Programming Throwdown

188: World Models

Intro topic: RunningNews/Links:Flow matching versus diffusion modelshttps://youtu.be/firXjwZ_6KI?is=QMq8DcCsXTTktOuE OpenCV 5https://opencv.org/opencv-5/Claude fable beats pokemon with no harnesshttps://youtu.be/Ty_50J84fMY?si=EJ1KjZCZegipfCsV Can the stockmarket swallow Anthropic, SpaceX and OpenAI? https://archive.ph/nKEVwBook of the ShowPatrickStrength of the Few - James Islingtonhttps://amzn.to/4pmr10TJasonDescender - Jeff Lemirehttps://amzn.to/3QKhp3lPatreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=hTool of the ShowPatrickNo Man’s SkyJasonPaperlib https://paperlib.app/en/ Topic: World ModelsMaking decisions with AIAction-Value (called a Q model): What is the long-term value of making a decision at a positionPolicy: What action should I take (must be a distribution)Value (called a V model): What is the value of a position (depends on policy)Advantage/Disadvantage: difference in value given two policiesWhen advantage is +, do that more.Model-FreeLook at the current situation and suggest an actionRun that action in the real world and measure the effectUse that measurement to suggest better actions next timeModel-BasedObserve rollouts (sequences of situations) and learn the dynamicsChoose an action, use your dynamics model to measure the consequencePotentially do MPC (try many actions and choose the best)World ModelsObserve many many rollouts and learn a full forward model (how to create the input in the future)Train a policy & value inside the world modelDeploy the policy and fine-tune based on the real world

187: Agentic Coding

187: Agentic CodingIntro topic: Bad equity vesting schedulesNews/Links:Artemis IIhttps://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-welcomes-record-setting-artemis-ii-moonfarers-back-to-earth/Gemma 4https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/developers-tools/gemma-4/Hatetrishttps://qntm.org/files/hatetris/hatetris.htmlDripwarts: School of Driphttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnHjz8jvWFk Book of the ShowPatrickProject Hail Maryhttps://amzn.to/4cQdxVaPatreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=hTool of the ShowJasonFF6 T-Editionhttps://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6339/Topic: Agentic CodingProgressionBetter Code CompletionIntellisenseCopilotCowriting CursorRoo Code Longer HorizonClaude CodeCodexGemini CLISwarmGuidelinesGitPlanningTask decompositionAGENTS.mdAdjusting vs RestartingSkepticismFuture of software engineering?

186: Becoming a Manager

186: Becoming a ManagerIntro topic: plastic welding kitsNews/Links:Parse.bot, turn any website into an APIhttps://www.parse.bot/Gemini 3https://blog.google/products/gemini/gemini-3/Depth Anything 3https://github.com/ByteDance-Seed/Depth-Anything-3Wan 2.2 (run on runpod)https://www.runpod.io/Book of the ShowPatrickThe Thinking Game (DeepMind documentary)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d95J8yzvjbQJasonPlato: The Republichttps://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1497Patreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=hTool of the ShowPatrickCore KeeperPc/Switch/Xbox/Playstation JasonWorkers & Resources: Soviet RepublicPCTopic: Becoming a ManagerWhat is a ManagerOpportunityResults + RetentionSizingHiringPhilosophyInterviewsDownsizingHow to ManageCompany Goals / OKRsBreaking down & claiming company goals.Balancing inspirational & practical goalsCoachingOne-on-onesCareer planningPerformance MotivationPerformance Management ReviewCompensationChoosing to become a managerBalancing personal and company incentivesWhy ManageMentorshipBuild relationshipsWhy to not manageLess time for your original joy (coding)Less technical influenceMore uncertainty and less closureHow to transition back to EngineerTake the time/energy to get ramped upAct as an advisor to your manager ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

185: Workflow Orchestrators

Intro topic: Asymmetric ReturnsNews/Links:NanoChat by Andrej Karpathyhttps://github.com/karpathy/nanochatPydantic AIhttps://www.marktechpost.com/2025/03/25/pydanticai-advancing-generative-ai-agent-development-through-intelligent-framework-design/1000th Starlink this yearhttps://spaceflightnow.com/2025/05/16/live-coverage-spacex-plans-morning-launch-of-starlink-satellites-from-california/ChatGPT Apps SDKhttps://openai.com/index/introducing-apps-in-chatgpt/Book of the ShowPatrickThe Will of the Many by James Islingtonhttps://amzn.to/43IfU8QJasonInterview with DHH (Founder of Ruby on Rails)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vagyIcmIGOQPatreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=hTool of the ShowPatrickFactoriohttps://www.factorio.com/ Jasonnip.io Topic: Workflow OrchestratorsWhyBatch jobs (embarrassingly parallel)Long-running tasks (e.g. transcoding video)Checkpointing/resumingHowMessage QueuesContainerizationWorker Pools & AutoscalingHistory & BackfillSteps to run workflows:Containerize the workflow definition and send to the cloudContainerize all the individual tasksSubmit job(s)ExamplesAirflowLegacy but dominantDagsterGreat UX for python developersTemporal: https://temporal.io/The new hotnessRayLow-level but very powerfulKubeflowDesigned for ML workflows, integrated dashboard ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

184: Asynchronous Programming

184: Asynchronous ProgrammingIntro topic: AI ScamsNews/Links:Coding Adventure: Ray-Tracing Glass and Caustics (Sebastian Lague)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA1KVZ1eOuABoson AI announces Higgs Audio V2https://www.boson.ai/technologies/voice The Misconception that Almost Stopped AI [How Models Learn Part 1] (Welch Labs)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrO20Jb-hy0A mind-bending conversation with Peter Thielhttps://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/11/podcasts/interesting-times-a-mind-bending-conversation-with-peter-thiel.htmlBook of the ShowPatrickThe Hobbit (JRR Tolkien)https://amzn.to/4mevuzEJasonNYT Word GamesPatreon Plug https://www.patreon.com/programmingthrowdown?ty=hTool of the ShowPatrickEscape Academyhttps://escapeacademygame.com/enJasonMulti-modal LLMs to make calendar meetingswww.chatgpt.comTopic: Asynchronous ComputingWhat/WhyMulti-threading in between the linesMany of the benefits of multiprocessing without the overhead/complexityHowCoroutinesThread-Local MemoryBlocking vs Non-Blocking operationsBlocking: arithmeticNon-Blocking: Reading from the network card into thread-local memoryInterpreter lockingTypescript: Single threadedPython: GILImplementationsPolling (not-Asynchronous)Callbacks (interrupts)Multithreading (with queues/message passing)Promise/FuturesAsync/Await  ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★