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This podcast has
63 episodes
Language
EnglishPublisher
Monica Giambitto & Urban HafnerExplicit
No
Date created
2020/05/19
Latest episode
2026/06/12
Average duration
46 min.
Release period
93 days
Description
Monica and Urban discuss their work life as developers and development managers.
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Check latest episodes from Expanding Beyond podcast
Episode 63: I am the mother of the agents
2026/06/12
We finally come back to the mic to talk about what everyone is talking about: LLMs at work. Urban has stopped handwriting code, Monica is delegating debugging to Claude between meetings, and we both wonder out loud whether our processes, our hiring, and honestly our jobs are quietly being rewritten while we ride the wave.
Mentioned
Destroying the Machines, with Brian Merchant
The engineering management memory crisis
Quotable moments
[10:00] "How can I trust you if you're not able to commit to the fact that, sorry, I don't know about this." — Monica
[18:24] "Who is going to review 20,000 lines of code in a language they're not expert of? Looks good to me territory." — Urban
[23:55] "Nobody knows. Remember that they're all making stuff up." — Monica
[35:32] "You are all going to become engineering managers... what you're going to have at your disposal is a certain amount of agents that you can spin up and tell them to orchestrate between each other." — Monica
Ask questions via our anonymous feedback form
You can reach us via email at [email protected].
Where to find Monica on the internet:
Website: monicag.me
Bluesky: @nirnaeth.bsky.social
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @nirnaeth
Blog: dev.to/nirnaeth
Where to find Urban on the internet:
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Bluesky: @urbanhafner.bsky.social
Github: @ujh
Blog: urbanhafner.com
The intro and outro music is Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes. It's licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Episode 62: The one where we talk about AI
2025/07/21
We finally have the in depth discussion about LLMs, how we use them, and what we think they might evolve into. We also touch on starting to pay more and more for stuff.
Ask questions via our anonymous feedback form
You can reach us via email at [email protected].
Where to find Monica on the internet:
Website: monicag.me
Bluesky: @nirnaeth.bsky.social
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @nirnaeth
Blog: dev.to/nirnaeth
Where to find Urban on the internet:
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Bluesky: @urbanhafner.bsky.social
Github: @ujh
Blog: urbanhafner.com
The intro and outro music is Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes. It's licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Episode 61: Keep your database close
2025/02/24
It's side project time! Urban talks about moving a project from Heroku to fly.io and Monica starts volunteering her time to stay motivated.
Fountain Pen Companion
FPC Github repository
[fly.io](fly.io)
LiteFS
Pgvector
Vostel
Freetown Christiania
Ask questions via our anonymous feedback form
You can reach us via email at [email protected].
Where to find Monica on the internet:
Website: monicag.me
Bluesky: @nirnaeth.bsky.social
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @nirnaeth
Blog: dev.to/nirnaeth
Where to find Urban on the internet:
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Bluesky: @urbanhafner.bsky.social
Github: @ujh
Blog: urbanhafner.com
The intro and outro music is Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes. It's licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Episode 60: Everyone is sick
2024/12/18
Urban gets his AWS certificate and we discuss certifications in general and what they are good for. Especially in a B2B world. We also talk about project management and how no one seems to be in charge in a lot of places, as well as LLM generated code as yet another level of abstraction.
Roles and Responsibilities retro
Trillions by Robin Wigglesworth
Dreamweaver
AI Won't Fix the Fundamental Flaw of Programming
Ask questions via our anonymous feedback form
You can reach us via email at [email protected].
Where to find Monica on the internet:
Website: monicag.me
Bluesky: @nirnaeth.bsky.social
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @nirnaeth
Blog: dev.to/nirnaeth
Where to find Urban on the internet:
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Bluesky: @urbanhafner.bsky.social
Github: @ujh
Blog: urbanhafner.com
The intro and outro music is Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes. It's licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Episode 59: Asking why
2024/11/07
In this episode we discuss meeting in person, thinking about architecture, and most importantly finding out the WHY for things.
Fundamentals of Software Architecture
How to think like an architect
Architectural Katas
Ask questions via our anonymous feedback form
You can reach us via email at [email protected].
Where to find Monica on the internet:
Website: monicag.me
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @nirnaeth
Blog: dev.to/nirnaeth
Where to find Urban on the internet:
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @ujh
Blog: urbanhafner.com
The intro and outro music is Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes. It's licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Episode 58: We use a spreadsheet for running retros
2024/10/09
In this episode we discuss LLMs, writing blog posts, running retros (in spreadsheets!), Shape Up and other processes. We end by asking YOU (the listener) to get back to us with what process you are using and if it works for you or not.
Using a LLM to fight spam
Obie Fernandez: Pioneering AI in Ruby on Rails Development
Retromat
Avoiding Waste retro
Shape Up™
Ask questions via our anonymous feedback form
You can reach us via email at [email protected].
Where to find Monica on the internet:
Website: monicag.me
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @nirnaeth
Blog: dev.to/nirnaeth
Where to find Urban on the internet:
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @ujh
Blog: urbanhafner.com
The intro and outro music is Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes. It's licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Episode 57: Software adulting
2024/09/19
In this episode we talk about certifications and how they are somehow similar to hiring, cheating during interviews, and the pitfalls of employee surveys.
Goodhart’s law
Ask questions via our anonymous feedback form
You can reach us via email at [email protected].
Where to find Monica on the internet:
Website: monicag.me
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @nirnaeth
Blog: dev.to/nirnaeth
Where to find Urban on the internet:
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @ujh
Blog: urbanhafner.com
The intro and outro music is Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes. It's licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Episode 56: Switching jobs
2024/08/19
It's been a hot minute since the last episode and a lot has happened. Urban and Monica discuss their new jobs, getting fired, and of course LLMs!
https://www.fountainpencompanion.com/blog/10-new-pen-and-ink-suggestion-widget-now-with-ai
https://cursor.sh/
Ask questions via our anonymous feedback form
You can reach us via email at [email protected].
Where to find Monica on the internet:
Website: monicag.me
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @nirnaeth
Blog: dev.to/nirnaeth
Where to find Urban on the internet:
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @ujh
Blog: urbanhafner.com
The intro and outro music is Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes. It's licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Episode 55: Approaching things with curiosity
2023/11/03
Urban tells about his new job, and how it's quite different than the previous one. Monica thinks about her future and what kind of job to do next.
Martijn Doolaard (renovating in the Italian Alps)
Ask questions via our anonymous feedback form
You can reach us via email at [email protected].
Where to find Monica on the internet:
Website: monicag.me
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @nirnaeth
Blog: dev.to/nirnaeth
Where to find Urban on the internet:
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @ujh
Blog: urbanhafner.com
The intro and outro music is Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes. It's licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Episode 54: I am YOLO releasing
2023/09/14
Urban is just chilling, but Monica is trying to help her team to be less scared about releasing to production and maybe ... maybe go back to being a developer ... at some point.
Cypress
Ask questions via our anonymous feedback form
You can reach us via email at [email protected].
You can follow us on Twitter at @podcast_eb.
Where to find Monica on the internet:
Website: monicag.me
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @nirnaeth
Blog: dev.to/nirnaeth
Where to find Urban on the internet:
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @ujh
Blog: urbanhafner.com
The intro and outro music is Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes. It's licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Episode 53: I Am The Mother Of The Team
2023/07/27
Urban talks about resigning and what to do for the remaining time and how different notice periods can affect offboarding. Monica is looking for contractors (let her know where to look!) and thinks about the similarities and differences when working for small or big companies.
Ask questions via our anonymous feedback form
You can reach us via email at [email protected].
You can follow us on Twitter at @podcast_eb.
Where to find Monica on the internet:
Website: monicag.me
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @nirnaeth
Blog: dev.to/nirnaeth
Where to find Urban on the internet:
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @ujh
Blog: urbanhafner.com
The intro and outro music is Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes. It's licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Episode 52: Even This Guy Is Human
2023/07/10
We discuss rubyday 2023, taking care of large applications, testing strategies for startups, and the dearth of practical literature around startups in general.
rubyday 2023
Metaprogramming Ruby 2
Programming Ruby (Pickaxe book)
Pragmatic Programmer
packwerk
Software Testing | worx4you Inc
Scratch from MIT
Gosu
PyGame Zero
Guinea Pig YouTube channel
Ask questions via our anonymous feedback form
You can reach us via email at [email protected].
You can follow us on Twitter at @podcast_eb.
Where to find Monica on the internet:
Website: monicag.me
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @nirnaeth
Blog: dev.to/nirnaeth
Where to find Urban on the internet:
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @ujh
Blog: urbanhafner.com
The intro and outro music is Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes. It's licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Episode 51: We have come out of hibernation
2023/06/12
Monica and Urban discuss what they've been up to in the last six months.
Why Construction Projects Always Go Over Budget
Release It! by Michael Nygard
Engineering Management for the Rest of Us by Sarah Drasner
An Elegant Puzzle: Systems of Engineering Management by Will Larson
Listener question: https://masto.ai/@[email protected]/109501793033994252
Ask questions via our anonymous feedback form
You can reach us via email at [email protected].
You can follow us on Twitter at @podcast_eb.
Where to find Monica on the internet:
Website: monicag.me
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @nirnaeth
Blog: dev.to/nirnaeth
Where to find Urban on the internet:
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @ujh
Blog: urbanhafner.com
The intro and outro music is Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes. It's licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Episode 50: Make It As Easy As Possible
2022/12/20
We are reminiscing about doing 49 episodes, as well as answer listener questions!
Ask questions via our anonymous feedback form
You can reach us via email at [email protected].
You can follow us on Twitter at @podcast_eb.
Where to find Monica on the internet:
Website: monicag.me
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @nirnaeth
Blog: dev.to/nirnaeth
Where to find Urban on the internet:
Twitter: @ujh
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @ujh
Blog: urbanhafner.com
The intro and outro music is Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes. It's licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
Episode 49: I quit!
2022/11/29
Urban's company got acquired and Monica quits her job!
You can reach us via email at [email protected].
You can follow us on Twitter at @podcast_eb.
Where to find Monica on the internet:
Website: monicag.me
Mastodon: @[email protected]
Github: @nirnaeth
Blog: dev.to/nirnaeth
Where to find Urban on the internet:
Twitter: @ujh
Github: @ujh
Blog: urbanhafner.com
The intro and outro music is Our Big Adventure by Scott Holmes. It's licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).
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