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Jennifer Reif: You are listening to the
Breaktime Tech Talks podcast, a bite-sized
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tech podcast for busy developers where
we'll briefly cover technical topics, news
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snippets, and more in short time blocks.
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I'm your host, Jennifer Reif, an
avid developer and problem solver
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with special interest in data,
learning, and all things technology.
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Hello again.
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I have missed a couple of weeks due
to some time off, and then last week's
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episode was a guest who spoke about
DevOps, which was a lot of fun and really
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interesting to hear his perspective.
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So if you haven't listened to that
episode, feel free to check that out.
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However, I am happy to be back to
chat this week and be back into
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regularly scheduled programming
about everything that is going on
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and some of the things that I have
learned over the last few weeks.
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Let's get started.
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It has been a while since I
published a regular episode like
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this, so let me catch you up really
quickly on what has happened.
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First off, I took a little
bit of PTO with some family.
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I had an amazing time.
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It gave me a much-needed break, and
also, I did a lot of the planning
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for that time off, for the first
time, with young kids in the mix.
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Now, I definitely learned some
things, which I honestly enjoyed.
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I do like to plan.
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I like to plan vacations, and I planned
my own wedding and so many other
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things that I just enjoy the planning
phase and stages of any process.
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I was really excited to be able to
do that for a family vacation, but
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knew going in that there would be
some bumps and hiccups and things
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that I would learn along the way.
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There definitely were, but we had a
ton of fun in the process, and now
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I have some great ideas and better
planning for next time around as well.
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Now, okay, back into
the work end of things.
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Once I got back from that and settled
back into a rhythm of some sorts,
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I got back in on the Java book.
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Again, the break was really nice,
kind of refreshed my memory and reset
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some things, and now the book is
somewhat in the final chapter stages.
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We are working on the last few chapters,
but we changed tactics just a little
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bit for this last section, which ends up
being the last three chapters of the book.
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Since we started the book several
months ago, the industry has moved.
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The tools and the way that we
work has shifted, and we wanted to
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reflect what developers are really
doing today and help new developers
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learn that process along the way.
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So we're being a bit more flexible in the
tool choices and showing an alternative
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coding process with Claude, the different
planning modes, and building a capstone
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project so that developers following
through the book will walk away with
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something more personal and more useful
than just walking through sample projects.
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Now, this has actually allowed me
to weave in a pet project that I've
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been wanting to work on for a while.
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A while back on these podcast episodes,
I had hinted that there were some
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things sitting on the back burner that
I really wanted to play around with.
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This kind of allows me to do both things.
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I can build a project that I've been
wanting to build for a while, and also
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work on the book and make progress there.
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This is a really nice combination
Now, the challenge for this
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is that I'm having to shift my
writing tactics just a little bit.
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I had been charging right
along in my existing trajectory
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with the previous chapters.
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I'd had gotten into a really nice flow,
and now this has totally disrupted it.
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It, it has slowed me down a little
bit, but I do feel like the last couple
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of days has finally gotten me into
a new rhythm and where I want to be.
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That's hopefully a good prediction of
where things should be moving after this.
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I should be on a better
track and better pacing.
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I'm guessing about another month or
so of writing, cleanup, and some edits
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before it goes on to the next stages,
so I am really excited about that.
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The end is in sight, and I definitely
plan on building some things and
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pursuing some other things that have
been sitting on the back burner while
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I've been working on this project.
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But of course, I've enjoyed
this project along the way too.
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Now, going along with this just a little
bit, I am curious if anybody else has just
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been feeling a little bit out of touch.
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Part of this, I think, is the months that
I have spent focusing on writing the book.
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And part of this, I think, is just
the pace of the industry nowadays.
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Things are moving so fast.
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It's so easy to feel behind and
completely out of touch and like
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you're missing the mark on things.
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So if you're feeling
that, you are not alone.
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Know that I'm dealing with some
of that as well, and have been for
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most of this year and a lot of last
year and so on, for the last while.
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I plan to wrap up this book project really
well and go out on a high note, and then
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jump into new and deeper topics that are
currently sitting on the back burner.
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So again, lots of great things happening.
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I'm excited about all of them, but just
trying to balance all those competing
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priorities has been a challenge.
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It's already almost fall, so I also
need to work on building fresh abstracts
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for 2027 conference submissions.
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What?
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That does not seem possible that
that is already around the corner,
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but here we are almost towards
the end-ish of August in 2026.
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That's just crazy.
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I do have quite a few things that are
starting to fall into place for autumn.
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A couple more guests are lined up for the
podcast, so stay tuned for more episodes
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with unique perspectives coming up.
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I will announce those as they get
closer and more outlined and set.
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And then, I've scheduled a couple
of Java User Group tours, which
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I'm really excited about as well.
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One is on the East Coast in September, and
the other is in the Southeast in November.
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Again, I will post all the
dates when the events are up and
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officially scheduled, but I'm
really excited about both of those.
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Then, of course, some conferences
and other events kind of falling
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into the mix around those that I
will keep you abreast of as well.
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All right.
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A couple of content pieces.
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I'm behind, so I felt like I
needed to cover a couple, and these
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have been sitting on the content
list for me to read for a while.
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They were both originally published
back in May, but I still find their
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perspectives really interesting,
so I wanted to bring them up today.
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The first is, it's called You Need AI That
Reduces Maintenance Costs by James Shore.
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After reading the entire article, it does
feel a little bit negative towards AI
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development, but there is a disclaimer
by the author at the bottom that ensures
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it's not supposed to be aimed that way.
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However, what I really find interesting
in this article is that the shiny message
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of "AI skyrockets productivity" is
focusing on the front end of the process.
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Hey, you get super productive
when you use AI for coding.
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Great.
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But what happens on the
back end of that process?
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It's really easy to
forget the after effects.
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The what happens when you go into QA?
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Or what happens when you deploy to
production, or what happens when you
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have to fix bugs or have maintenance
costs or need to do upgrades or
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bug fixes down the road in five
years, or whatever it happens to be?
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We should be considering the whole
pipeline and taking advantage of
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AI to improve the entire workflow,
including, and maybe especially,
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operations and long-term cost.
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This is kind of the perspective that the
article is taking is that, hey, we've kind
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of forgotten that we need to be looking
at the long-term costs of this as well.
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AI is great to increase that
front-end productivity, but what
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happens when your maintenance
costs actually increase due to AI?
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And are there ways that we could
combat that and make AI more useful for
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reducing the maintenance costs over time?
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Improving the start of that
process is great, but it's
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honestly not worth very much.
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The article shows some diagrams
and graphs and explains some of the
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statistics involved, where if you
don't improve that cost over time, it's
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really not worth the cost of the AI.
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If you end up in the red at the end,
why would you put that much money and
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effort and time into a business that
doesn't improve your costs over time?
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I had previously heard in another
position that you want to shift left,
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which meant not to over-plan for the
unknowns in the future and try to
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catch issues earlier in the process.
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But perhaps we should shift a little
more right, just a tiny bit, to
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put our focus more on planning and
optimization for down the road, as well.
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In personal development spaces, I
hear this concept of do things for
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your future self, which means adding
a little bit more challenge now or
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adding an additional task or two now
can help ease the pain down the road.
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As an example, meal prepping on the
weekend will ease the stress of cooking
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and shopping tasks during the week.
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Setting out your exercise clothes
or shoes the night before makes a
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morning workout easier and less of
a decision process in the morning.
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Maybe we should be thinking about
development kind of in the same way.
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How can we use the AI tools and
other tools at our disposal now to
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make maintenance easier for us in
six months or five years or whatever
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the time horizon happens to be?
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All right, one more article kind of
in a similar vein is called AI versus
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Microservices by Michael T. Nygard.
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This post talks about how
microservices ecosystems are handling
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AI development and what has changed
within those teams and code bases.
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AI tools have allowed repositories
to speed up development and fixes
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on the small changes, again, that's
the front end productivity piece of
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this, but do cause other issues too.
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Team members are being asked to be
more responsible or own larger code
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bases because AI tools can help them
manage and, quote, "do more," right?
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AI tools and microservice development
can cause overriding other PRs.
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There's more conflicts and merge problems
because the speed and the optimization
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for individual features doesn't take
into account other things going on
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simultaneously or the overall picture
of the repository or the application.
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There are more gaps that end up
getting created for this, which leaves
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issues over discussing different
governance policies, privacy,
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security, and other topics, as well.
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However, I think this honestly
could be expanded even further.
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The article here is relatively short,
but I think this expands even beyond
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the boundaries of technology itself.
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In the last few months, I have come
across some everyday scenarios where my
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brain links back to the monolith versus
microservices architecture debate.
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As an example, here's one.
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Streaming services years ago started
breaking apart the satellite TV bundles.
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Initially, at least in the States a
decade or more ago, you had these large
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satellite TV bundles that you would pay
for, and you'd pay on a monthly basis,
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and they got really, really expensive.
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And most of the time, they would include a
bunch of channels you just never watched.
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You'd pick one or two channels out
of that you really cared about, and
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then you were paying this high cost
for really only one or two things
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you really wanted out of that mix.
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So what happened is streaming
services came in and broke that
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all apart, the monolithic satellite
TV bundles, broke that all apart
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into now individual microservices
architecture streaming subscriptions.
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But you had some downsides
that came along with that.
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You had each of these streaming
services break out and focus on
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different content or area or focus
matter or whatever it happened to be.
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And it ended up becoming really a pain to
create a separate account for each one of
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those streaming services and then manage
all the billing, the privacy settings, the
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content you watch, where you needed to go.
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"Hey, where was that show that I was
watching? Oh, is it this platform or that
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platform that it's on?" It's totally,
difficult to keep track of all that.
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Coordinating and managing
individually ended up being a pain.
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Now, you kind of have this blend where
you're starting to see services bundle a
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little bit, where streaming platforms will
get included in something like grocery
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company services or cell phone plans.
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You're kind of back to the monolithic
type of architecture, or maybe that's a
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microlith or whatever it's called now,
where you're seeing some bundling occur.
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You're already signing up
for this specific retailer
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or this particular platform.
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Now you're gonna get a streaming
subscription included in a
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certain plan level as well.
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Just a general everyday scenario has kind
of gone back to, okay, are we bundling?
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Are we splitting out?
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Both come with positives and
negatives to those approaches, and
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you really just need to understand
where on that trajectory you prefer.
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Do you wanna manage more things, or
do you want to have things bundled in,
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knowing that you're probably paying
for more than what you actually use?
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I also think that cloud, backup
services are kind of like this too.
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Backing up your devices, whether
you're dealing with whatever type
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of device and cloud platform,
trying to figure out, okay, do I
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buy extra storage in this place?
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Do I maybe back up storage to an
external provider just in case something
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would happen to provider number one?
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Do I outsource it across several
different platforms and put maybe
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backups of emails here, and backups
of pictures here, and backups of
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contacts and whatever else here?
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And again, it just depends on
how much you wanna manage and
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how much you wanna pay for.
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So, whether you are looking at technology
architectures or general life, I think
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we as a whole society operate in a
constant pendulum of do we bundle?
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Do we break it apart?
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00:13:20,529 --> 00:13:23,809
Knowing the differences between
microservices and monolithic approaches
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00:13:23,839 --> 00:13:27,399
is highly valuable, especially
to understand the complications
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00:13:27,409 --> 00:13:28,839
and the trade-offs of each.
225
00:13:29,499 --> 00:13:33,279
The more data points you have, hopefully
the better decisions that you can make.
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00:13:33,649 --> 00:13:38,479
And maybe we can design our AI
processes more intentionally and
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00:13:38,479 --> 00:13:41,309
prepare better for the unexpected
consequences of our actions.
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00:13:41,679 --> 00:13:45,419
I'm a planner, and I do realize that
not everyone is, but I would much
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00:13:45,419 --> 00:13:49,519
rather know what mess I'm getting
myself into before I end up jumping.
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00:13:49,739 --> 00:13:54,109
Hopefully this is helpful, whether you
are working in AI or you're looking at
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00:13:54,109 --> 00:13:57,579
technology as a whole, just thinking
about these different architectures.
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00:13:58,719 --> 00:14:02,269
It is so nice getting back into
regularly scheduled episodes with
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00:14:02,279 --> 00:14:05,199
you all again, although I had
some wonderful time off as well.
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00:14:05,679 --> 00:14:08,649
This week I caught you up on the
break, filled you in on the latest
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00:14:08,649 --> 00:14:12,119
developments in the Java book, and hinted
at some fall events that are coming.
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00:14:12,409 --> 00:14:15,359
Then we dug into two great
articles that challenged mainstream
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00:14:15,359 --> 00:14:19,239
perspectives on planning and
preparation in AI coding environments.
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00:14:19,559 --> 00:14:20,989
I look forward to chatting again soon.
239
00:14:21,059 --> 00:14:22,969
Thanks for listening, and happy coding.
00:00:05,390 --> 00:00:08,910
Jennifer Reif: You are listening to the
Breaktime Tech Talks podcast, a bite-sized
2
00:00:08,950 --> 00:00:13,489
tech podcast for busy developers where
we'll briefly cover technical topics, news
3
00:00:13,489 --> 00:00:15,749
snippets, and more in short time blocks.
4
00:00:16,230 --> 00:00:19,940
I'm your host, Jennifer Reif, an
avid developer and problem solver
5
00:00:20,149 --> 00:00:24,100
with special interest in data,
learning, and all things technology.
6
00:00:25,250 --> 00:00:26,240
Hello again.
7
00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:31,040
I have missed a couple of weeks due
to some time off, and then last week's
8
00:00:31,060 --> 00:00:35,230
episode was a guest who spoke about
DevOps, which was a lot of fun and really
9
00:00:35,230 --> 00:00:36,990
interesting to hear his perspective.
10
00:00:37,270 --> 00:00:40,330
So if you haven't listened to that
episode, feel free to check that out.
11
00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:44,520
However, I am happy to be back to
chat this week and be back into
12
00:00:44,530 --> 00:00:47,970
regularly scheduled programming
about everything that is going on
13
00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,230
and some of the things that I have
learned over the last few weeks.
14
00:00:51,380 --> 00:00:52,260
Let's get started.
15
00:00:52,910 --> 00:00:55,890
It has been a while since I
published a regular episode like
16
00:00:55,890 --> 00:00:59,100
this, so let me catch you up really
quickly on what has happened.
17
00:00:59,900 --> 00:01:02,550
First off, I took a little
bit of PTO with some family.
18
00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:04,080
I had an amazing time.
19
00:01:04,090 --> 00:01:09,000
It gave me a much-needed break, and
also, I did a lot of the planning
20
00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:12,580
for that time off, for the first
time, with young kids in the mix.
21
00:01:13,310 --> 00:01:16,650
Now, I definitely learned some
things, which I honestly enjoyed.
22
00:01:16,680 --> 00:01:17,840
I do like to plan.
23
00:01:17,850 --> 00:01:22,160
I like to plan vacations, and I planned
my own wedding and so many other
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00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:26,240
things that I just enjoy the planning
phase and stages of any process.
25
00:01:26,830 --> 00:01:30,680
I was really excited to be able to
do that for a family vacation, but
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00:01:30,680 --> 00:01:34,150
knew going in that there would be
some bumps and hiccups and things
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00:01:34,150 --> 00:01:35,070
that I would learn along the way.
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00:01:35,510 --> 00:01:38,890
There definitely were, but we had a
ton of fun in the process, and now
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00:01:38,890 --> 00:01:42,200
I have some great ideas and better
planning for next time around as well.
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00:01:42,850 --> 00:01:45,310
Now, okay, back into
the work end of things.
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00:01:45,320 --> 00:01:49,130
Once I got back from that and settled
back into a rhythm of some sorts,
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00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:51,820
I got back in on the Java book.
33
00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:54,700
Again, the break was really nice,
kind of refreshed my memory and reset
34
00:01:54,700 --> 00:02:00,090
some things, and now the book is
somewhat in the final chapter stages.
35
00:02:00,370 --> 00:02:05,040
We are working on the last few chapters,
but we changed tactics just a little
36
00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:08,600
bit for this last section, which ends up
being the last three chapters of the book.
37
00:02:09,300 --> 00:02:13,230
Since we started the book several
months ago, the industry has moved.
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00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:17,030
The tools and the way that we
work has shifted, and we wanted to
39
00:02:17,030 --> 00:02:22,310
reflect what developers are really
doing today and help new developers
40
00:02:22,350 --> 00:02:23,830
learn that process along the way.
41
00:02:24,270 --> 00:02:28,470
So we're being a bit more flexible in the
tool choices and showing an alternative
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00:02:28,470 --> 00:02:33,890
coding process with Claude, the different
planning modes, and building a capstone
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00:02:33,890 --> 00:02:37,450
project so that developers following
through the book will walk away with
44
00:02:37,450 --> 00:02:41,450
something more personal and more useful
than just walking through sample projects.
45
00:02:42,332 --> 00:02:46,172
Now, this has actually allowed me
to weave in a pet project that I've
46
00:02:46,172 --> 00:02:47,522
been wanting to work on for a while.
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00:02:47,582 --> 00:02:50,992
A while back on these podcast episodes,
I had hinted that there were some
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00:02:50,992 --> 00:02:53,372
things sitting on the back burner that
I really wanted to play around with.
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00:02:53,922 --> 00:02:56,562
This kind of allows me to do both things.
50
00:02:56,762 --> 00:03:01,322
I can build a project that I've been
wanting to build for a while, and also
51
00:03:01,322 --> 00:03:03,602
work on the book and make progress there.
52
00:03:03,862 --> 00:03:06,542
This is a really nice combination
Now, the challenge for this
53
00:03:06,562 --> 00:03:10,002
is that I'm having to shift my
writing tactics just a little bit.
54
00:03:10,392 --> 00:03:13,472
I had been charging right
along in my existing trajectory
55
00:03:13,472 --> 00:03:14,612
with the previous chapters.
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00:03:14,692 --> 00:03:19,392
I'd had gotten into a really nice flow,
and now this has totally disrupted it.
57
00:03:19,922 --> 00:03:23,292
It, it has slowed me down a little
bit, but I do feel like the last couple
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00:03:23,292 --> 00:03:27,342
of days has finally gotten me into
a new rhythm and where I want to be.
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00:03:27,382 --> 00:03:31,142
That's hopefully a good prediction of
where things should be moving after this.
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00:03:31,182 --> 00:03:33,292
I should be on a better
track and better pacing.
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00:03:33,762 --> 00:03:37,072
I'm guessing about another month or
so of writing, cleanup, and some edits
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00:03:37,082 --> 00:03:40,682
before it goes on to the next stages,
so I am really excited about that.
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00:03:40,992 --> 00:03:45,562
The end is in sight, and I definitely
plan on building some things and
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00:03:45,582 --> 00:03:47,702
pursuing some other things that have
been sitting on the back burner while
65
00:03:47,702 --> 00:03:48,812
I've been working on this project.
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00:03:49,122 --> 00:03:51,292
But of course, I've enjoyed
this project along the way too.
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00:03:51,982 --> 00:03:57,192
Now, going along with this just a little
bit, I am curious if anybody else has just
68
00:03:57,192 --> 00:03:58,912
been feeling a little bit out of touch.
69
00:03:59,432 --> 00:04:04,642
Part of this, I think, is the months that
I have spent focusing on writing the book.
70
00:04:05,232 --> 00:04:08,252
And part of this, I think, is just
the pace of the industry nowadays.
71
00:04:08,262 --> 00:04:09,562
Things are moving so fast.
72
00:04:09,572 --> 00:04:12,982
It's so easy to feel behind and
completely out of touch and like
73
00:04:12,982 --> 00:04:14,142
you're missing the mark on things.
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00:04:14,822 --> 00:04:17,072
So if you're feeling
that, you are not alone.
75
00:04:17,102 --> 00:04:20,742
Know that I'm dealing with some
of that as well, and have been for
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00:04:20,842 --> 00:04:25,992
most of this year and a lot of last
year and so on, for the last while.
77
00:04:26,512 --> 00:04:32,242
I plan to wrap up this book project really
well and go out on a high note, and then
78
00:04:32,242 --> 00:04:35,522
jump into new and deeper topics that are
currently sitting on the back burner.
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00:04:35,772 --> 00:04:37,532
So again, lots of great things happening.
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00:04:37,542 --> 00:04:41,132
I'm excited about all of them, but just
trying to balance all those competing
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00:04:41,132 --> 00:04:42,922
priorities has been a challenge.
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00:04:43,704 --> 00:04:48,024
It's already almost fall, so I also
need to work on building fresh abstracts
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00:04:48,034 --> 00:04:50,354
for 2027 conference submissions.
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00:04:50,744 --> 00:04:51,184
What?
85
00:04:51,244 --> 00:04:53,984
That does not seem possible that
that is already around the corner,
86
00:04:53,984 --> 00:04:59,294
but here we are almost towards
the end-ish of August in 2026.
87
00:04:59,814 --> 00:05:00,494
That's just crazy.
88
00:05:00,934 --> 00:05:04,194
I do have quite a few things that are
starting to fall into place for autumn.
89
00:05:04,504 --> 00:05:08,984
A couple more guests are lined up for the
podcast, so stay tuned for more episodes
90
00:05:09,004 --> 00:05:10,804
with unique perspectives coming up.
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00:05:11,204 --> 00:05:16,544
I will announce those as they get
closer and more outlined and set.
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00:05:17,304 --> 00:05:20,634
And then, I've scheduled a couple
of Java User Group tours, which
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00:05:20,634 --> 00:05:21,874
I'm really excited about as well.
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00:05:22,134 --> 00:05:27,644
One is on the East Coast in September, and
the other is in the Southeast in November.
95
00:05:27,874 --> 00:05:30,284
Again, I will post all the
dates when the events are up and
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00:05:30,504 --> 00:05:33,714
officially scheduled, but I'm
really excited about both of those.
97
00:05:33,734 --> 00:05:36,614
Then, of course, some conferences
and other events kind of falling
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00:05:36,614 --> 00:05:39,944
into the mix around those that I
will keep you abreast of as well.
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00:05:40,924 --> 00:05:41,274
All right.
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00:05:41,354 --> 00:05:42,504
A couple of content pieces.
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00:05:42,544 --> 00:05:46,624
I'm behind, so I felt like I
needed to cover a couple, and these
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00:05:46,674 --> 00:05:51,044
have been sitting on the content
list for me to read for a while.
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00:05:51,104 --> 00:05:54,344
They were both originally published
back in May, but I still find their
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00:05:54,344 --> 00:05:57,124
perspectives really interesting,
so I wanted to bring them up today.
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00:05:57,664 --> 00:06:02,514
The first is, it's called You Need AI That
Reduces Maintenance Costs by James Shore.
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00:06:03,134 --> 00:06:07,754
After reading the entire article, it does
feel a little bit negative towards AI
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00:06:07,814 --> 00:06:11,534
development, but there is a disclaimer
by the author at the bottom that ensures
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00:06:11,574 --> 00:06:13,364
it's not supposed to be aimed that way.
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00:06:13,994 --> 00:06:20,224
However, what I really find interesting
in this article is that the shiny message
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00:06:20,264 --> 00:06:25,884
of "AI skyrockets productivity" is
focusing on the front end of the process.
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00:06:25,974 --> 00:06:29,064
Hey, you get super productive
when you use AI for coding.
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00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:30,590
Great.
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00:06:30,750 --> 00:06:33,290
But what happens on the
back end of that process?
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00:06:33,600 --> 00:06:35,980
It's really easy to
forget the after effects.
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00:06:36,330 --> 00:06:38,770
The what happens when you go into QA?
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00:06:39,050 --> 00:06:43,000
Or what happens when you deploy to
production, or what happens when you
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00:06:43,010 --> 00:06:47,470
have to fix bugs or have maintenance
costs or need to do upgrades or
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00:06:47,690 --> 00:06:51,130
bug fixes down the road in five
years, or whatever it happens to be?
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00:06:52,190 --> 00:06:55,730
We should be considering the whole
pipeline and taking advantage of
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00:06:55,730 --> 00:07:00,080
AI to improve the entire workflow,
including, and maybe especially,
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00:07:00,140 --> 00:07:02,060
operations and long-term cost.
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00:07:02,310 --> 00:07:05,740
This is kind of the perspective that the
article is taking is that, hey, we've kind
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00:07:05,740 --> 00:07:10,770
of forgotten that we need to be looking
at the long-term costs of this as well.
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00:07:10,950 --> 00:07:14,240
AI is great to increase that
front-end productivity, but what
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00:07:14,240 --> 00:07:17,860
happens when your maintenance
costs actually increase due to AI?
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00:07:17,870 --> 00:07:22,000
And are there ways that we could
combat that and make AI more useful for
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00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:23,880
reducing the maintenance costs over time?
128
00:07:24,540 --> 00:07:27,120
Improving the start of that
process is great, but it's
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00:07:27,150 --> 00:07:28,660
honestly not worth very much.
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00:07:28,690 --> 00:07:33,760
The article shows some diagrams
and graphs and explains some of the
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00:07:33,770 --> 00:07:38,464
statistics involved, where if you
don't improve that cost over time, it's
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00:07:38,504 --> 00:07:41,174
really not worth the cost of the AI.
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00:07:41,454 --> 00:07:45,444
If you end up in the red at the end,
why would you put that much money and
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00:07:45,454 --> 00:07:49,464
effort and time into a business that
doesn't improve your costs over time?
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00:07:50,774 --> 00:07:54,984
I had previously heard in another
position that you want to shift left,
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00:07:55,384 --> 00:07:59,814
which meant not to over-plan for the
unknowns in the future and try to
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00:07:59,824 --> 00:08:01,824
catch issues earlier in the process.
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00:08:02,444 --> 00:08:07,254
But perhaps we should shift a little
more right, just a tiny bit, to
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00:08:07,254 --> 00:08:11,774
put our focus more on planning and
optimization for down the road, as well.
140
00:08:12,114 --> 00:08:15,344
In personal development spaces, I
hear this concept of do things for
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00:08:15,344 --> 00:08:20,194
your future self, which means adding
a little bit more challenge now or
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00:08:20,194 --> 00:08:23,764
adding an additional task or two now
can help ease the pain down the road.
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00:08:24,204 --> 00:08:28,764
As an example, meal prepping on the
weekend will ease the stress of cooking
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00:08:28,774 --> 00:08:30,624
and shopping tasks during the week.
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00:08:30,764 --> 00:08:34,344
Setting out your exercise clothes
or shoes the night before makes a
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00:08:34,354 --> 00:08:37,804
morning workout easier and less of
a decision process in the morning.
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00:08:38,474 --> 00:08:41,674
Maybe we should be thinking about
development kind of in the same way.
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00:08:41,964 --> 00:08:45,960
How can we use the AI tools and
other tools at our disposal now to
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00:08:45,960 --> 00:08:49,610
make maintenance easier for us in
six months or five years or whatever
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00:08:49,610 --> 00:08:50,870
the time horizon happens to be?
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00:08:51,808 --> 00:08:55,738
All right, one more article kind of
in a similar vein is called AI versus
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00:08:55,738 --> 00:08:56,238
Microservices by Michael T. Nygard.
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00:08:59,098 --> 00:09:02,908
This post talks about how
microservices ecosystems are handling
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00:09:02,938 --> 00:09:07,378
AI development and what has changed
within those teams and code bases.
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00:09:08,188 --> 00:09:12,268
AI tools have allowed repositories
to speed up development and fixes
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00:09:12,268 --> 00:09:15,488
on the small changes, again, that's
the front end productivity piece of
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00:09:15,488 --> 00:09:17,898
this, but do cause other issues too.
158
00:09:18,348 --> 00:09:22,988
Team members are being asked to be
more responsible or own larger code
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00:09:22,988 --> 00:09:28,068
bases because AI tools can help them
manage and, quote, "do more," right?
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00:09:28,578 --> 00:09:32,748
AI tools and microservice development
can cause overriding other PRs.
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00:09:32,768 --> 00:09:37,418
There's more conflicts and merge problems
because the speed and the optimization
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00:09:37,418 --> 00:09:41,188
for individual features doesn't take
into account other things going on
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00:09:41,188 --> 00:09:46,448
simultaneously or the overall picture
of the repository or the application.
164
00:09:48,112 --> 00:09:51,802
There are more gaps that end up
getting created for this, which leaves
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00:09:52,042 --> 00:09:55,652
issues over discussing different
governance policies, privacy,
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00:09:55,652 --> 00:09:58,272
security, and other topics, as well.
167
00:09:59,132 --> 00:10:02,362
However, I think this honestly
could be expanded even further.
168
00:10:02,362 --> 00:10:06,952
The article here is relatively short,
but I think this expands even beyond
169
00:10:06,962 --> 00:10:10,099
the boundaries of technology itself.
170
00:10:10,829 --> 00:10:15,629
In the last few months, I have come
across some everyday scenarios where my
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00:10:15,639 --> 00:10:19,819
brain links back to the monolith versus
microservices architecture debate.
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00:10:20,399 --> 00:10:21,959
As an example, here's one.
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00:10:22,479 --> 00:10:27,469
Streaming services years ago started
breaking apart the satellite TV bundles.
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00:10:27,659 --> 00:10:33,619
Initially, at least in the States a
decade or more ago, you had these large
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00:10:33,669 --> 00:10:37,469
satellite TV bundles that you would pay
for, and you'd pay on a monthly basis,
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00:10:37,469 --> 00:10:39,029
and they got really, really expensive.
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00:10:39,289 --> 00:10:43,159
And most of the time, they would include a
bunch of channels you just never watched.
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00:10:43,389 --> 00:10:46,339
You'd pick one or two channels out
of that you really cared about, and
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00:10:46,339 --> 00:10:49,249
then you were paying this high cost
for really only one or two things
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00:10:49,249 --> 00:10:50,749
you really wanted out of that mix.
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00:10:51,029 --> 00:10:54,049
So what happened is streaming
services came in and broke that
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00:10:54,069 --> 00:10:59,919
all apart, the monolithic satellite
TV bundles, broke that all apart
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00:10:59,949 --> 00:11:04,809
into now individual microservices
architecture streaming subscriptions.
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00:11:05,679 --> 00:11:08,419
But you had some downsides
that came along with that.
185
00:11:08,989 --> 00:11:11,839
You had each of these streaming
services break out and focus on
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00:11:11,869 --> 00:11:16,109
different content or area or focus
matter or whatever it happened to be.
187
00:11:16,809 --> 00:11:21,219
And it ended up becoming really a pain to
create a separate account for each one of
188
00:11:21,219 --> 00:11:25,279
those streaming services and then manage
all the billing, the privacy settings, the
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00:11:25,289 --> 00:11:27,089
content you watch, where you needed to go.
190
00:11:27,109 --> 00:11:30,289
"Hey, where was that show that I was
watching? Oh, is it this platform or that
191
00:11:30,289 --> 00:11:33,999
platform that it's on?" It's totally,
difficult to keep track of all that.
192
00:11:34,019 --> 00:11:37,069
Coordinating and managing
individually ended up being a pain.
193
00:11:37,689 --> 00:11:43,559
Now, you kind of have this blend where
you're starting to see services bundle a
194
00:11:43,559 --> 00:11:48,789
little bit, where streaming platforms will
get included in something like grocery
195
00:11:48,789 --> 00:11:50,919
company services or cell phone plans.
196
00:11:51,329 --> 00:11:55,249
You're kind of back to the monolithic
type of architecture, or maybe that's a
197
00:11:55,249 --> 00:11:59,959
microlith or whatever it's called now,
where you're seeing some bundling occur.
198
00:11:59,979 --> 00:12:02,549
You're already signing up
for this specific retailer
199
00:12:02,549 --> 00:12:03,799
or this particular platform.
200
00:12:04,159 --> 00:12:07,439
Now you're gonna get a streaming
subscription included in a
201
00:12:07,439 --> 00:12:08,759
certain plan level as well.
202
00:12:09,939 --> 00:12:14,209
Just a general everyday scenario has kind
of gone back to, okay, are we bundling?
203
00:12:14,209 --> 00:12:15,039
Are we splitting out?
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Both come with positives and
negatives to those approaches, and
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you really just need to understand
where on that trajectory you prefer.
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Do you wanna manage more things, or
do you want to have things bundled in,
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knowing that you're probably paying
for more than what you actually use?
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I also think that cloud, backup
services are kind of like this too.
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Backing up your devices, whether
you're dealing with whatever type
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of device and cloud platform,
trying to figure out, okay, do I
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buy extra storage in this place?
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Do I maybe back up storage to an
external provider just in case something
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would happen to provider number one?
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Do I outsource it across several
different platforms and put maybe
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backups of emails here, and backups
of pictures here, and backups of
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contacts and whatever else here?
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And again, it just depends on
how much you wanna manage and
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how much you wanna pay for.
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So, whether you are looking at technology
architectures or general life, I think
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we as a whole society operate in a
constant pendulum of do we bundle?
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Do we break it apart?
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Knowing the differences between
microservices and monolithic approaches
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is highly valuable, especially
to understand the complications
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and the trade-offs of each.
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The more data points you have, hopefully
the better decisions that you can make.
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And maybe we can design our AI
processes more intentionally and
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prepare better for the unexpected
consequences of our actions.
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I'm a planner, and I do realize that
not everyone is, but I would much
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rather know what mess I'm getting
myself into before I end up jumping.
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Hopefully this is helpful, whether you
are working in AI or you're looking at
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technology as a whole, just thinking
about these different architectures.
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It is so nice getting back into
regularly scheduled episodes with
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you all again, although I had
some wonderful time off as well.
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This week I caught you up on the
break, filled you in on the latest
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developments in the Java book, and hinted
at some fall events that are coming.
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Then we dug into two great
articles that challenged mainstream
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perspectives on planning and
preparation in AI coding environments.
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I look forward to chatting again soon.
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Thanks for listening, and happy coding.
