be getting into crypto, Chad reveals how he invests his time into thoughtbot whilst also managing to stay on top trending tech, and the group discuss best practices for dealing with clients.
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