The Joe Reis Show

Welcome to 2026! In this spontaneous Friday AMA, I take listener questions on ontologies, the “leaky abstractions” of AI coding tools, why the “button pusher” era of engineering is a professional dead end, and the shifting landscape of data engineering.I also provides an update on my upcoming book, Mixed Model Arts (launching in March 2026), and discuss the unexpected convergence of library science, ontologies, and traditional data modeling, something not on my 2025 bingo card.Great turnout, especially for no notice. Thanks to everyone who showed up!

Happy 2026! In this episode, I rant about whether vibe coding and AI coding agents makes the Law of Leaky Abstractions obsolete, making your first dollar (or whatever currency), and more.The Law of Leaky Abstractions: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/11/11/the-law-of-leaky-abstractions/If you like this podcast, please take 10 seconds and give it a rating or review on your podcast platform of choice. It will go a long way to giving the show more visibility. Thanks!

2025 is nearly gone, and in this episode, I give some thoughts on what I think might happen in 2026. I also chat about this week's surge of interest in Kimball vs Inmon (and the podcast I tried to organize with them) and much more.

“What I built today might be obsolete tomorrow.”This is something I heard this week from a developer, and this is not uncommon given the warp speed nonstop advancement of AI models every week. We used to measure the rate of change in months or years. Now it’s days or weeks.In this episode, I talk about why writing code is rarely hard part, and why having good taste and shipping things that people love is the most important things we can do.

In this episode, Nik Suresh returns to the show to discuss his first year running a bootstrapped services company. And no, he probably will not throat punch or pile drive you.Nik explains why he moved away from hourly billing to fixed pricing, why writing code is often the least profitable part of a project, and how to spot "status games" in the tech industry. We also dive into the current state of AI, why bad leadership is the real problem behind failed tech initiatives, and trade stories about MMA and boxing.We debunk the myth that starting a business has to be miserable, explore the performative nature of "hustle culture" in Silicon Valley, and break down why engineers often struggle with consulting sales.