A Thursday catch-up from Maintainable: Matija Šošić on boring software, abstractions, Wasp, and why AI doesn’t make good frameworks obsolete. maintainable.fm/episodes/mat...

New on Maintainable: Matija Šošić joins @Robbyonrails.com to talk boring software, abstractions, Wasp’s evolution, and why AI may make good frameworks more valuable. Listen here: maintainable.fm/episodes/mat...

What does it mean for software to “fit in your head”? José Valim explains why clear boundaries and restraint matter when you’re designing a programming language for decades of evolution, and why those principles still matter in the age of AI. 🎧 maintainable.fm/episodes/jos...

What does maintainability look like when you’re maintaining a programming language? José Valim joins Robby to talk about Elixir, long-term evolution, restraint, extensibility, and how AI is changing software maintenance. maintainable.fm/episodes/jos...

Before you remove the weird thing, find out why it’s there. @JohnAthayde.com talks about understanding how people actually use software before removing workflows, replacing patterns, or reaching for a rewrite. Listen here: maintainable.fm/episodes/joh...

What does maintainability look like from the user’s side? @johnathayde.comjoins @robbyonrails.com on Maintainable to talk front-end sprawl, design systems, AI-assisted software archaeology, and rewrite vs. refactor. Listen here : maintainable.fm/episodes/joh...

Kristin Isaac argues that the strongest case connects maintenance work to customer impact, revenue, reliability, and risk. Sometimes the best way to advocate for invisible engineering work isn't a better technical argument. It’s a better story. Listen here maintainable.fm/episodes/kri...

Customers don't call it “technical debt.” They say your product is slow, unreliable, or broken. Kristin Isaac joins @RobbyRussell to talk about connecting maintenance work to customer experience, revenue, reliability, and trust. Listen here: buff.ly/T7iUEcb

"A multitude of workers." That's how Obie Fernandez described his AI architecture in 2024. We call it agent orchestration now. What makes the episode worth revisiting is that he frames it as a maintainability decision, not a capability one.

If you missed this week’s episode, David Hayes joined @Robbyonrails.com to talk about the realities of maintaining software that people depend on. One of the themes that stood out: sometimes “boring” software is exactly what success looks like. Listen here: maintainable.fm/episodes/dav...

New on Maintainable 🎙️ David Hayes of FusionAuth joins @Robbyonrails.com to explore what it takes to maintain software. They talk APIs, technical debt, self-hosted software, customer outcomes, & why “boring” software can sometimes be exactly what you want. Listen: maintainable.fm/episodes/dav...

A lot of us are writing context files for AI agents, but actually, the rules are the same ones we've been ignoring for humans. Daniela Baron and Robby discussed this topic long before agents were reading our repos, so this episode offers practical advice for those keeping humans in mind when coding.

If you missed it this week 👀 Diana Pfeil joined @Robbyonrails.com on Maintainable to talk about evals, input drift, human review, and the real maintenance work behind AI systems. Plus, why starting with the simplest model is often the smartest move. 🎧 Listen here: maintainable.fm/episodes/dia...

AI systems can change even when the code doesn’t. This week, Diana Pfeil joins @Robbyonrails.com on Maintainable to talk evals, input drift, production monitoring, and why simpler models are often the better place to start. 🎧 Listen here: maintainable.fm/episodes/dia...

Worth a listen if you've ever inherited a "creative" codebase. 🎧 maintainable.fm/episodes/arp...

Arpit Mohan - Aspiring To Be Boring As Possible

Robby has a chat with Arpit Mohan, the Co-Founder and CTO of Appsmith, about the importance of engineers writing code for humans and not machines while also focusing a lot on readability, how useful…

maintainable.fm

In the age of AI-generated code, this vault episode seems timely. Arpit Mohan (Appsmith) on why the best code is written for humans- readability, useful comments, the why behind every decision 🎧 maintainable.fm/episodes/arp...

3 components of really well-maintained software, according to Alan Ridlehoover:

AI is writing more of your code than ever. But who's checking the behavior? From the Vault: Alan Ridlehoover makes the case for behavior-centric testing to keep systems maintainable. Worth a (re)listen right now. maintainable.fm/episodes/ala...

If you're into that sort of thing.md. maintainable.fm/llms.txt

If you missed it 👀 @chriscoyier.net joined @robbyonrails.com on Maintainable to talk about CodePen, long-term software maintenance, and why maintainability is often a people problem more than a code problem. Listen here: maintainable.fm/episodes/chr...

New episode 👀 @chriscoyier.net joins @Robbyonrails.com to talk about maintaining CodePen over 15+ years, migrating from Rails to Go, and why maintainability is often more about people than code.

Maintainable Podcast Newsletter: - Written for developers, not managers - Robby's commentary on things that don't make it to air - Vault picks (episodes worth revisiting) - New episode alerts with show notes and key links maintainable.fm/newsletter/

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We speak with seasoned practitioners about the art of improving existing software code.

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"We'll Fix It Later" never works. Let's explore what really needs to happen. The Maintainable newsletter is where Robby keeps the conversation going between episodes. maintainable.fm/newsletter

Subscribe to the Maintainable Software Podcast Newsletter

We speak with seasoned practitioners about the art of improving existing software code.

maintainable.fm

Catch up with Sally Lait & @Robbyonrails.com on Maintainable as they talk about confidence as a signal of maintainability. You can feel it in a codebase immediately. 🎧 Listen here: buff.ly/4vZMQeU

Sally Lait joins @robbyonrail.com on Maintainable to talk about confidence as a signal of maintainability. Not just code quality… but how teams feel working in a system. Listen here: maintainable.fm/episodes/sal...

We talk about long-lived software every episode. Now we want to hear from the teams building it. If you work with Rails, let's hear from you! railsdeveloper.com/survey/ (The Ruby on Rails Community Survey is led by Planet Argon, the producers of Maintainable Podcast.)

2026 Ruby on Rails Community Survey

The 2026 Ruby on Rails Community Survey is now open. Add your voice to the community data. Brought to you by Planet Argon.

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Stay sharp. Skip the noise. Join the Maintainable Podcast newsletter. One email when a new episode drops. That's it. maintainable.fm/newsletter/

If you missed it this week 👀 Rein Henrichs joined @Robbyonrails.com on Maintainable to talk about maintenance, understanding, and how teams stay aligned. Listen here: maintainable.fm/episodes/rei...

Rein Henrichs joins @Robbyonrails.com on Maintainable to explore why software maintenance is really about understanding. It’s not just about code, it’s about how teams make sense of complex systems together. Listen here: maintainable.fm/episodes/rei...

If you missed it this week 👀 Russ Olsen joined @Robbyonrails.com on Maintainable Software Podcast to talk about maintainability, legacy systems, and why context matters. Listen here: maintainable.fm/episodes/rus...